[michelle_elaine]

To start, let me say that I am NOT computer savvy. I don't know what a petition is, and I don't know how to send things from my C drive to my D drive (or even what is safe to send, for that matter).

I bought my computer used about a month ago. It's a Dell 1564 running Windows 7. After trying to download the Diablo 3 beta (yayy open beta weekend!), it told me that I didn't have enough hard drive space. That started my epic battle to free up space. I've completely deleted every odd and end program, I've ran about seven disc cleanups, and countless defrags. All of that combined freed up 2GB. Huge progess.

Now my hard drive has been mysteriously filling up. Everytime I go back to it, I've lost another GB. I haven't download ANYTHING, all I've done with my computer lately is delete/uninstall things. This loss doesn't make sense.

ALL I WANT IS TO BE ABLE TO PLAY MY DIABLO 3 WHEN IT COMES OUT, I ALREADY HAVE IT PREORDERED! I even specifically purchased this computer for that purpose!

I would love if someone could solve my problem, but if not, is GeekSquad expensive? At this point I'm turn between either going to GeekSquad, or formatting my hard drive and buying a new copy of Windows 7. I just don't know which will be cheapest/most effective.

Please help me a girl can't go without her Diablo

[TerryNet]

Click on the Start Orb and type "disk man" (without the quotes). At or near the top of the resulting search list should be 'Create and format hard disk partitions.' Click on that and attach a screen shot of that Disk Management window to your next Reply. If you need help with that see TSG Posting a Screenshot. FWIW to take screen shots with Windows 7 or Vista I prefer to use the built-in Snipping Tool.

Is the installed Windows 7 a fresh copy or are you battling whatever the previous user had on there? Your purchase did not include any re-installation media?

[michelle_elaine]

When I purchased the computer, the guy said that he had completely wiped it out. Being stoked about having a new laptop, I took his word for it. This is the windows that came on the computer, the only thing I've done to this computer (aside from the the freeing-space work) is download iTunes and Microsoft Security Essentials

[michelle_elaine]

I swear I meant to say partition earlier haha, I'm that THAT slow

[TerryNet]

If I had known you better I would have teased you that "petition" is not a computer term. But I did accurately guess what you meant.

The guy set it up so that you could put your data on the D partition. There are advantages and disadvantages to doing it that way. I now do that, but given your newness it may be better for you to just grab some or all of that space for your C (system) partition, which is probably how most Windows users' computers are set up.

If you would like to use D for your data, we can work with you on that. But to make your C partition larger you can do the following petitioning; whoops, I mean partitioning.

I recommend EASEUS Partition Master (the free one) instead of trying to use Windows' Disk Management. While you can set up the whole process and then "Apply," I suggest just doing one step at a time. Then you can see that it worked before doing the next step.

Delete the D partition, or resize it to put some unallocated space to the left (at the beginning) of D.

Resize the C partition to include the unallocated space that you just created. Done already!


A good way to see where/how your space is being used is with Tree Size Free.


That Recovery Partition can probably be used to "recover the system to factory defaults." You should check (probably in Start - All Programs - Maintenance) to see if you can create a set of Recovery DVDs (in case the original owner neglected to).

[michelle_elaine]

Hey, typo's happen!

Okay, I downloaded EASEUS pARtition Master, but everything after that was a different language.
I downloaded Tree Size before I posted this thread but removed it pretty soon after, I didn't understand any of it.

I'm guessing this is the screen I'm supposed to be on to make changes to the D partition, what do I do from here?

[TerryNet]

Little math lesson first: each 1 GB (our language) is represented in Easeus as 1024 MB.

Grab the "handle" I circled and drag it to the left. When you get close to the new size you want you can use the up/down arrows to the right of "Partition size" to get the final size. Probably the unallocated space will be put After, so just click in the Before box and type that number (the After will then change to zero).

When you click OK the diagram will change to show the new arrangement. Click on 'Apply' to actually effect the change.

[TerryNet]

I just took another look at the attachment. You can probably drag the left handle instead of the right handle.

[michelle_elaine]

This is where I'm at after that, if I did it right. If it is correct, give me the okay to press ok. Then I'll need another walk through on how to to change C. I'm sorry, I know it's like pulling teeth haha

[TerryNet]

Looks good!

[michelle_elaine]

Alrighty, now this is the changes to C. The first image is how it looked when I first opened it, the second one is how I changed it. Is that correct? All good to press ok again?

[TerryNet]

Yep! You can OK and Apply.

[michelle_elaine]

YOU'RE MY SUPERHERO! Thank you so much!!

[TerryNet]

You're welcome.

I think that you are much more computer savvy than you pretend to be.

[michelle_elaine]

I'm a just a good guesser haha