Vista - Disk Management

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the update - many laptop manufacturers have a similar system , although they use different names for their recovery systems.

Lenovo put their recovery program on what they label the C partition (along with their other pre-installed programs and the windows operating system.

Obviously, they don't recommend messing with this C drive in case you delete or overwrite that recovery program.

( Merely extending the C drive will not damage any programs on it - however, if the resizing involved deleting that partition, or formatting the existing volume, then it would - it is easier for them to say don't touch it ).

When you start that recovery program ( which they call Onekey ), it heads off to get the files it needs to restore your machine to factory condition. These files are kept on a separate partition. They call this the Service partition.

This Service partition is on your internal hard drive, it is not visible in Windows ( i.e. in the Computer window - but it will be visible in Disk Management ), it does not have a drive letter and is 18-20gb in size.

The partition that fits that description is the Eisa partition - I don't recommend deleting this.

It looks to me as if the copy of Onekey you made is the last logical ( green )drive on the right in your first screenshot of Disk Management - which you have named Onekey and given drive letter of K.

Hope this helps

SIW2

Hi Bob,

Thought I'd do two posts or it would be too long.

As to your second post - if you look at the second screenshot you sent us, you will see that your Lenovo machine listed your external drive as 58.42gb primary and 16.11gb unallocated.

This means Windows can see and use the 58.42gb partition, and it can see, but not use, the 16.11gb partition. This is normally because the unusable partition has not been formatted in a way that Windows can understand.

The "cure" for this is normally to right click and format the unallocated partition as NTFS, and assign it a drive letter - to create a new usable partition of 16.11gb. The alternative would normally be to extend the 58.42gb partition to the right to incorporate this unallocated space and make the external drive just one big partition.

The reason it shows in Disk Management as less than 80gb in total is that drive manufacturers have a more generous way of measuring GB than operating systems do.

I am not as familiar with Xp , but to see what is going on on your Xp machine, could you please send a screenshot of it's Disk Manangement window

Thanks

SIW2

Hey SIW, thank you for the VERY detailed explanation, to a confused soul like me, EVERYTHING helps! One very minor correction to your narrative, the Lenovo system is s Desktop, the (Toshiba) Laptop is what I used to "test" the External Drive but everything that you described about the "Laptop" (really a Desktop) remains the same and gives me a better understand of "what's what".
I'm attaching another scan 9 22.jpg (223.4 KB) that I took a few minutes ago where Disk Manager shows Disk 5 to contain the infamous "Z" Drive with 58.42GB AND 16.11GB of Unallocated Space which is DIFFERENT that it was yesterday when it was labeled EISA.
Just to keep everything straight, this morning I REMOVED the External Drive from the Desktop and plugged it into a Laptop. After I checked that the contents of the External Drive were intact and that "only" 58.42GB "appeared" when I opened MY Computer on the Laptop, I plugged it back into the Lenovo Desktop and the Lenovo system recognized the External Drive as "new hardware".
Again, I am not a teckie so this is my "novice assumption", if I FORMAT the Partition that I inadvertently created and that I want to eliminate, I will be able to EXTEND the "Z" Drive and add the additional space (that is currently Unallocated).
If this is correct, I could appreciate help as to HOW to Format the Unallocated Space since FILE and ACTION on the Pulldown Menu do NOT offer this option.
If this assumption is WAY off line, then I would appreciate your thoughts / suggestions / advice.
Thanks again for ALL your help guys,
Pain in the &^%$, Bob

OK guys, if I was confused before, I don't know what you would call me know! I decided to change the letter of the "Z" Drive and assigned it as "H" Drive and low and behold, it popped-up on My Computer (see attachment).
My concern is that it is in RED while everything else (all the Drives) are in BLUE.
This is WAY beyond my computer literacy level so your help would be graetly appreciated.
Thanks, Bob

Hi Bob,

In Disk management, right click on the the actual unallocated volume in the bottom window and see what options that gives you.

SIW2

Hey guys, I Formatted the Unallocated Space and if I can only Merge / Extend / Combine / ...... this with the existing "H" Drive (i.e. old "Z" Drive), I think I'll be all set (and get out of your guys hair)!
Oh, I almost forgot, this Drive is displayed in RED which I am assume means something and I have to assume that something is not something good.
In any event, two last questions then, how do I COMBINE the Extended Drive components (that current are an "H" Drive and New Volume) and what does a RED bar on the Drive represent and if it is a problem, how do I fix it.
Thanks again guys,
Bob

Hello SIW, when I right click on New Volume, the available options are: Mark Partition as Active, Change Drive Letter, Format, Shrink Volume, Delete Volume, Properties and Help. Three other options are "greyed out" (not available, they are Open, Explore and Extend .
When I right click EXTENDED DRIVE "H", ALL the options listed above ARE available PLUS Open and Explore. The ONLY option that is NOT available is Extend.

Hi Bob,

If you wish to Extend H , you need to first Delete the partition to the right of it - I see it gives you those options.

SIW2

Ok Bob

I'm Back

1.
The reason that you have a red drive showing in the system because you have TWO H: drives When you originally set up your internal drive the OneKey backup drive you created was allocated H: if you reallocate the partition on the external drive to something else (except A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H) the red line will disappear.

reboot

2.
To get back to the original problem go back into the disk manager and delete the 16.11 partition on the external drive.

3.
reboot

next right click on the 58.3GB partition and choose extend to extend the drive into the 16.11GB of now Unallocated space.

4.
Reboot

you should now have approx 74GB drive named something other than A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H

Just one word of warning for anyone with a Lenovo System adjusting the size of the C: partition will. because of the way that the Onekey recovery is structured, stop the system recovery from working. the drive that is being recovered to (C) is hard coded to be 30GB

Hi Nigel

Interesting they've hard coded that partition.

Anyway , hopefully that will have sorted it all out for Bob.

SIW2