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.
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.