Windows 7 disk 0 or partition

Just bought a new laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium.There's only disk 0 on it and only 3 partitions,one being C:. I want to get a D: partition.I've been told that since there no empty space,I should shrink the C: one to get some free space to create a new one so,right click on the C: partition and then shring volume get the box "shrink C:" but even though I can type the amount of of space to shrink,I never get to have the shrink button to come alive.Also,in the box "Size of available shrink space in MB" or the box"Total size after shrink in MB" I have 0 written there.
Any ideas how I could get a D: drive on a new partition or on a new disk?

 

First, what 3 partition do you have?

Second, what order are they in? Is 'C' the last partition? Right Click on Computer, click Manage, then select Disk Management to see the order of the partitions.

If 'C' is the last partition, then you may need to defrag the HD before it's able to shrink itself. Use defraggler, PerfectDisk or open a cmd window (click Start, type 'cmd' and hold down Ctrl and Shift buttons and press Enter) and type in 'defrag c: /x'.

If all the space is used on the HD, then you won't be able to shrink it at all.

Good luck.

 

Congrats with the new laptop. My advice; make recovery discs.

Install Win7 freshly.. during the install you can adjust the partitions!

 

I agree about making recovery discs first!

I also agree about installing Win 7 fresh, or clean - but remember that Windows Setup will only allow you to create 4 partitions maximum (including its own 100MB partition it boots from). To create more than 3 (of your own) partitions, simply use Windows Setup to create the first two you want, then once inside Win 7, use Disk Management to create as many additional (logical) partitions as you need.

Lesl, how have you made out so far?