Once is C drive the other Data drive... I understand this is supposed to be a place to make a computer "mirror" in case of failure... but I would rather have the 360gig hardrive as stated when I bought the computer... anyone know how to make this happen with the computer settings? or will it simply use the data drive when C is full?

Thanks (its windows vista PC)

From what you decribe it is not a RAID setup. It sounds to me as if the 320GB hard drive has been partitioned into two 160GB hard drives. One for the OS and one for your data. This can be beneficial if you had a problem with the OS. You could do a reinstall on the C: leaving your data untouched.

To change this you need to go into disk management and delete the D: partition then extend the C: partition to make it the full size of the disc. Just make sure that if you have anything on D: its backed up.

HTH

Are you getting things confused with a thing called RAID, which makes data retrieval very fast & comes in several different "flavours"

Or what you can do what is called partitioning.

To use an analogy, this is a bit like dividing up a cake into portions, you can do this quite easily in Vista.

You must have administrative rights to do it.

Start - Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Storage

(Use the Vista Help Function for more specific details)

To be quite honest it's probably better & relatively cheap to install a second hard drive, you can pick up a 1Tb hard drive for around £60, 1,5Tb for £80 & a collosal 2Tb for £130!

It's a partition by the sounds of it. You could re-partition it to open up the full 320/360?? gig.

But if it's like that I would be inclinded too leave it a store anything important (photos music vids etc)on the data partition, as if windows craps out on you, all your info is safe on the other partition. This won't protect you if the drive goes tits up though, all is lost in that case.

one says acer C: one says Data F: can't seem to amalgamate the two... but device manager deffo says there's only one HD, the F: drive is empty, i know my system will allow me to create a backup disc to store all my data so if a windows reset is ness, the system can be resored completely, I assume this is what the F drive is for.... I cant seem to get into the drive settings through the control panel....

Leave well alone - you're better off with it partitioned.

If you're curious why just Google - but believe me you're better off as it is.

one says acer C: one says Data F: can't seem to amalgamate the two... but device manager deffo says there's only one HD, the F: drive is empty, i know my system will allow me to create a backup disc to store all my data so if a windows reset is ness, the system can be resored completely, I assume this is what the F drive is for.... I cant seem to get into the drive settings through the control panel....

The F: drive in this case is for storing your data on e.g. music , videos etc. To delete the F: drive if this is what you want to do you have to click the Orb(start button), right click on computer, select manage. Under storage, expand it and you should see Disk management. You need to right click on the F: drive up the top right and there will be an option to delete it. Once you have done that right click on the C: drive and there should be an option to expand.

As already mentioned the F: drive is for you to use. Its not used by any other process and has nothing to do with system recovery.

Try this: Start - Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Storage - Disc Management (Local) you should get to a screen like this.

Now Disc 0 should relate to C:\ and Disc 1 to Disc X:\ (X being whatever your second drive is named.)

If you then move your mouse pointer over the desired strip at the bottom (either C or X ) then right click your mouse, it should then come up with a sub-menu like the one below.

From here you can alter your discs partitions to your hearts content.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO BACK UP ALL CRITICAL DATA BEFORE ALTERING ANYTHING IN THIS AREA.

I suspect what the OP will see, is just Disk 0 with a C: and F: partition on it.

Personally i do not see the point in partitioning a single hard drive. Sure i can understand the benefit of a seperate operating system partition and a data partition but lets face it if the disc was to fail then the OS and your data have gone. I would just have one drive and integrate my data with the OS and make regular backups of my data.

Again its just a personal opinion. I'm always open to other peoples opinions that may sway mine.

Edited 28 October, 200916 yr by Guest

I would agree with mannyo but the operator could still select the partioned volume that he wants to delete, then select the C: to extend the volume.

If it's a partition, go and get partition magic and adjust it so you have a smaller F drive for your data (60GB) and a larger C drive (300GB) or just a single partition.

If it's a partition, go and get partition magic and adjust it so you have a smaller F drive for your data (60GB) and a larger C drive (300GB) or just a single partition.

The computer is running Vista so he should be able to shrink the F: drive without using 3rd party tools. From what i gather he's wanting to get rid of it altogether.

I suspect what the OP will see, is just Disk 0 with a C: and F: partition on it.

thats correct....

got rid of F and expanded C, I now have 207gig od free space on what seemed to be a 160 gig drive... Thanks to everyone who helped