Drive Letters & Partition Contents Swapped

S

skye11

New Member
after shrinking the D: partition, the drive letters and actual partition sequence on the drive changed - the C: (Vista) partition has switched places with the D: (Recovery) partition in Disk Management (D: is now in front of C:)

I first defragged the D: drive using JKDefrag and used its built in feature to move all the files to the end of that partition, so that after splitting D:, the blank portion would be next to the C: partition (so I could have it merge with C: )

how do I get the partitions back to their normal positions (in Disk Mgmt)?
and if I delete the D: partition, will it merges with C: and keep my Vista install harmed?
 
Last edited:

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Hi, skye11, and welcome to the forums.

Before we continue, how large was this D partiton in the first place? Can you post a picture of it?

I suspect that the partiton being labeled previously as D: was in fact a partition inside of an extended partition, and if so, then any space that you reclaim from it will in fac be placed outside of the extended partition, thus making it appear between the two partitions....

Please post a picture using the Snipping tool (see http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/148532-how-use-snipping-tool-vista.html for more details) so we can look at what you are looking at.
 

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johngalt, thanks for your quick response!
I am using another computer, so I'm currently unable to post any image

it is a new Gateway laptop with 320GB drive
the C: (Vista) partition is 278 GB (only 16GB used - I uninstalled all the extra nonsense)
the D: (Recovery) partition was/is 11.78 GB

I was planning on multi-booting and had just begun to prep the drive when this happened
I since re-merged the D: partition with the extra unallocated empty portion

the problem appears only in Disk Management
the D: partition appears sequentially before (in front) of the C: partition
in other words, in the graphical display in Disk Mgmt. shows D: on the left and C: on the right
 

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System One

And it is a lot smaller, right?

OK, first off ***DO NOT MESS WITH THE RECOVERY PARTITION***

Sorry, I had to yell that - that partition is set up by your OEM and messing with it will only cause problems.

As for where the partition is located that is not really an issue here - as long as your computer is booting, it is all good. *however, since you did use that 3rd party tool to move everything to the 'end' that is probably the cause of all this hoopla.

Secondly, If 200+ GB of space is not large enough for you, an extra 4 GB is ***not*** going to help you in the long run - you need to learn how to maintain your computer and trim the fat - meaning cleaning out junk files, removing old and useless System Restore points, uninstalling apps that you do not need, defragmenting your HD, etc.

I highly suggest that you read through our tutorials - there is a lot of information there concerning system maintenance.

Also, if I were you, I'd ring up your OEM and ask them if starting the Recovery procedure can be canceled - just to test to see if any of your fooling around with that thing has messed it up or if it is still working like it should.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro X64 Insider Preview (Skip Ahead) latest build
    Manufacturer/Model
    The Beast Model V (homebrew)
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 965 EE @ 3.6 GHz
    Motherboard
    eVGA X58 Classified 3 (141-GT-E770-A1)
    Memory
    3 * Mushkin 998981 Redline Enhanced triple channel DDR3 4 GB CL7 DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3-12800)
    Graphics Card(s)
    eVGA GeForce GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0 (04G-P4-3979-KB)
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio (onboard)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 * Lenovo LT2323pwA Widescreeen
    Screen Resolution
    2 * 1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    SanDisk Ultra SDSSDHII-960G-G25 960 GB SATA III SSD (System)
    Crucial MX100 CT256MX100SSD1 256GB SATA III SSD (User Tree)
    2 * Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA II Mech. HD
    Seagate ST1500DL001-9VT15L Barracuda 7200.12 1.5 TB S
    PSU
    Thermaltake Black Widow TX TR2 850W 80+ Bronze Semi-Mod ATX
    Case
    ThermalTake Level 10 GT (Black)
    Cooling
    Corsair H100 (CPU, dual 140 mm fans on radiator) + Air (2 *
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15 (gen 2)
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master (shared)
    Internet Speed
    AT&T Lightspeed Gigabit duplex
  • Operating System
    Sabayon Linux (current, weekly updates, 5.1.x kernel)
    Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo ThinkPad E545
    CPU
    AMD A6-5350M APU
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Radeon HD (Embedded)
    Sound Card
    Conextant 20671 SmartAudio HD
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Lenovo 15" Matte
    Screen Resolution
    1680 * 1050
    Hard Drives
    INTEL Cherryvill 520 Series SSDSC2CW180A 180 GB SSD
    PSU
    Lenovo
    Case
    Lenovo
    Cooling
    Lenovo
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master (shared) | Synaptics TouchPad
    Keyboard
    Lenovo
    Internet Speed
    AT&T LightSpeed Gigabit Duplex
thanks for taking the time to help

I am rather computer savvy, and had already done all the things you had recommended (various 'trimming of the fat', disabling unnecesasary services, etc.)

I was actually testing a partitioning strategy - to trim the D: partition and move it to the inner-most part of the hard drive (platter), in order to use the faster outer portions of the hard drive (for the other OSes & data partitions)

I had already burned my recovery discs, and was planning on eliminating the D: partition, and instead prefering to clone the C: drive - but I was experimenting first (before installing any Apps & Data)

I will call Tech support to see if I could get the partitions 'repositioned' on the drive (without any reformatting)

in the mean time, will deleting the D: partition cause it to merge with and thus WRITE OVER the contents of the C: partition and wipe out the OS (since the D: partition appears in front of the C: partition on the hard drive, and will thus cause such a re-assignment in the MBR)?
 

My Computer

System One

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