Hard Drive Space decreasing

[Arrkham 291]

So I got a bad virus a few weeks ago. Last night, I did a system restore (factory settings). After that, my windows 8 key said it didn't work. So I decided to do a system restore of the image on my recovery drive, that way I could get my windows key back. That failed, so I had to do a system restore (factory settings) again. After all this, my 1TB hard drive decreased to 106gb max store. 70 of it is being used. I don't know how to fix this, I'm not the best with computers. It is a laptop as well. Help?

[HCMikey 248]

Are you sure it's a virus? How do you have your hard drive formatted?

 

Start up your computer in safe mode and run malwarebytes. Also play around with some files by deleting them and taking note of how much space you lose or gain.

[Arrkham 291]

I just have it formatted however it came factory. Also I don't think the virus did this to my hard drive. Could be something else.

[HCMikey 248]

If it's a laptop, most likely you still have your recovery partition on a separate drive. I would Backup all your important stuff to another hard drive if you have one and reinstall windows (I'm assuming it's windows 8).

 

If you have windows 8 or 8.1, run this to find your product key if you can't locate it yourself. It doesn't install anything on your computer and it's not a virus.

http://www.eightforums.com/attachments/tutorials/52951d1414151784-product-key-find-windows-8-a-showkey_v1.3.vbs

[drunkula 1635]

sounds to me like you messed up the partitioning when you formatted

[Arrkham 291]

Could have. How would I fix it?

[HCMikey 248]

Could have. How would I fix it?

 

Well before you do, backup your stuff. Usually when you format your hard drive, it sets the default settings and default allocation size. Maybe when you formatted your hard drive you messed up some settings.

 

right click your hard drive and format it. It should show capacity, allocation size, and the type of file system you want, Usually NTFS or FAT32, but it could be different file systems. Normally NTFS is what you want to set it to. Set the allocation size to default and don't quick format.

[Arrkham 291]

Well before you do, backup your stuff. Usually when you format your hard drive, it sets the default settings and default allocation size. Maybe when you formatted your hard drive you messed up some settings.

right click your hard drive and format it. It should show capacity, allocation size, and the type of file system you want, Usually NTFS or FAT32, but it could be different file systems. Normally NTFS is what you want to set it to. Set the allocation size to default and don't quick format.

alright, I will try when I get home. I don't have anything to back up. I just use internet and play games, so its all good

[Arrkham 291]

Tried formatting, but it won't let me format because that's the drive windows is on, and my computer would stop working.

[Clamps 4783]

Yeah you have to do that after booting to cd.. Google "installing Windows off cd"

[Arrkham 291]

Oh. Well I could boot of USB too? And if I format the USB to be a bootable drive, can I revert back to it being just a USB?

[driz 2626]

Usually in a factory laptop there is a key sequence at boot to restore to factory. Google and use it, all your shit will be like the day you bought it. If the HD still has issues, could be bad sector. Low level format it and see what's left

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

[HCMikey 248]

Yeah you have to do that after booting to cd.. Google "installing Windows off cd"

 

He doesn't have to install from a cd. In fact, he doesn't even have to create a recovery media with a usb or cd (Although I highly recommend he does it once).

His recovery partition has a factory image in which he can essentially reinstall windows 8 and then upgrade to windows 8.1 without any product key and for free.

 

Oh. Well I could boot of USB too? And if I format the USB to be a bootable drive, can I revert back to it being just a USB?

This is unnecessary, you don't need any external devices. Give me a shout or pm me and I can guide you through the process if you need help with it.

 

Usually in a factory laptop there is a key sequence at boot to restore to factory. Google and use it, all your shit will be like the day you bought it. If the HD still has issues, could be bad sector. Low level format it and see what's left

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

 

This is the way to go about it but the bad part is you have to call the manufacturer of your laptop for it if you don't remember it. For me all I have to do is press F11 at the start, go into my bios, change the boot order and then restore my factory image.

 

If his recovery partition is not part of the same drive and is a separate drive in his computer, he might get an error that the winload efi file cannot be accessed and therefore he can't reinstall windows. There is an easy work around for this.

[Arrkham 291]

If it's a laptop, most likely you still have your recovery partition on a separate drive. I would Backup all your important stuff to another hard drive if you have one and reinstall windows (I'm assuming it's windows 8).

 

If you have windows 8 or 8.1, run this to find your product key if you can't locate it yourself. It doesn't install anything on your computer and it's not a virus.

http://www.eightforums.com/attachments/tutorials/52951d1414151784-product-key-find-windows-8-a-showkey_v1.3.vbs

Says windows 8 not supported.

 

Also I will install windows 8 on my recovery drive tonight and let it do it while I sleep.

[Mimic 3307]

If you haven't already formatted your entire drive to fix this yet, could you check Disk Management so we can tell if there is a large partition not Active?

 

You can get there by opening Control Panel and searching Administrative Tools, then in Administrative Tools opening Computer Management. In the window that appears there will be a section under Storage called Disk Management. Full screen the window and take a screenshot for us.

[Arrkham 291]

If you haven't already formatted your entire drive to fix this yet, could you check Disk Management so we can tell if there is a large partition not Active?

 

You can get there by opening Control Panel and searching Administrative Tools, then in Administrative Tools opening Computer Management. In the window that appears there will be a section under Storage called Disk Management. Full screen the window and take a screenshot for us.

 

Probably going to format a 16gb USB drive I got today to boot windows, then format my C: sometime tomorrow night, unless this photo tells you something else. Also this is an HP Envy TS 15 Notebook PC, if that helps anybody at all.

