Brian V wrote:
Thank you.

Yes they are paritions. I have looked at what you're talking about
and seen some of this on my computer, but never understood it.

I have even seen a smaller parition file. I assume they are for the
recovery disk. How can I check it out and look at it's contents or
what it does?

Would rejoining them make more available space? Or is paritioning
irrelevant?

First, I would like to correct a mistake from my previous post:

You can only rejoin them by using a third-party disk partitioning
program like EASEUS or Partition Magic.

(Please don't snip the relevant parts of the post you are replying to.
By keeping them in your post, others can follow the thread better and
perhaps be more likely to offer helpful suggestions.)

Although the above programs can *resize* partitions, they cannot merge
them. Other programs (that aren't free can perform the merge function,
however. If you were interested in using one of the above freeware
programs to effectively (that is, not actually, but still accomplishing
the same end) merge C: and D:, it could be done if you're careful. If
your C: drive is large enough, you could copy all the data from D: to
C:. (If it's not large enough, you would have to use an external hard
drive for temporary storage.) Then you could delete the D: partition
completely. Since you already copied all the data off of it, you
wouldn't have lost anything. Once D: is deleted, you would have
something called Unallaocated Space on your hard drive where D: once
existed. At this point you could use one of the third-party disk
partitioning tools to expand C: so that it takes up the entire hard
drive (meaning you would no longer have any Unallocated Space).

I am not recommending you do this. I think it's nice to have a partition
only for data. I am just mentioning it to explain partitions and
resizing.

If there is a small hidden partition on your hard drive, it could be for
any number of things, including diagnostics. Dell PCs have these
diagnostic partitions. You would be able to boot directly to the
diagnostic partition (entirely bypassing Windows XP) and determine the
health of your hardware components.

Sometimes there are larger hidden partitions that contain an image of
the entire hard drive the day it was that it left the factory. This way,
the PC user can return the PC to its original pristine condition if
there is a reason to do so (for instance, the hard drive is riddled with
malware or you are selling/giving this PC to someone else).

Just check your documentation; it will explain what your hidden
partition is for. If you can't find it and are still curious, tell us
the make and model and model number of your PC and we can show you where
on the Web to find out this information.

Merging or resizing the partitons won't make more space. I would leave
well enough alone if I were you. An exception would be if your C:
partition (presumably this would contain your Windows XP operating
system and all its service packs and updates as well as all your
installed programs) is too cramped. But you would need to be extremely
careful.

If your C: drive is 50GB (I believe that's what you stated earlier),
that is plenty large. Just leave it alone.

On another but somewhat related topic, I highly recommend you have a
backup strategy. Since you have the two partitions, you could regularly
copy your data (which should be on D to an external hard drive (you
could even use Windows Explorer or a free program like Karen's
Replicator that only copies recently added or created data). Then you
could use a program like Acronis True Image (not free) or DriveImageXML
(free) to regularly create an image of C:. This way, if a disaster
strikes, you can easily and quickly restore the most recent image of C:,
thereby preserving the most recent configuration of your system, that
is, OS plus programs.

Partitioning is optional. Many people just have one giant partition that
contains everything. Personal choice.

But partitioning is hardly irrelevant and has its benefits. :-) HTH.