I just recently reformatted my ntfs 120gb hardrive

the reformatting process took a nose dive because i used the recovery partition on my computer....and it failed me

the recovery DVD that it "sucesfully" made had an error and forced me to find another windows xp software cd... I then downloaded the drivers off of Hp's website and my computer is running fine

the only problem is...that it now says it only has 13.6 gb of freespace
is there a way I can correct this?

(does anyone also know if i can restore my recovery partition....because that got ersaed too)

Hi Joe,

Welcome to PCHF. We have a team of very talented techs here, and I feel sure that we can help get you that space back.

As far as the recovery partition, are you referring to the proprietary "Recovery" section that was probably set up by HP?

Also, your description of exactly what you did is a little bit unclear. Can I ask a few clarification questions?

Is the hard drive that you were reformatting a second harddrive, or were you reformatting your computer?

Was the Recovery DVD that ended up having errors made by the HP proprietary software that was originally loaded on your PC?

When you used a seperate Windows OS CD, was it a stand alone, Windows OS, and which OS are you using?

Looking forward to your reply,

TTFN

LGW

Sorry if I wasn't clear....

Yes the recorvery thingy was a seperate hardrive set up by HP.

I was reformatting my whole computer....but the DVD was made by me (there is a program that comes with the recorevery partition that allows you to create a backup OS and Driver DVD)

I am not sure if the OS system was a stand alone but i know that it is an XP OS.

Thank you for your interest...and I hope that that cleared things up for you

Yup, that cleared things up nicely, thank you.

Here is the thing, when you get a new computer from most PC manufacturers, you will have set up on a seperate section of your harddrive, something called Recovery Console or some such. They want you to believe that this is imperative to your computer running properly. It isn't.

What it does it takes you back to factory new, with all of the proprietary software that they included when they first sold you the computer. They used to give you the CD, apparently now they even make you make your own backup. The thing is, this is very convenient, but not by any chance necessary, and in many instances your computer will run better without all the additional things they include.

They key is to make sure that you have a full legal copy of the OS that you are going to load on your computer, in this case XP, (that means no copies etc.), and that you have properly erased and then formatted the PC.

My suggestion is that you start back by reformatting the PC, and ensuring that all partitions are erased then recreated, then allow the XP CD reformat the PC to NTFS. You won't need to recreate the Recovery partition, it isn't necessary anymore.

If you need detailed instructions on exactly how to completely erase and recreate partitions, and reformat, please let us know and we will walk you through the process.

Looking forward to your reply,\

TTFN

LGW

I loaded up and destroyed all the partitions...the i created a partition that used up all of my hard drive space.....but the end result was a measly 6gb partition....why is my computer acting this way?

Please disregaurd my last post....I was able to format the un partitioned space and now my computer is at its full memory potential....Thank you for your help

Thanks for replying Joe and saying you have resolved the issue.
Please come back if you have further problems in the future.


Wolfey

Marked as Resolved