Desktops & All-In-Ones

[aubergine]

I have an Acer Aspire desktop (Windows Vista) that was purchased brand new some years back. It has rather curious partitions:

ACER (C: ) (System, Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Dump, Primary Partition) 50GB

DATA (D: ) (Primary Partition) 17GB

Is there any reason for the large D: partition? Could it be merged into the main C: drive without any harm? I am looking to upgrade to Windows 7.

[laurent_14]

Hello aubergine,

Under Windows Vista, you have exactly 3 partitions:

0- PQSERVICE - The hidden partition which permit to recover your system like out factory.

1- C:ACER

2- D:ACER DATA

Firt, don't forget to make your erecovery media (factory defaults)

I advise you to install windows 7 on C (partition 1). If you have any problem, you'll be able to recover your system from PQSERVICE. If you merge C and D, I'm not sure you'll be able to recover it (partitions changed).

Look this video (from 2:39): Destination partition 1 (C)

[aubergine]

Thanks, but what is the purpose of the D: drive (DATA)?

[laurent_14]

Hello,

This partition is used to store your personal data (files, music, pictures etc).

By default, Windows use My documents on C:.

Many users save them in My documents and they forget to make a backup.

So, when they recover the system, they loose their documents.

In all cases, it's strongly recommended to have two separate partitions (OS+software, personal data) and for any windows version.

[yc0615]

I would love your partitions. I wonder why they did not make mine like yours. I need a seperate partition for my data.

Every pc should do it like yours!