Windows 7 only recognizes 40gb of my hard drive

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GibsonLA

n00b
Joined
Apr 14, 2010
Messages
46
Hardware Info
Procesor: i7-930
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 7200rpm 640gb
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58
OS: Currently installed - Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit

During the windows 7 installation I created a 40gb partition to keep the system on and then wanted to leave the remainder of the disk for everything else.

However, once everything was installed I went into my computer and the only drive listed is the C drive, the 40gb partition I created. I'm missing my other 600gb of the hard drive. Any idea why it's not there or what I need to do to get it to show up?

I've included a picture below

4541650822_26fd1aac40_b.jpg
 
I went into disk management and it doesn't show up in the top window where it says Volume, layout, type, file system, etc.

But it's in the next little segment down. It says

"557.11 gb unallocated"

So what do I need to do to get it "allocated" haha
 
GibsonLA said:
I went into disk management and it doesn't show up in the top window where it says Volume, layout, type, file system, etc.

But it's in the next little segment down. It says

"557.11 gb unallocated"

So what do I need to do to get it "allocated" haha
Click to expand...

It's not in the window with the rest of your drives because you haven't configured it yet(partitioning/formatting), so click on that unallocated space and get to work!
 
I have the option to convert it into a "simple volume" is that the right thing to do?
 
I guess?

Should I split it into multiple additional volumes?

All I wanted to do was put the OS on a seperate partition because I've been told that increases performance. I'm not sure about what additional partitions do beyond that
 
The reason for having the OS system separate from your data that you don't lose the data if you have to reinstall your OS.

That being said, for your purpose of just storing data, yeah, just create one volume. I don't see any reason as to why you would need several more.
 
Lord Nassirbannipal said:
The reason for having the OS system separate from your data that you don't lose the data if you have to reinstall your OS.
Click to expand...


Well even that isn't really needed. People always seem to want to reformat when they reinstall. You can, it doesn't hurt anything, but likewise you don't have to reformat to reinstall.
 
A seperate OS drive will only speed things up when there are more than 1 physical drive. Dividing up one drive into multiple partitions will not speed up a thing. But since it's already done, just make the rest of the space into one volume, as already said, and you should be good to go.
 
Thanks for all the help guys!

One last question. Hypothetically, if I were to add a SSD in the future. Would I be able to just delete the partition with the OS on the original hard drive, install the os on the new SSD and still keep everything I had installed on the old drive (the larger partition)?

Or would I just have to reformat and re-install everything
 
Yes. You could actually extend the larger volume to include the one where your Windows installation used to be, hence having the whole physical drive available as one volume for storage.
 
GibsonLA said:
Thanks for all the help guys!

One last question. Hypothetically, if I were to add a SSD in the future. Would I be able to just delete the partition with the OS on the original hard drive, install the os on the new SSD and still keep everything I had installed on the old drive (the larger partition)?

Or would I just have to reformat and re-install everything
Click to expand...

You will have to re-install your applications in order to be able to use them inside the new windows installation in the SSD. The previous os partition will be of no value(almost), you will have to clear it and merge it with the rest of 640 GB drive.
 
GibsonLA said:
Hardware Info
Procesor: i7-930
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 7200rpm 640gb
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58
OS: Currently installed - Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit

During the windows 7 installation I created a 40gb partition to keep the system on and then wanted to leave the remainder of the disk for everything else.

However, once everything was installed I went into my computer and the only drive listed is the C drive, the 40gb partition I created. I'm missing my other 600gb of the hard drive. Any idea why it's not there or what I need to do to get it to show up?

I've included a picture below

4541650822_26fd1aac40_b.jpg
Click to expand...

Oh, and how did you take that picture? You know there is something called print screen ??
 
next time use the snipping tool. Just hit windows key, type snip, hit enter. Boom, even easier than blackberry.
 
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