Windows 7 Hard Drive Space Disappeared

[fsufan]

I just got a new (used) laptop. Most times I dont buy used, but too good of a deal to pass. Hp DV7-4263cl. 2 gig triple core, 650 gig sata, 8 gig ddr3, 17.3 HD screen, etc. I'm only in it for $200, so I couldn't pass on it. It has windows 7 home on it and I wanted to wipe it, and go to windows 7 professional. Put my LEGIT OEM professional disk in it, hit custom, and the hard drive page came up. Before, it showed a 20 gig partition for recovery, and the rest was for the C drive. I was doing something else, hit next and windows 7 professional installed. But -- now I have a 78 gig partition, a 2 gig HP tools partition, AND NOTHING ELSE !! What happened to the rest of the space, and how do I get it back ?? PLEASE HELP SOMEBODY !!! If I run DBAN on the hard drive, will that fix the problem ?? Need help BADLY !!!

 

[davidhk129]

Have you removed the Windows.old. It will give you back huge amount of disk space in terms of GB.

Windows.OLD folder is often created during an upgrade of Microsoft's operating system from one version to another. It contains files from your previous installation of Windows, which were either not required or can't be used with the new version. You don't need to keep these unless something has gone wrong with the upgrade and you need to roll back to your previous version.

How to remove windows.old ?
Some will suggest uding the built-in Disk Cleanup program.
I prefer using Ccleaner which is simple to use and in many cases, faster.
CCleaner install link.........use the Free version. You can buy it later if you really like it so much.
https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

How to remove windows.old using Ccleaner ?
Open Ccleaner, left side, Windows tab > scroll down to Advanced section > check the box " Old Windows Installation " > click Analyze.

When it's done it will show you how many disk space it will remove ( which means you will regain that much disk space ) > click Run Cleaner.