Partioned Drive

My solution to this was simple. I exchanged the 320 dri for a WD Scorpio Blue 500 gig immediately. Windows 7 automaticaly reserves 100 mb and the rest is free. I installed the operating system and got new drivers from the dell website. It was trully a breeze. I used the drive that came with it as an external.

That's great. But I don't want to spend anymore money on Dell. And why can't Dell just fix this issue for me. When you buy a brand new laptop, it should be ready to go. I have been fooling around with Dell for over a month on this one laptop. Did you read my whole post? I don't want to have to sit around and have to reconfigure the harddrive.

They make the best computers but now have the dumbest support. I believe you can pay extra and have US support. In any case, your health and stress factor are more important than being stubborn. You also get to have an extra hard drive to stick in an external case for backup files. It is really easy with windows 7 to do it.

And why is that? If Microsoft wanted you to cut your hand of would you say, "that's how Microsoft wants it"?

OEMs are bound by Microsoft's rules in distributing Windows.  Instead of making snide comments, you have been advised of the solution: reload Windows, partitioning as you wish.  Or, buy a system from a small local shop which will partition the drive to your liking pre-purchase (you WILL pay more for this, though).

The partition structure is how Microsoft wants it - HP/Compaq, Sony and Toshiba are doing it the same way Dell is.

I've been trying to help my mom work through the same issue.  She also purchased an Inspiron 1564 in March and it came configured with the 60 GB C drive and large empty D drive.  She contacted Dell and they told her that was how it should be configured.  We tried pointing the WIn7 libraries to folders set up on the D drive but now when she tries to use certain Windows functionality she gets messages telling her that files cannot be located.  She's not very technical and is not sure she can reformat the drive herself and Dell wanted to charge her to do it.   Did you ever get any resolution from Dell?  I'm considering complaining to Better Business Bureau.

Honestly, I would have never added my post if I thought I was being stubborn for expecting to start up and have my new laptop work that I just purchased for a $1000 and did not have to spend a couple of hours configuring it or buying another hard drive so that I am stuck with more hardware that I don't really need. And I am not really sure why Microsoft would stipulate a hard drive configuration like this, but the last Dell Escalation Tech said that it was definitely a Dell configuration not Microsoft. The real solution is as follows.

Go to Windows partition manager under services in Control panel. The easiest way to get there is to go to "Help and Support" and type in "partition" and go to the help item "Delete a partition" and click on the "Computer Management". Click on "storage". and then "Disk Manager". Right click on D and remove. It will disappear. Now right click on C and select extend the volume. I am doing this from memory because I am really not going to test it just for this reply. I don't want to mess up what I did. This should increase the C drive by the remaining gigs on the hard drive. I believe it prompted me for the amount of hard drive not assigned to a volume and I clicked OK. But, by doing this, you run into a problem when you reboot. Every time I rebooted I got an error stating "boot manager missing". What I had to do now is put in the OS CD supplied with your laptop, reboot, hit F12 a few times and boot up from the CD. Then instead of re-installing Windows 7, you have to select repair Windows. I had to do this a couple of times before the CD repaired the error message about boot manager missing. But it did work finally and it seems to be OK.

Remember, I am doing this from memory and not 100% sure of exact steps or verbiage. Check this web site http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/resize-a-partition-for-free-in-windows-vista/ and http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/fixing-bootmgr-is-missing-error-while-trying-to-boot-windows-vista/  . This How to Geek website is a great tool. Good luck because honestly I got very lucky. The Dell tech had no knowledge of this whole process. Dell is pretty sad when it comes to their support. No one can argue that fact. Nice product, great sales, good web site; but when you need support, forget it.

While all this is true and I agree that a new pc should not require additional work, I see a pc as something I control, not Dell or Microsoft. I can guarrantee that at least one time in your new pc's life you will need to reinstall the operationg system due to an awful virus or just slugginess. In fact it is well known that eventually every pc should have it's hard drive cleaned and reinstalled. No program can correct slugginess. Don't you think that knowing how to do this is important? It's like knowing how to change a tire or check the oil of your car. My point is that I don't want to deal with the beurocracy of Dell, it's Indian tech support and all their inane new rules. The tech support are limited to severe guidelines which they follow after all Dell is paying their salary not us the consumer. Sometimes you need to accept the reality and take control. You don't need to sit on the phone for hours having them guide you thu an install. Google it and you will have step by step instructions, a hard drive just the way you like it and no more headaches and countless forum postings which as I see ittaken more energy than actually doing the clean install.

That's true, knowledge is power and all that, and I really dont want to call up an international call centre to be taken through a step by step process by someone who has even less understanding of the the bigger picture than I do. Sadly my tech knowledge is not all that great and the tech support is its equal. As such I've tried reading about it/googling it and its still not clear. I've found out how to remove the partition, but not a) whether I should remove it and implications for recovery, and b) if I do keep it, how to make D my default drive and manage it generally . Its very difficult to simply get into these subjects with little background knowledge, hence the forum plea.

Put the installation cd in the drive. Turn off your pc. Turn on your pc and pres enter then press any key to run the disk. It will be self explanetary. You can delete the partition and install a fresh copy. Windows 7 will automaticaly reserve 100 mb. Then install windows updates  When done install the drivers for your particular model of dell driver download, that's it.

I bought an inspiron 1764 it also had the 60 gig C drive  but staples fixed it for me.  How would you go about putting your info and programs in a D drive ?   I hope this is something that is not going to continue.  If I had bought my computer directly from Dell I would have surely been in a big mess;

sandavis

The partition structure is how Microsoft wants it - HP/Compaq, Sony and Toshiba are doing it the same way Dell is.

Where did you hear this? Can you provide a link?

I was told by Dell that the configuration was based on customer input and that they were reevaluating the set up.

Also, Dell has posted a fix:

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?docid=871D98A25A66C539E040AC0A66E90529

I really wish that they had done this before I did a "clean" install of the OS, hope I don't have troubles down the road...