D Drive?

I have the same problem, did you find an answer ....?

I have the same problem, did you find an answer ....?

I never received an answer. I just wiped the drive and reinstalled from the CDs. Seems to work fine. I did have 2 blue screens prior to this but they have not reoccurred, Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

[quote user="generalhandgrenade"] I have the same problem, did you find an answer ....?

I never received an answer. I just wiped the drive and reinstalled from the CDs. Seems to work fine. I did have 2 blue screens prior to this but they have not reoccurred, Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

[/quote]

This is your thread, correct?

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19328989.aspx

I've sent out an email trying to find out.

Gosh I hoope you find an answer Todd. I have the same problem, my C drive is almost full and my D empty. There is no way I could reinstall the operating system, I just wouldnt be game. And I've just had a huge printer/copier networked to this laptop so dont want to loose all those settings. :emotion-18:

My mom just purchased a new Inspiron that was set up the same way.  Dell support told her they could reconfigure the drive but she'd have to sign up (and pay) for some type of support service.   How does a company get away with selling you something that is basically unusable and then offer to "fix" it for you for a fee?   I was going to buy my daughter a new Dell PC for college but now I'm having second thoughts.

Whan I called dell tech support, they were willing to walk me thru the hard drive repartition process, over the phone for free , I had to ask for a supervisor but the first thing they told me to do was image the drive and call back, there should be no fee for this .......

Please do not fdisk/format the PC. We are researching a fix and will post it as soon as possible.

Go here.

Every Dell laptop in my inventory, and probably every laptop in Staples current inventory, is configured this way. (I didn't check the desktop systems.) I can't imagine the customer relation issues that will ensue from this screw up.

I know the mantra, "It's not a mistake, not a problem, it's a 'feature'  but you don't hand "Joe or Jane Consumer" a system configured like this and expect him/her to understand it.

Not that it matters, but I'd like to know how these kinds of things happen.

So, to summirize it for original poster(s): Don't be in a hurry to remove that D: drive, it's easy to do - just follow the link above but it's much better to learn to use the drive. It's quite useful and if you go ahead and remove it you just remove (voluntarily!)  some useful functionality from your machine.

Basically, Dell has configured the drives quite right. Perhaps it should have helped the users to understand how best to use them but then, to be fair, it's not in the business of educating end users.

Perhaps I'm missing something but I don't see the problem. C: is your system drive, mostly should be left for Windows own stuff. D: drive is user area - for your applications, data, games, whatever. Personally, that's how I would expect it to be partitioned and would do it that way myself. So, what's the problem with it?

Instead of saving to D:\ which is my personal preference as well, some people prefer to save their data files to C:\My Documents

They don't realize that if they need to wipe their C:\ to reinstall Windows after contracting some malware, that all their data either needs to moved to a USB thumb drive or they lose it. Having it on the D:\ saves me the hassle. I speak from personal experience.

Perhaps I'm missing something but I don't see the problem. C: is your system drive, mostly should be left for Windows own stuff. D: drive is user area - for your applications, data, games, whatever. Personally, that's how I would expect it to be partitioned and would do it that way myself. So, what's the problem with it?

the problem is programs that are linked to windows. windows media player for instance.  in order for playlists to be created, movies and songs have to be put in c with windows. same with itunes. when you move all those songs and movies into c that 37 gig of space gets filled up pretty quick.  data such as files and documents are one thing. you could use the partition to put your documents into but it doesn't need to be that big.  what takes up space is music and movies and people buy these machines in order to sync with windows programs. hence, c needs to be big.  most consumers aren't corporate bigwigs, they're average joes who wanna watch movies and cruise the internet.  

Personally, that's how I would expect it to be partitioned and would do it that way myself. So, what's the problem with it?

Well that's great for you, and I wouldn't mind operating that way, and we both know how to make it work.

The problem is "Mr. and Mrs. Consumer" do NOT know how to make this work or why it's as awesomely convenient as sliced bread. And it is NOT reasonable to expect them to know this. 

To "Mr. and Mrs. Consumer" this is a feature without benefit.  Reaction is: "Where is the 500GB hardrive I paid for?"

Acer pulled this same trick with Vista and they dropped it after one season; it didn't work. 

Makes me wonder who's doing the usability studies around here.

[quote user="Oysterisk"]  Personally, that's how I would expect it to be partitioned and would do it that way myself. So, what's the problem with it?

Well that's great for you, and I wouldn't mind operating that way, and we both know how to make it work.

The problem is "Mr. and Mrs. Consumer" do NOT know how to make this work or why it's as awesomely convenient as sliced bread. And it is NOT reasonable to expect them to know this. 

To "Mr. and Mrs. Consumer" this is a feature without benefit.  Reaction is: "Where is the 500GB hardrive I paid for?"

Acer pulled this same trick with Vista and they dropped it after one season; it didn't work. 

Makes me wonder who's doing the usability studies around here.

Perhaps it is better if Mr and Ms Consumer are taught about how to do things the better way rather than continue to pander to their ignorance of the matter.