Newb Question: Partitioning Problems

[AaronPower]

Hey,

I haven't much experience with hard drives so I need some help. I just reinstalled windows (I have a WD 160GB SATA) and deleted a partition (drive D and hoped to clear drive C: by installing a fresh windows and selecting to delete all (I had spyware problems I wanted to clean up.)

Anyway, after the installation the only drive that shows up is C: (not D: because I deleted it) and I guess the space that was on D: is now just unpartitioned space.

Here's my question, how do i totally wipe C: (because theres still essentially everything from before I reinstalled windows and when I right click it to format, it says it cannot be done) and how do I get the unparitioned space into C: (I wouldn't like two drives.)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
-AP

 

[AaronPower]

Also, I don't know if this is normal (didn't appear previous to installing fresh windows) is a Safely Remove Hardware icon that lists my harddrive (WD 16000JC...) as an item to remove, it says 'item cannot be stopped right now, try stopping later' aswell.

Thanks again.

 

[AaronPower]

Quick update:

In Disk Manager, I see C: and then unallocated space with an additional 70gb, how can I merge these two (move the unallocated space into the C: drive) to make it one partition?

If I bittorent Partition Magic will it do this?

Thanks.

 

[sailer]

Partion Magic should do the job.

 

[nobly]

Also, I don't know if this is normal (didn't appear previous to installing fresh windows) is a Safely Remove Hardware icon that lists my harddrive (WD 16000JC...) as an item to remove, it says 'item cannot be stopped right now, try stopping later' aswell.

Thanks again.

I think that's normal. SATA is hotswappable, so it counts as a removable device.

 

[George05]

Partition Tragic will allow you to extend the partition however i hope you are aware your data that was on D: drive is gone. My thought is that your best bet is to backup whatever data you can or need then use the WinXP OS CD to delete all partitions and create a single partition and format that way. it means a fresh re-install of everything but you'll have a clean OS to began anew. on that though my preference is to have at least 2 partitions in a system that way should a format/re-install be needed i don't have to get my data off the drive to do so. all i need to do is format the partition.
also while i have little experience with external sata devices my knowledge is that no internal sata device should come up as a removal device unless you've changed some setting that i'm unaware of in bios.

PS. stop looking at pr0n and you will minimise you're spyware exposure

PPS. i use spybot, ad-aware personal and pest patrol for spyware etc removal and prevention.