One hard drive showing up as 2 disks

amillionmiles · Jul 31, 2015

My computer is supposed to have 1 hard drive, but the disk manager says there are 2 disks. I thought they were partitions and tried to merge them, but I can't because they show up as 2 disks. This is really a problem because the smaller one only has 14GB and 0 bytes free space. It has all the system stuff on it though. I can't delete anything, and I can't even install any Windows updates. I can't do anything with the computer like this. What should I do?

Someone Somewhere · Jul 31, 2015

Can you post a screenshot?

Many PCs come with a ~16GB SSD, which is only used to cache data on the HDD, and shouldn't show up in Windows. Did you reinstall windows or mess around in the BIOS?

amillionmiles · Jul 31, 2015

Someone Somewhere :

It does say "optimized for SD." It has all the Windows and Program Files folders and other system stuff on it though. I just bought it as a used computer and haven't done anything with it, and I know that the seller just reinstalled Windows. (There is also no recovery partition.) How can I attach a screenshot without having to provide a URL? I managed to free up some space by moving some Windows folders, but that's a terrible and temporary solution...

Someone Somewhere · Jul 31, 2015

Upload the picture to imgur.com

You'll probably need to re-install Windows onto the correct hard drive. I suggest making sure you've got recovery disks...

amillionmiles · Jul 31, 2015

Someone Somewhere :

I don't have any recovery disks:-( And I can't reinstall it without any installation media. What should I do?
Here are the pictures:

Someone Somewhere · Jul 31, 2015

Yup, it's been installed into the wrong disk.

Depending on what type of key you have, you may be able to download media here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/upgrade-product-key-only

If not, you may need to contact the seller.

amillionmiles · Jul 31, 2015

Someone Somewhere :

How can I find out what type of key I have?

Someone Somewhere · Jul 31, 2015

Basically, type it in and see if it works.

amillionmiles · Aug 3, 2015

Someone Somewhere :

Can I download it onto the USB stick from an different computer (with Windows 7 on it)? Does it somehow build its files on what it finds on my computer?

Someone Somewhere · Aug 4, 2015

Yup, different computer works fine.

amillionmiles · Aug 4, 2015

Someone Somewhere :

Okay, I did that and booted from the USB stick. But when it asks me where I want to install Windows, it says "Windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only installed on GPT disks." for both disks. What does this mean, and what should I do?

Update: I just solved this problem by deleting the partition of the bigger drive and then creating a new one (which actually created 4 different ones, although they do not show up under "This PC" now). Now I'm upgrading to Windows 10. I also (quick-)formatted the smaller drive after Windows was successfully reinstalled to delete all the old system files on it. Now I'm wondering what to do with my empty SSD. I know it's meant to make my computer faster, but how do I actually use it? Does it really make my computer faster even though Windows is installed on the HDD? Do I need to do anything?

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One hard drive showing up as 2 disks

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