Vista - Disk Management

yeah that is a bit strange probably just needed a reboot.

vista is normally pretty good with drive allocations internals start with c: and go upward and externals start with z: and go downwards so you have to have quite a few before they clash unless you override the defaults of course

I can't thank you guys enough for all your help and as an extra benefit, I noticed that along the way, I "advanced" from a newbee to a junior member. THANK YOU so much guys for ALL your help!
Although your on the other side of the pond, I think you will appreciate when I say "Mission Accomplished" (i.e. in my case, it really WAS accomplished).
And thank you Nigel for the tutorial on OneKey, I am "doing battle" with Lenovo over this apparent flaw in the design of the system.
Rumor has it that they ran out of time (wanting to announce) so they came up with this cockamamie solution by placing the OS, OneKey and OneKey images on the "C" Drive (the original design was for the 30GB "C" Drive to contain Windows and the "freebies" that the packaged with the system.
Unfortunately 30GB is NOT enough space so every couple of days (matter of fact, right now), I get an error message advising "The free dynamic buffer in the current system is insuffiecent (additional space required for OneKey Recovery:2435MB). It is recommended to release the dynamic buffer by updating the Base Backup".
This only takes a minute to do but about about 10 minutes for OneKey to "capture" the image and I have to do it every couple of days.
Pain in the you know what all because Lenovo decided that they want / need to get the system out the door before it was ready to be shipped.
I'll get off my Lenovo bandwaggon, thank you again for ALL your help guys.
Cheers,
Bob

Hi bob glad to see you've got it sorted

I can see where the that fixed 30GB C: drive will cause all kinds of problems. there are a few things that could be done by moving things onto the D:drive, to work around the limitation.

will have to put a few things down on paper and maybe write a tutorial, maybe this weekend. If I do post a tutorial I'll PM you to let you know.

all the best

Thank you again for straightening me out Nigel, this was all caused by a little mistake (Partitioning the WRONG Drive), I have to be more careful!
I'm going to be away this weekend and won't be back until Wednesday or Thursday of next week and will be looking forward to your tutorial.
The only thing that I have done so far to try and elevate the (capacity) problem on the "C" Drive was to delete some of the freebee software came with the system, move some files to the "D" Drive and store Photos on the "D" Drive.
But after all was said and done, I still only have 5.29GB out of 29.2GB Free so the Dynamic Buffer problem keeps reoccurring.
Thanks again to EVERYONE and anxious to see what you come up with Nigel.
Bob

Hi Nigel,

That's a great idea - it's not the first post about recovery partitions etc.

Note to Bob - sorry , Laptop manufacturers is my term for the manufacturers who turn out millions of machines with recovery partitions ( most of their business tends to be laptops) - as opposed to what are specialist pc , i.e. desktop manufacturers , who will give you the actual install dvd , all the manuals, etc.

Glad you got it sorted.

SIW2

Hey SIW, it's amazing the ramifications that "a little error" can bring, I need to be MORE careful and thank you'all for the help that you provided by helping me dig myself out of the whole (that I dug myself into in the first place).
I am not sure what Nigel will come up with, and if you need any help (or should I say explanation of my configuration since I obviously can not offer much help), please let me know and in case you interested, I am still doing battle with Lenovo and think I might have gotten there attention by threatening to contact the states Attorney General office and the Better Business Bureau (I don't know what the equivalent agencies are in your neck of the woods).
And following up on your comment SIW, since I am not techically inclined to build a sustem, who (what manufacturers) do you consider "PC Specialist" (Dell, HP, Acer, Lenovo.....)?
Thanks, Bob

Hi Bob,

Actually the ones you list are what I would consider to be the mass market type.

You might think there would be an advantage buying from them as they have so much purchasing muscle and economies of scale etc.

In the UK at least ( and I suspect in the US ) it is better to buy a pc i.e. desktop from a specialist manufacturer. For example, in the UK magazine PC Advisor the top products in their various price categories are all from specialist manufacturers.

Specialist manufacturers tend to be fairly small - turning out I guess 50 or so machines a week ( more in the US as it's a much bigger population/ market).

They usually offer a range of pre specified pc's you can order as is, or you can specify various upgrades .

I got mine from Arbico - I got the pre specified one , a best buy in the mag at the time. I got the desktop p.c. , all the manuals , the full install dvd, 2yr warranty and free phone technical support.

You will need to check the US mags to find who they are in your neck of the woods.

Some of the UK ones are Arbico, Chillblast, Cyberpower, Mesh - these links might give you some idea

Latest Reviews - PC Advisor

Arbico Elite 8440 - Custom Built - PC Advisor Recommended Power Computer Featured Deals - Custom built Computers - Buy cheap computers & discount gaming PCs in UK

Hope that's of interest.

SIW2

Thanks for PC buyers tutorial SIW, my assumption was that "the biggies" have the (mass) purchasing power and experience to offer a slew of machines at competitive prices and never thought about looking into smaller operations. There are plenty of PC Magazines, I take a look when I am ready to upgrade (which I don't think will be for several years). Thanks for the sharing your PC Buying experience with me.
Bob

Hi Nigel, did you get a chance to look at what Lenovo should have done correctly in the first place "I can see where the that fixed 30GB C: drive will cause all kinds of problems. there are a few things that could be done by moving things onto the D:drive, to work around the limitation. will have to put a few things down on paper and maybe write a tutorial, maybe this weekend. If I do post a tutorial I'll PM you to let you know."
Cheers,
Bob

Hi bob,

Have started to put a few options on paper but not had any real chance to work on things with other pressures, have to earn a crust

anyway hopefully should have a little time this week so will try to get to it, I think the information will help a lot of laptop users with limited space and external drives too. so will concentrate on things such as moving data and programs to a separate partition or drive so that will work in both laptop plus fixed size c: scenarios

the obvious things such as swap files will work for you but not in a laptop/external drive setup so have to include this type of thing as an option.

anyway thanks for the reminder, will get to it and let you know