disk E and OS (C)

[Tumbleweedracef]

Hi Daniwebb family.
I have a Dell Inspiron laptop with Windows 7 on it. I am having a disk space problem.
A warnning states
Drive E:\ has only 14MB of free disk space. To prevent information loss and performance problems, youneed to free up disk space.
There are 3 disks listed under "MY COMPUTER"
One is "LOCAL DISK (E). It says that it has 28.9 MB free of 14.6 GB
The second one says " OS (C) 173GB free of 218 GB
The third one says "DVD RW Drive (D)

There is not a whole lot of stuff on this laptop and I'm tryin to figure out where all the wasted space is.
When the computer first begins to boot, after the Dell splash page goes away, the black page with white lettering states for the user to " CHOOSE AN OPERATING SYSTEM TO START" and there are 2 WINDOWS 7, listed to choose from.
I think this computer is set up wrong or something. Can someone help me figure this mess out.
All help will be greatly appreciated.

[Rik_]

Click start, run, then type msconfig into the search box then click on it. In msconfig click boot.ini then click "Check all boot paths". If you have a no longer used boot path to a previous installation of 7 then it will remove it for you.

The E drive seems to be a very small partition. Personally, I'd get rid of it. To remove it, first copy any files you want to keep to the C partition.
Next, right click on your "My computer" and select "Manage" from the menu. Next, click on "Storage" then "Disk management". Locate the E partition and delete it, then right click on the C partition and click expand and follow the instructions it gives you to expand it into the space that was the E drive.

[pal2506]

you can easily check what do you have in your drive E, if its not visible you can check if hidden folders are not taking too much space in drive E .. to make it visible in windows 7 you can try these steps

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial151.html

Some laptops comes with autobackup features and most of your backup go automatically and taking all the space from your secondary partition. you can set your backup as mentioned in this link

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/features/backup-and-restore.aspx

As Rik mentioned if you think you dont need it than you can format and make it a single drive.

Hope it helps !!

[Tumbleweedracef]

Well, I went into MSCONFIG and it only says " BOOT", not "BOOT.ini". Is that a problem ? I checked both partitions and thats what it says. And, there wasn't anything that said " "Check all boot paths".
Help

[Tumbleweedracef]

I also...." right click on your "My computer" and select "Manage" from the menu. Next, click on "Storage" then "Disk management". Locate the E partition and delete it,
BUT, there was no option to delete it. I have already got all personal files off there. How do I delete this partition ?

[Tumbleweedracef]

When I right click on the "E" volume, it gives me the option to:
OPEN
EXPLORE
CHANGE DRIVE :LETTER AND PATHS
SHRINK VOLUME
PROPERTIES
HELP
Those are the ones that are darken black. The words "DELETE VOLUME " are grey

[caperjack]

giving its a laptop the e:\ partition was likely for the Dell recovery[is for a 3 non dell laptops in my house ] and should not have been used for data storage.
go start click on ,computer ,right click on e:/ try a format from there ,if it does then try disk management

[Tumbleweedracef]

I see the choice to "format". If I format the drive, will it remove the recovery information on that drive ?

[Tumbleweedracef]

I went ahead and selected "format" and a warning popped up that said.
" You cannot format this volume"
It contains the version of Windows that you are using. Formatting this volume could cause your computer to stop working"

[Rik_]

Formatting removes all data which is why I said to copy everything you want to keep to another partition in my first post in this thread. If it's a recovery partition, it would be best to leave it as is tho!

[Tumbleweedracef]

As I already posted above, I have already got my personal files off the "E" partion/drive. I need to somehow shrink it or delete it because it is full and causing problems.

[Rik_]

Is it a recovery partition or not? If it is, leave it alone, if it's not, then you need to delete it then expand another partition to fill it's space up!

[caperjack]

sounds like windows is installed on the e:/ partition and all programs are install on c:\ maybe.
go to computer /open the e:\ drive, so it shows the folders/files on it ,using the snipit tool in all programs/accessories ,create a image of the folder,save it to your desktop and then upload it here[click on use advanced editor ,managed attachments, to upload the saved image ] .like this one .

[Tumbleweedracef]

I don't know if it's a "recovery partion" or not. I went to delet it and it didn't give me the option to . I also went to format it, and it wouldn't let me. I keep getting a warning that I have " too low disk space".
There are only 2 programs listed in "programs and features". One is Adboe Flash Player and the other is Advanced Audio FX Engine.
Thats all I know to tell ya.
How do I shrink, delete or reformat the (E) drive. I have tried and failed, as listed above.

[Tumbleweedracef]

Ok here is the attachment you requested...

[Tumbleweedracef]

OOOOOOPS, I don't think that worked.
Let me try again.

[caperjack]

looks like some windows installed file ,now post a image of the content of c:\ drive

[Tumbleweedracef]

I just found out that someone got ahold of the laptop when a problem arose and used an installation disc and created DRIVE (E). I looked earlier on how to delete DRIVE (E) but it didn't give me the option to do so.
Here is a pic of drive (C). Let me know whats next.

[caperjack]

open e/ and see if it will let you delete the folders one at a time,and don't worry about the warning

[Tumbleweedracef]

It's not letting me delete the 4 folders in (E) so I will try to go inside each folder and start deleting from within them.

[Tumbleweedracef]

Well, I messed up. I was trying to delete the individual folders and that wasn't going very good. A friend suggested for me to insert a Windows 7 installation disc, go to the part where it lists the partions and just delete it that way.
That didn't go too good. When I did as he said, and I deleted the small, (E) drive, now when I try to boot the computer I get the black screen with this.....
No bootable devices - - strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility. Press F5 to run onboard diagnostics.
I guess that tomorrow when I wake up , I will have to use the "original installation disc and do a repair so the laptop will boot up.
Sorry I messed up !!!!

[jack4321]

Hi Daniwebb family.
I have a Dell Inspiron laptop with Windows 7 on it. I am having a disk space problem.
A warnning states
Drive E:\ has only 14MB of free disk space. To prevent information loss and performance problems, youneed to free up disk space.
There are 3 disks listed under "MY COMPUTER"
One is "LOCAL DISK (E). It says that it has 28.9 MB free of 14.6 GB
The second one says " OS (C) 173GB free of 218 GB
The third one says "DVD RW Drive (D)

There is not a whole lot of stuff on this laptop and I'm tryin to figure out where all the wasted space is.
When the computer first begins to boot, after the Dell splash page goes away, the black page with white lettering states for the user to " CHOOSE AN OPERATING SYSTEM TO START" and there are 2 WINDOWS 7, listed to choose from.
I think this computer is set up wrong or something. Can someone help me figure this mess out.
All help will be greatly appreciated.

That Can be Done with long operating System and needs free space in system.....

[Tumbleweedracef]

I don't know what that is, sorry

[Tumbleweedracef]

Ok, I repaired the laptop and that dern partion that I had deleted, has shown back up.
Any more help in how to get rid of that partion ?

[Tumbleweedracef]

I haven't heard from anyone in days. I will close this thread.