Dell Inspiron 1764 windows 7 help please

[JayJ]

[Ripshod]

*EDITING*

[decoy]

oh dear
i might be wrong but the only way i know of fixing that is at the start of the windows install there are a few options to sort out your hd under the advanced tag

hope someone else can point you in the right direction for an after install fix

[Ripshod]

He's right, that's not actually free space, as it's green. Do you really need the recovery partition too. If you're doing a fresh install from a CD/DVD then just delete all the partitions from the manager at the start of the install then just install to the empty drive. Should make just one big partition for you.

That's all I've ever done with any of my systems. If you go with the fresh install make sure you have a copy of the LAN driver on a usb stick or you may not be able to connect to the net for drivers and updates.

[Ripshod]

And the answer is? I don't know tbh, never seen it before but apparently it's free space left on a 'logical' drive. Partitions on a logical drive can't be expanded. You could maybe use the space for a 'storage' drive for all your files?

Personally? I'd wipe the whole drive and install a fresh windows. But, also personally, I wouldn't bother with all that dell bloatware, it just slows windows down.

That's my advice, and I'm sticking to it

[JayJ]

Ripshod by install disc do you mean a copy of windows ?

Jay

[Ripshod]

Nov 30, 2014 18:32:58 GMT JayJ said:

Ripshod by install disc do you mean a copy of windows ?

Jay

Yep, edited the above too. You will need a legit windows key tho - I know a lot of old lappies come with the label ripped.

[JayJ]

Nov 30, 2014 18:33:38 GMT Ripshod said:

Nov 30, 2014 18:32:58 GMT JayJ said:

Ripshod by install disc do you mean a copy of windows ?

Jay

Yep, edited the above too. You will need a legit windows key tho - I know a lot of old lappies come with the label ripped.

I've got the windows key for this machine. So it looks like fresh install, check the advanced tab for options first maybe as decoy mentioned. If I can't see a fix there delete all the partitions except C: and install there. This should then leave me with just the one drive not partitioned when I've finished ? Then install all the updates and drivers from dell as I have done to get to this point ?

Jay

[Ripshod]

Delete all the partitions and install to the free space. windows will automatically fill the drive with one big partition.

Everything else get a big yes from me.

[JayJ]

Nov 30, 2014 18:42:12 GMT Ripshod said:

Delete all the partitions and install to the free space. windows will automatically fill the drive with one big partition.

Everything else get a big yes from me.

Ah OK thank you. Also I'm firing up the desktop as a reserve for further questions and maybe the other lappy aswell...... back up's for back ups........ I learnt that from vaping lol.

Jay

[Ripshod]

So long as you have dell's LAN driver you'll be fine just wiping it and going fresh. For the dell stuff just install the drivers. I wouldn't bother with any of the system utilities. They just hog RAM and get in the way.

[decoy]

tbh it should connect to the net after a fresh install just not very well
then revisit the dell support link i posted and just download the drivers not the software and all should be good

this is why i puts windows on a usb mem stick it cuts down install time by yonks(technical measurement of time )

[meeee]

judging by the size for the recovery partition there will be Dell factory install image in it, if you boot he PC then press f8 normally when in the recovery console there will be an option to restore the dell factory image which should correct everything for you.

[JayJ]

Thank you all so much for your help. The laptop is up and running just fine now. Without this place I think it might have ended up landing in the garden.

Jay