Usually most drives on PC's nowadays come partitioned into two sections. One partition is storing your whole operating system as it was when it was purchased (maybe even a few programs as well). This if for when you want to wipe your machine and it reloads itself from that partition (of course that partition is not wiped). The other partition has your "working" operating system (otherwise the operating system that your computer is using when you boot up your computer). That same "working" partition is where you would store your files, and load any programs that you are using. The area used for storage is shown in your computer info. Hope this helps.

I surprisingly ran into this same issue. I've called HP before, the first time being when i took my new Pavilion Slimline out of the box and the hard drive was not being recognised. I called and was immediately told that it was no longer under warranty. I said i had just bought it about 4 hours ago at a major retailer. I was told it didn't matter, apparently it was an older model that was on the store shelves for some time now. Four calls and three hours later my computer was working, sort of. I had a few calls in the past 9 months, usually for not booting properly or at all. I'm still waiting for recovery discs from about 9 months ago. Last night i came home and my computer was frozen. I had to reboot it. It ran the CHKDSK (again) and afterwards i was missing about 100GB of data. I called HP today. After he said his greeting i opened with "pending hard drive failure". There was no talk of recovery discs. He had me run the hardware diagnostics. Surface scan : HD535-2W. The fun lies in finding a service location in Calgary. He said they had service centres & partners EVERYWHERE. Their server was offline so we couldn't get it from their website. He gave me businesses to call. In a city of over 1000000 people you'd think there would be SOMEWHERE i could go to have the hard drive replaced. He was very helpful. I just wish their computers were too. It would save me all of these calls, from which i am taking a break. This would be the first time i got someone who really listened to me too. It's really nice when that happens.

Dee can - Please DO NOT trigger a Format. It deletes everything on the drive (including Windows). If you reformat your PC's hard drive, it'll be useless to you and won't start again until a new operating system installation is done. It shouldn't be something you need to do. raven - I disagree with your suggestion about the advisability of having a HDD image. Use of same would seem to be well beyond the ability of most people who visit this forum. To avoid problems and inconvenience, my first suggestion is that everything important should be backed up and, correspondingly, unimportant files needn't be backed up. Many users have nothing but unimportant files. A simple emailer and web surfer likely has nothing that needs to be backed up. My second suggestion is to avoid problems by using proper tools and practices. (Many of the tools and practices I've seen recommended in various threads in this forum I don't agree with) My third suggestion - if a problem is encountered that the user doesn't know how to deal with, find a service provider or someone knowledgeable to help you. For "seasoned citizens", younger family members may be useful for this. Write down on a piece of paper (yes, a piece of paper) the programs you use and the obscure websites you like and have bookmarked. Other than important data files (photos, music, correspondence), EVERYTHING ELSE on your PC can be reinstalled, re-downloaded, and otherwise replaced. If your PC is old, struggling, or otherwise deserving of a proper burial, buy a new one. They're cheaper than ever, and old your old PC may not be worth the cost or effort to resuscitate. Good luck to all. With a first rate antivirus program, all that's left for you to do is to know where you go and know what you open. With that and absent being very unlucky, you won't have any problems.

Raven - I have one of my posts that got eaten by goblins - and one of your posts that is missing from this thread. I will paste them both here - for the sake of keeping the integrity of the thread. Let me know if this is what was missing that you posted (or did more disappear) Here's my missing post: Damcoy - I'm always forgetting to do a google search. Raven - it was an OEM drive from Dell - no instructions. I vaguely recall that I'd want to format in NTFS and not FAT32 - though I don't recall what each of those are. When i first booted up my pc it did see the new hard drive - but I haven't known how to find it again. It seems to be suggesting that it's being labelled as a canon something or other. I don't know what that means to go into the boot menu at start up to see how it's listed. It did not give me an option of which to boot to - of course there's no operating drive on the second drive (at least I guess there's not since I didn't put one there). I also don't know how to back up my existing drive - which is part of what I want the second drive for. I'd like to back up my programs (and drivers? how would I do that) - perhaps on one partition. And have one or more partitions for files - like video, picture, music, data (word files, emails, etc, saved pages from the web?). So again, how do I go into the boot menu and see how they're listed? There is a difference in size - the second drive is 1/5TB =- the first is 500 GB. How could I mess up my existing original drive? by reformatting it? seems i have to have a place to back it up to before i back it up - I guess I could back it up on my external 640GB hard drive. Thanks. Lynn. ------------------------------- And here's the one from you that was emailed to me: I would use an imaging program and make a full copy of your existing drive to your external hard drive so that you have it should something go wrong. There are good free imaging programs, for those with vista and windows 7 there is now a built in imaging feature. On my computer as soon as it starts to boot up it flashes up and says to enter the boot menu hit esc, I just keep tapping it so I am sure I hit it at the right time, your computer may be different this is not uniform on all computers. Once you get into that area you will see the drives listed, you can choose which one to boot to and what order. I would do some research on what you are wanting to accomplish. I did a lot of reading and researching before I did mine and it really paid off. One thing I had not expected was for the SATA cable to come loose from the mother board after it was all set up, scared the you know what out of me! Luckily I have a see through case and saw the cable dangling. (http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/copywipe.php ) CopyWipe free imaging program (http://dottech.org/featured/6194 ) 8 free software to image/backup/ghost your computer (free alternatives to Acronis True Image, Norton Ghost, etc.). ---------------------------------------------------- It lookslike some of your post didn't get copied and pasted intact - but it's mostly there. Or was there more than this? Thanks. Lynn. PS - I'm on my way out for the evening (and tomorrow's a day trip that could turn into all day) - so I don't know if I can get to this in the next day or two - as eager as I am to do so)