Multiple primary partitions, no free space, can't format, I'm stuck please help..

Jesse Wood · Mar 24, 2014

It started when I tried to preform a secure erase, I used command prompt and when it was on the last step "Writing random numbers" my laptop died while I was away. When I turned it back on I noticed the command prompt window was gone and my computer was running oddly slow. I checked the C drive and it said I only have like 320 mb of space left. I had about 450 gb before I did the secure erase. Recently, I posted a question on the forums and I got a little bit of help. One of the programs prompted that I check my partitions so I did. When I looked, I had 4 partitions, 3 of them were recovery and they were all primary (is this normal?) So then I did a scan that checked for errors and it said my drive is healthy.

I need to get my laptop back to normal to where I only have 2 partitions where as one is recovery and one is my primary boot. How do I do this when my laptop doesn't have windows 8 boot disks, or when my computer doesn't even have enough space to download almost anything. I feel like I'm stuck and I really need help! Thanks.

My laptop is a asus vivobook s300ca bought about 6 months ago running a pre installed version of windows 8.

James Mason · Mar 24, 2014

Go to Disk Manager: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows-8/a/disk-management-windows-8.htm
And see if you can increase the size of the partitions to full size, assuming the random data that got written didnt actually start taking up space, would probably have to reformat the drive to fix that.

mbarnes86 · Mar 24, 2014

Hi

you are mysteriously vague about what you have done to screw up your laptop
(eg secure erase give more details (on patition,hard drive, free space , what program ?)

How did you scan your disk for errors ?
Windows provides chkdsk which checks for logical errors not physical damage,
although it can repairr a few bad sectors and lock them out of use if you tick the correct box

Hard disk manufacturers provide diagnostic software on their websites
Western Digital Data Life Guard (Windows version) also works on other brands
Seagate bootable diagnostics CD or USB also works on other brands

Once you know if you have physical problems with the hard disk you will know whether to replace the hard disk or
if it passes the tests repair the corrupt existing hard disk

partitions do not grow by them selves so some of your repair & attempts at reinstalling Windows must have created new partitions

with standard MBR boot sector a max of 4 Primary partitions are allowed
with GPT I believe the limit is 128

You need to contact ASUS to buy a set of system recovery DVD's unless you have them
(I am assuming you did not follow the prompts to create them yourself)

If the PC would boot back into windows you probably can still build a set of system recovery DVD's

During Windows Install you usually get a chance to remove existing partitions, create new ones and continue the Installation.

Do a full backup of important data defore doing this as every thing on the hard disk will be lost

regards
Mike Barnes

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Multiple primary partitions, no free space, can't format, I'm stuck please help..

Jesse Wood

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James Mason

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mbarnes86

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