[Tennessee 59]

I am not super with pcs anymore but wouldn't you just need to set a new volume to that 800 gigs of unallocated space or allocate more to c: assuming its next to it on hd?

[HCMikey 248]

 

Probably going to format a 16gb USB drive I got today to boot windows, then format my C: sometime tomorrow night, unless this photo tells you something else. Also this is an HP Envy TS 15 Notebook PC, if that helps anybody at all.

 

One of my latops is an HP laptop as well. Like I said previously, you don't need to format anything to reboot and reinstall windows with your laptop (plus it won't even let you install windows 8 from your recovery media since your usb drive size is small, you'll need at least 32 gigabytes for your HP laptop to let you install the recovery media on your hard drive and to boot from it as well)

 

Reference: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c03489643&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en

 

1. Try this. Using the windowslogo+s shortcut key, search for "HP recovery manager". Try to find the one that says "restore system to factory settings". I believe it is "windows recovery environment". Hopefully you've backed up your shit already.
2. Click on windows recovery environment and follow the instructions. If you get a blue screen error that says "Winload efi cannot be accessed or found or be booted from" don't stress out, nothing has been changed yet. If this does happen, turn off your computer by holding the power button. Turn your computer back on and immediately press F11 to go into your system recovery menu.
3. It will ask for a language. Pick US.
4. It'll ask if you want to boot from a device or troubleshoot. Pick troubleshoot.
5. Next screen it will ask you the recovery options. Pick the one that says HP minimized recovery or something to that effect. The description for it is "restore the factory image". and everything should load up and boot fine, it'll takes hours though and shit will reset like crazy.

 

All of the above is if you decide to start fresh. However, for the unallocated drive space. That's relatively much simpler than reinstalling windows.  You can try a program like AOMEI partition assistant at http://www.disk-partition.com/free-partition-manager.html and merge the partitions. It's simpler than you think. Follow these steps http://www.disk-partition.com/resource/add-unallocated-space-to-system-partition-windows7.html and you should be good to go (Don't mind that it says windows 7, it's basically the same thing for windows 8, almost nothing changes)

[Mimic 3307]

 

Probably going to format a 16gb USB drive I got today to boot windows, then format my C: sometime tomorrow night, unless this photo tells you something else. Also this is an HP Envy TS 15 Notebook PC, if that helps anybody at all.

 

Right click on the Unallocated portion and click Merge. Merge it into "Windows (C:)"... Also disable automatic backups in Windows.

[AntyCrix 591]

Right click on the Unallocated portion and click Merge. Merge it into "Windows (C:)"...

 

I don't think you can merge toward the left with vanilla windows programs, have to use a third party program

[B-cock #1 641]

Yeah, if it's the base Windows system I'm fairly certain it wants you to format (which you obviously don't want to do).

[centran 4457]

Try to right click and extend the C partition. However that will only work if the disk is a certain type of disk. If not then....

 

Use that 16GB USB and but Hirens BootCD on it. Boot to the Linux emergency one and run the partition program on the desktop when it loads up. Extend the C: partition 

[Arrkham 291]

One of my latops is an HP laptop as well. Like I said previously, you don't need to format anything to reboot and reinstall windows with your laptop (plus it won't even let you install windows 8 from your recovery media since your usb drive size is small, you'll need at least 32 gigabytes for your HP laptop to let you install the recovery media on your hard drive and to boot from it as well)

 

Reference: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c03489643&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en

 

1. Try this. Using the windowslogo+s shortcut key, search for "HP recovery manager". Try to find the one that says "restore system to factory settings". I believe it is "windows recovery environment". Hopefully you've backed up your shit already.
2. Click on windows recovery environment and follow the instructions. If you get a blue screen error that says "Winload efi cannot be accessed or found or be booted from" don't stress out, nothing has been changed yet. If this does happen, turn off your computer by holding the power button. Turn your computer back on and immediately press F11 to go into your system recovery menu.
3. It will ask for a language. Pick US.
4. It'll ask if you want to boot from a device or troubleshoot. Pick troubleshoot.
5. Next screen it will ask you the recovery options. Pick the one that says HP minimized recovery or something to that effect. The description for it is "restore the factory image". and everything should load up and boot fine, it'll takes hours though and shit will reset like crazy.

 

All of the above is if you decide to start fresh. However, for the unallocated drive space. That's relatively much simpler than reinstalling windows.  You can try a program like AOMEI partition assistant at http://www.disk-partition.com/free-partition-manager.html and merge the partitions. It's simpler than you think. Follow these steps http://www.disk-partition.com/resource/add-unallocated-space-to-system-partition-windows7.html and you should be good to go (Don't mind that it says windows 7, it's basically the same thing for windows 8, almost nothing changes)

You mother fucking genius. I fixed the unallocated drive space now. My hard drive has space now thanks so much!

[HCMikey 248]

You mother fucking genius. I fixed the unallocated drive space now. My hard drive has space now thanks so much!

 

Glad I could help you fix your problem. Once last thing you should do is check if your hard drive has any problems after the partition merge. Right click your C: hard drive, go to properties, click the tools tab, and you should see error checking there.

[Arrkham 291]

Glad I could help you fix your problem. Once last thing you should do is check if your hard drive has any problems after the partition merge. Right click your C: hard drive, go to properties, click the tools tab, and you should see error checking there.

No errors. The only issue I have is finding my windows key. I downloaded the thing you said to, and it said it doesn't work with windows 8.