Hi, Bazzer.

It might help us guess if you tell us the make and model of your computer.

But what you describe is fairly typical of new Vista computers. Using Disk
Management, you should be able to assign a letter and format that second
partition; it looks like you've already done it (Drive D:, NTFS). What you
describe is just what I would expect. It should now show the full 50+ GB
"Free Space". And it should show up in "Computer".

That "Healthy (EISA Configuration)" volume is the factory-installed backup
or recovery information that you will need if you ever want to restore the
computer to factory configuration. Don't touch this volume unless you are
ready to abandon the original installation and start clean.

I'm not sure why Drive D: is not showing up in Computer, unless you have
somehow hidden it. We used to hide drives with TweakUI; I'm not sure if
there are similar utilities available for Vista. Do you have any conflicts
with a CD\DVD or thumb drive or other device that may be trying to use the
letter D? I like to assign letters like V: or R: to DVD and removable
drives, reserving the first several letters of the alphabet for hard drive
volumes. And use DM to semi-permanently assign the letters, so that they
don't change each time I plug in or remove a thumb drive. The computer
doesn't care; only we humans might get confused.

Try this: In addition to the "drive" letters, we can also assign volume
names or labels. In Disk Management, right-click on that second partition
in the graphical view, then click Properties. In the unlabeled box at the
top of the General tab, type in a name for this volume. Don't call it
something like "D"; that will just invite confusion. Call it "Mystery" or
something else that you will instantly recognize. Then see if that name
shows up in Computer. (It's a good idea to assign names to all volumes;
these are written onto the disk and don't jump around as the drive letters
sometimes do.)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail beta in Vista Ultimate x64)

"Bazzer" wrote in message
...
Hi

The partition is 54.43 Gb and I had planned on using it for personal
documents, although none are on their yet due to problems with my old
laptop.
With the C: drive being used for programs.

The file system for both C: & D: are shown as NFTS. C: (55.89Gb) is shown
as " Healthy (System, Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Dump, Primary
Partition)". D: is shown as Healthy (Primary Partition)". A smaller 1.46Gb
partition also appears shown as "Healthy (EISA Configuration)" but this
doesn't have a volume allocated

I have just done a quick format to see if this makes any difference, but
nothing. The partition still doesn't appear in "Computer" and doesn't
appear
in the list of places to save if I want to save a document.



"Bazzer" wrote:

My laptop has Vista Home Premium and came with a 100GB HDD partitioned to
two
drives. The drives were to be reassigned new letters, but accidentally
only
one partition was assigned a letter. The other drives letter was cleared
but
a new letter not assigned. Now "Computer" only sees the drive to which
the
letter was assigned.

I cannot use restore as there have been a number of updates before this
was
discovered and a restore point prior to this event isn't available.

Any suggestions please?