Solved Merging partition with unallocated space on hard drive

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Moffy

PCHF Member
Sep 25, 2020
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Hi all. Thanks for being here for me to ask.
I have recently been given an old pc and am trying to knock it into shape to suit me.
At present the main hard drive (disk 0 )reads like this ( I would have posted a screen shot on here but upload is not working for me)
It's split into 5 sections
Section 1 ..... 15gb healthy recovery partition

Section 2..... System reserved 100mb NTFS healthy (system active primary partition)

Section 3..... PC (c:) 224gb NTFS healthy ( boot, page file, crash dump, primary partition

Section 4 .... PC data (D:) 11gb NTFS ( healthy primary partition)

Section 5 .... 215gb unallocated

There are next to each other from left to right.
What I aim to do, is merge unallocated space into the c: drive partition.
At the moment , nearly half my hard drive space is unusable

I have done lots of looking and trying things from you tube. However it looks like the sticking point
is, that I can't merge two things that aren't next to each other.

The section which is in between the two I wish to merge ( section 4) has the windows 10 freebie download
details within it and I don't want to be touching that , as it may all go to poo! QA we

Sorry it's a bit garbled. Hard to explain in words and no pic.
It's got to be possible somehow surely!
Could anyone help me please.
Thanks
Moffy
 
Hello Moffy,

Moffy said:
I have recently been given an old pc and am trying to knock it into shape to suit me.
Click to expand...
Easiest thing to do would be to download a free Windows ISO from Microsoft, back up your drivers to a thumbdrive then clean install Windows 10 on its own partition, depending on the capacity of the HDD I would suggest a minimum of a 200GB partition purely for Windows 10 as this gives you plenty of room for the many updates that will be released in the coming years.

Being that you are already running Windows 10 you will not need to enter a Windows 10 product key for the clean install as the MB and product key information is already stored on the Microsoft database.
 
phillpower2 said:
Hello Moffy,


Easiest thing to do would be to download a free Windows ISO from Microsoft, back up your drivers to a thumbdrive then clean install Windows 10 on its own partition, depending on the capacity of the HDD I would suggest a minimum of a 200GB partition purely for Windows 10 as this gives you plenty of room for the many updates that will be released in the coming years.

Being that you are already running Windows 10 you will not need to enter a Windows 10 product key for the clean install as the MB and product key information is already stored on the Microsoft database.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer. I will look into your instructions
Best regards
 
You are welcome :)

It is always best to have a clean slate when a computer changes ownership and for security purposes the clean install should really be done by the person passing the computer on.

The second option "Create Windows 10 installation media" is the one that you should use and just to reiterate you should back up the present drivers to a small capacity thumbdrive ready to reinstall them once Windows has been installed, the chipset drivers should be installed first, storage device drivers second and GPU drivers third, any other drivers may be installed when Windows updates but installing these three drivers in the order given is a must else you will encounter problems.

Suggestion, before doing anything I would suggest that you check the health of the HDD, see below;


Download and run CrystalDisk info standard edition from here

Run the program, grab any screenshots and attach to your next reply for us.

To capture and post a screenshot;

Click on the ALT key + PRT SCR key..its on the top row..right hand side..now click on start...all programs...accessories...paint....left click in the white area ...press CTRL + V...click on file...click on save...save it to your desktop...name it something related to the screen your capturing... BE SURE TO SAVE IT AS A .JPG ...otherwise it may be to big to upload... after typing in any response you have... click Attach file to add the screenshot.

Screenshot instructions are provided to assist those that may read this topic but are not yet aware of the “how to”.
 
phillpower2 said:
You are welcome :)

It is always best to have a clean slate when a computer changes ownership and for security purposes the clean install should really be done by the person passing the computer on.

The second option "Create Windows 10 installation media" is the one that you should use and just to reiterate you should back up the present drivers to a small capacity thumbdrive ready to reinstall them once Windows has been installed, the chipset drivers should be installed first, storage device drivers second and GPU drivers third, any other drivers may be installed when Windows updates but installing these three drivers in the order given is a must else you will encounter problems.

Suggestion, before doing anything I would suggest that you check the health of the HDD, see below;


Download and run CrystalDisk info standard edition from here

Run the program, grab any screenshots and attach to your next reply for us.

