Windows 7 Upgrade from Vista to 7. I lost 300GB of hard drive

[Saltgrass]

I thought most OEMs put their recovery partitions on unlettered, hidden partitions. It is easy to get partitions mixed up, and I can certainly testify to that. Believing there should be more room, would certainly add to the confusion.

But so far, nothing has explained why a 640 GB drive has turned into a 320 GB drive. It is like one platter is missing, so I have to assume something is causing the drive to be misidentified. I suppose certain types of drive failures could be responsible..

And one more note, Windows 8 is setting up a recovery partition on its installs...

What we need, is to reach some solution. What options are available knowing a Upgrade version of Windows 7 is being used?

I know what I would do. If Vista was still on the drive at all, and it may still be in the C: partition, I would do a Custom Install and remake the partitions prior to the install. Giving Windows 7 around 120 GB would be more than enough for it and you could re-image the install to a larger drive if you wanted.

If not that, possibly call Dell and get recovery media from them. Reinstall Vista, just because of the Upgrade requirement. If the drive still showed a problem, I would get a new drive and start from scratch.

So, whatever you decide, let us know if we can help.

 

[whs]

And one more note, Windows 8 is setting up a recovery partition on its installs...

Not on my systems.

 

[jallen2000]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I tried to reset BIOS, for some reason I can not save and exit, just exit. Not sure how to make that work for me beyond that. I tried the F11 but it takes me to a screen similar to F8, which means my only options are to restore to last known good configuration which unfortunately is when I installed the upgrade.
I probably should have re imaged my drive prior to the upgrade but I did not anticipate this kind of disaster...honestly the plan was to get everything installed and then do an image so I would have a clean set up that contained my software. I did not really want or care about anything that was currently on the laptop.
I have contacted Dell but they are relatively useless, they only suggest doing factory reset which I mentioned on numerous occasions that I can not access. The only thing I have pertaining to Vista is my code. Perhaps I can find someone and borrow a copy to reinstall and use my code. At this point I'm willing to do anything.

 

[whs]

I don't believe that. You can always save the BIOS settings - it is often via F10. Try again. Else flash the BIOS with the latest version from your manufacturers website.

 

[Drew]

You try hitting Delete??