Disk Partition Management Help

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hamisht

389 posts

Ultimate Geek

#242545 2-Nov-2018 19:55

Hi guys,

I'm trying to fix up a laptop I got for a niece of mine. I chucked in an extra 4Gb of ram to take it to 8, thinking this should speed it up just enough to do the basic stuff without too much lag.

I figured that because it's got a 24GB SSD and a regular 750GB drive..

What I didn't realize is how much of a mess the drives are.. they have been paritioned off in a weird format to me. The Operating System isn't on the SSD (Windows 10 should only require less than 24GB).

What I would like to do is just wipe everything and just have the 24GB as one accessible drive (C:) and the 750 as just a storage drive. I'm vaguely familiar with the Disk Management program in Windows, but a lot of these partitions can't be deleted and merged with others.. I right click on some and nothing but the HELP option comes up?

I've got a Windows Media creation USB drive made up ready to re-install windows on the SSD once these drives are sorted out.. could anyone lend a hand to help me figure out how to re-arange these mess just into those two drives?

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#2118721 2-Nov-2018 20:03

Reinstall windows and do a Custom Install and use that to sort the drives out. because of where the partitions are on the drive they wont let you merge them together so best bet is to just format that drive in the installer (after backup of important data) and start fresh.

hamisht

389 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2118727 2-Nov-2018 20:14

I'll give that a go then. I assumed that even the windows re-install would still only see the current C: and D: drives rather than just the SSD and 750gb

I will come back and update once I try that though. Cheers!

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robjg63

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#2118736 2-Nov-2018 20:37

24GB is pretty tight though.
Win 10 will fit - but you could run into trouble with updates and so on.
A couple of sites suggest 16gb, which seems a little light in my experience.
Add on (usually) memory swap space - 8gb you mentioned. That's 24gb.
You can get 120gb ssd's from less than $50.
If its an option maybe see if you can stretch to a bigger ssd.

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timmmay

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#2118744 2-Nov-2018 20:53

24GB is pretty tight, like others have said. Don't forget it needs applications as well. I'd probably upgrade the SSD to 64GB or higher, or just use the 750GB spinning disk. I wonder if the 24GB SSD can be used for some kind of cache, but that won't help boot speed.

It's sometimes not worth spending any money on older computers.

mentalinc

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#2118745 2-Nov-2018 20:54

Agree 24GB way too small for windows install disk.

needs much more space and just seems to grow overtime with updates.

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hamisht

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#2118747 2-Nov-2018 21:11

Oh bummer... yeah this laptop (Asus V550c) doesn't have very easily accessible drive bays.. even the memory was tricky as you can only really pull one out.. the second slot is partially under the main plastic back. You literally have to take the entire back off to get to the other stuff.. I did it once but couldn't even find the SSD lol

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timmmay

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#2118749 2-Nov-2018 21:21

I wonder if it's non-volatile memory meant to be used for readyboost rather than an SSD? That's a disk cache on a USB stick or internal version. What's the make and model of the laptop?

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hamisht

389 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2118750 2-Nov-2018 21:24

Asus V550CB-CJ111H

It does have a sticker boasting about a "True 2 Second Instant On".. but it's very slow to boot up.. much slower than I would think it should be (which is why I added the ram).

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Lias

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#2118755 2-Nov-2018 21:40

The "Weird format" is a modern UEFI/GPT partition layout. If you want to read more about it, go here.

24gb is _technically_ big enough as the requirement for W10 x64 is 20gb, but the reality is it isn't even close. 50ish is about the practical minimum.

Also Asus's website they don't recommend doing it :-)

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andrewNZ

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#2118756 2-Nov-2018 21:41

Does it have a hybrid drive?

I've never used one so I don't know how they are presented to the OS. But it would explain the bizarre SSD size.

yitz

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#2118793 2-Nov-2018 22:10

timmmay:
I wonder if it's non-volatile memory meant to be used for readyboost rather than an SSD? That's a disk cache on a USB stick or internal version. What's the make and model of the laptop?

Yep, definitely this. You will need to install some driver and that will configure the 24GB device as cache.

Some googling reveals it is called ASUS ExpressCache.

Tbh with these machines I would just run the OEM recovery even if it restores the original Windows 8.

hamisht

389 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2118799 2-Nov-2018 22:50

I might actually try that. Even going back to 8 would be fine as I just want to try and speed it up a little to make it more usable. Its not a top of the line laptop by any means, but it shouldn't be this slow.

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ObidiahSlope

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#2118890 3-Nov-2018 10:36

I have not done this myself so treat it as a suggestion rather than a reccomendation.

Set up C: drive as a volume and have it span both disks. You can then let the operating system decide where to put files.

I am on firmer ground recomending you delete the restore partition as it is easier nowdays to download up to date operating system install media from Microsoft directly with the advantage of not reinstalling any OEM junkware.

Obsequious hypocrite

OldGeek

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#2118891 3-Nov-2018 10:53

You might want to consider a partition manager app that allows you to manage partitions using a GUI and a range of management options. Partition Wizard (partitionwizard.com) is one such tool - free for non-commercial use. For those of us with occasional exposure to partition management issues this is a great tool.

In your case you can expand the 24-gig drive partition to use the entire SSD, then try using the 'migrate OS to SSD' function. I would expect if the SSD space is not enough a warning would be given.

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andrewNZ

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#2118897 3-Nov-2018 11:04

Have you cleaned the cooler. Laptops get pretty nasty in there.

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