To capture and post a screenshot;

Click on the ALT key + PRT SCR key..its on the top row..right hand side..now click on start...all programs...accessories...paint....left click in the white area ...press CTRL + V...click on file...click on save...save it to your desktop...name it something related to the screen your capturing... BE SURE TO SAVE IT AS A .JPG ...otherwise it may be to big to upload... after typing in any response you have... click Attach file to add the screenshot.

Screenshot instructions are provided to assist those that may read this topic but are not yet aware of the “how to”.
Click to expand...
Ok understood, thanks so much. Could I ask... when I save the drivers , are they all in one place and where is that please.?
Thanks
 
Ok sorry . Didn't know I was doing that. I'm new to this as you've probably gathered!
Thank you for the link.
I'm very grateful for this help
 
No problem, a lot of folk do it but as you can imagine it can be rather time consuming reading quoted replies.

Have you checked the HDD using the steps that were provided.
 
phillpower2 said:
No problem, a lot of folk do it but as you can imagine it can be rather time consuming reading quoted replies.

Have you checked the HDD using the steps that were provided.
Click to expand...
I'm struggling here. Think I'm in over my head on this.
I've downloaded crystal disk info . When launched , I see the grid which it looks like I'm supposed to get, but it's completely blank and advises disk not found.
And I've tried to follow the screenshot instructions but can't even do that as I don't seem to have: all programmes, accessories, paint, on the start menu.
(I'm poor on win 10 as I'm currently on win 7)
I don't want to waste your time but I think that I'm not savvy enough to follow what you tell me.
So I understand if you dip out.
Sincere regards
 
When you next post, do not click on the Reply tab first, enter any info into the dialogue input box and when you are done just click on Post Reply like you have been doing, this will avoid you quoting every reply.

To see if it makes running Windows 10 any easier for you, download and install ViStart which you can get from here it says for Windows 8.1 but I have been using it for years with Windows 10 without any issues.

The above program will give you your Windows 7 start button & Control Panel etc back, give yourself some time to find your way around it then post back when you are happy to continue with this, no rush on our behalf but do please try getting back to us within the next three days if you can.
 
Am I being stupid here ...... the partition section 4 reffered to above,( which is 11gb and which I thought had the win 10 upgrade download files on, according to properties, is actually only 98 mb used.

What's actually in this partition are two files :
697ff5d5534e3bc88f23 which says it's 4.76 mb
Within that are 42 small files including a couple of setup applications. 77kb each
And
Windows 10 upgrade file , .....which is actually empty ....0mb

Are these files really that important to the correct operating of windows or might it be something to do with the down loader used on upgrade?

If I could get rid , or even move those files, I could then do what I'm trying to do.
What do you think.?
 
No you are not being stupid but I would do as advised and clean install Windows and for two reasons, we cannot help you with what we cannot see and you really don`t want a computer that has been set up to suit someone else.
 
Hi , me again , sorry. I'm having a nightmare with this. I'm really trying hard.

I've made a win10 usb stick from the Microsoft site.

16 GB USB stick, formatted before use. Checked to see if downloaded files were visible. All ok.

Changed boot order in bios to run usb first. Tick.

When I plug the stick in and switch on , it just keeps booting into the current windows o/s

I've tried it four times . Just keeps doing the same thing.

I've rechecked the boot order and even reformatted the stick and downloaded windows 10 again.
Same thing.

I'm probably being dumb somewhere.
Do I need to format the current c drive before installation?

I've also tried the factory reset option but that says it will revert back to win 7 if I do that.

I'm now stuck. Sorry. Could you offer any help please.
Thanks
 
We could do with having the specs of the motherboard to see if it has UEFI BIOS, if it does, you may need to disable secure boot, we will help you with this if you do.

Also worth mentioning is that if your MB has USB 3.0 ports (blue) you should not use one of them but use a USB 2.0 port (black) instead.
 
Hi . Thank you. Think I'm getting there now. I disabled quick boot in bios and it started to load.
So I'm all but there now.
The only niggling thing is the product key.
I took note of it as advised, before the clean install. ( Remembering that the pc was originally win 7 with free upgrade to win 10, apparently I could re use the product key again for the same computer)
I can't get it to accept the product key, so that I can see it in command prompt like I did before the re install.
I'm now worried that after 30 days Microsoft will block it.
 
As you were already running Windows 10 on the computer you should not need to enter any product key.
 
You may have missed the same info in my reply #2 but you are welcome in any event :)

phillpower2 said:
Being that you are already running Windows 10 you will not need to enter a Windows 10 product key for the clean install as the MB and product key information is already stored on the Microsoft database.
Click to expand...
 
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