Vista broke my primary Partition! Need assistance!

Hello guys,

I'm a new owner of an AS 5920G, was extremely happy until now.

At the moment I got the computer, I didn't had DVDs at my disposal so I couldn't do the Backup DVDs.
I found out my 160gb disk was partitioned and since I hate partitions (I prefer a more dynamical way of organizing my pc) I merge both "C:" and "D:" perfectly using the standard Windows' Disk Management utility.

Now, I find out that I *must* have the "D:" partition in order to create the backup DVDs, so I went back to the Disk Management utility and "Shrinked" "C:" in order to obtain unallocated space to re-create "D:".

Thing is... My partition space disappeared.

I'm really afraid since I'm new to notebooks, I've been using PCs for quite some years now, but I don't know if it would be advisable to use a third-party Management utility like Partition Manager to work on the partitions.

What do you guys recommend?

I also read that the second hidden partition of 3.24gb is from Acer Arcade. Since I removed Acer Arcade, I believe I don't need that partition and can take advantage of the space and merge it to my "C:", am I correct?

Thanks a lot in advance and excuse my newbie-ness!!!

 

After a certain point in customization and bloatware removal it no longer made sense to me to even consider using the restore partition. So, I removed it and gave the space to my primary partition.

I do backup my notebook regularly (with ATI) so that it can be restored, to the existing hard drive or to a different hard drive.

I'm more interested in preserving and recovering what I have than in what I had shipped to me.

 

I agree, however if you have any trouble with the hardware and have to deal with customer service chances are the very first thing they are going to do is have you restore the machine back to the "out of the box" state. Not that I agree with them doing that, but it is the unfortunate reality of "customer dis-service". Therefore, I ALWAYS recomend folks leave those hidden partitions alone, at least as long as the system is still under warranty. The extra 3-7 gig of storage s just not worth the headache. Now if someone hase DVD's that will allow them to restore to the out of the box state, (like the ones Sony has you create) then it's a safe bet to blow away the hidden partition.

Gary

 

I see absolutely no reason to title your thread:

...It's pretty apparent you hosed it.
To address your other issues:
1) do you really expect me to believe you would dump $1600 on a laptop and not spend a couple of bucks on some blank DVDs?
2) What the heck is a 'dynamical way'??
3) Obviously, the merge was less than 'perfect' or you wouldn't have an issue.
4) Nothing 'disappeared', you deliberately deleted it.
5) Partition Magic would be a total waste of money in your case, because there is no partition for it to work on...

IIWY, and thankfully I'm not, I'd bite the bullet and buy the restore disks from Acer. Then I'd restore the laptop, using said disks. Then I'd leave well enough alone until I better understood the consequences of my actions....