Fujitsu U772 Notebook Drive Partitioning Issues

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amodoko

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Hi guys, decided to try out a new laptop. I just got this. It came to me with tons of bloatware and everything, was running weird (basically not allowed to go to any websites due to certificate issues) possibly because a business was using this. Decided to format it to Windows 7, but there is no optical drive so I tried to download Windows 7 legally through Microsoft through a usb flash drive using the COA on the Fujitsu. Microsoft said that the COA couldn't be used because "the product key you entered appears to be for software pre-installed by the device manufacturer. Please contact the device manufacturer for software recovery options." I then sent an email to Fujitsu. Then I got a bit impatient, and decided to just upgrade it to Windows 10 Pro for free. At first I was not allowed to because, oddly, the date and time clock were off by a few years on the laptop. Fixed the date/time and then downloaded Windows 10 and installed it.

Then started up disk management. See there are two disk drives. One that is 298GB (320 GB actual I believe) broken up into two 140GB drives plus one 16 GB Recovery partition. The other drive is a 29.82 SSD (32 GB actual I believe) broken up into 22GB normal partition and 8GB hibernation partition. I wanted to set up the drives in a way I like better. So I deleted one of the empty 140GB drives so that I could extend it into the other 140 GB... Great, that worked so now I have one 281.89 GB drive. I'm fine with the 16 GB recovery drive still being there, but I want it to show normally under the normal file explorer, it is hidden and not visible there and only visible in disk management. I can't right click it in Disk management to access options to get it to show in file explorer. How do I get this one 16GB recovery partition to no longer be hidden in my computer/file explorer?

Now the second part, the 32 GB SSD was also not showing up at all under my computer (file explorer). It was broken up into the 8gb hibernation partition and the 22gb normal partition in disk management. I then deleted and formatted the 22gb partition and assign it drive E... Great now it shows up in file explorer normally as a 22gb partition. But I want to actually merge the 8gb with the 22gb, so I decide I need to delete the 22gb to merge it to the 8gb. I then delete the 22gb one, right click on the 8gb hibernation partition right next to the 22gb partition... it won't give me any options besides "help" when I right click it. So how do I merge the 8GB hibernation partition with the 22gb normal partition? Or is this not possible or recommended? As I'm typing this, I realize I probably shouldn't do that because that may slow up start up when the laptop goes into standby or hibernation.

Anyways, sorry for this long story. You can see the attached photo to see how the drives are now setup after my changes. Just never done this ever and am trying to figure out a few things. Thanks in advance for any tips/tricks/advice.

P.S. I'm still working on the 8440p that was overheating, when I get it fixed I will update that thread to let you guys know how it turned out.
 

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Leave the recovery partition alone. It's hidden for a reason.

As for the SSD drive, download and install minitool partition wizard and get rid of all partitions that way and repartition. The SSD should have your OS on it though, not the HDD. However, 32gb is really small for the OS drive and you'll run out of room quickly on it. Would suggest getting a 250gb SSD.
 
Thanks johhb35! Before I saw your post I ended up messing around with the notebook more. I did decide to leave the recovery partition hidden as you suggested. I also played around with it a little and reinstalled Windows 7 Pro on it using the recovery partition (weird that the COA is basically not usable to me, and that I can only reinstall Windows 7 Pro through the recovery partition). But it came with so much bloatware and weird settings set by Fujitsu I ended up just upgrading it again to Windows 10 Pro.

I will definitely try out the minitool partition wizard then. Thanks for that!

As for the SSD being the place where the OS should be installed, I thought I would have preferred that too. You mentioned the 32GB size being too small for an OS. So should I not attempt to get the OS onto the 32GB SSD? I guess the other benefit of keeping the OS on the bigger standard hard drive is that if I have programs I want to install, I can install them to the 32GB SSD and at least those programs will run faster.

Also, do you know the reason that the 32GB SSD has a 8GB partition set aside for hibernation? Is it just so the laptop boots faster from hibernation?
 
amodoko said:
Thanks johhb35! Before I saw your post I ended up messing around with the notebook more. I did decide to leave the recovery partition hidden as you suggested. I also played around with it a little and reinstalled Windows 7 Pro on it using the recovery partition (weird that the COA is basically not usable to me, and that I can only reinstall Windows 7 Pro through the recovery partition). But it came with so much bloatware and weird settings set by Fujitsu I ended up just upgrading it again to Windows 10 Pro.

I will definitely try out the minitool partition wizard then. Thanks for that!

As for the SSD being the place where the OS should be installed, I thought I would have preferred that too. You mentioned the 32GB size being too small for an OS. So should I not attempt to get the OS onto the 32GB SSD? I guess the other benefit of keeping the OS on the bigger standard hard drive is that if I have programs I want to install, I can install them to the 32GB SSD and at least those programs will run faster.

Also, do you know the reason that the 32GB SSD has a 8GB partition set aside for hibernation? Is it just so the laptop boots faster from hibernation?
Click to expand...


Right. Time for a bit of computer science.

RAM... Random Access Memory is volatile. This means that it must have a constant power flow to it for it to remember anything. Think of it like a light bulb: as soon as you turn the power source off, it fails to work. RAM is a form of Primary Storage.

This is why things such as ROM, that is, Read Only Memory; and then later on, things such as Compact Disks, Floppy Disk Drives, Flash Memory, Hard Disk Drives and Solid State Drives (ALL NON VOLATILE!), all came about. You needed a way to store information, even when the computer was not running. Hard drives work by having an arm that induces a small current to leave a magnetic flux pattern on the platter. Basically, it scribbles the data onto the disk inside. This magnetic pattern does not need a constant electric current to keep it there, it just lingers for a very very long time. Solid state drives work a bit differently, they have no moving parts, but it is the same principle. They store data even when there is no power. These are all types of Secondary Storage.

Now, hard disk drives and SSDs are very slow in comparison to RAM. This is why most computer systems use something similar to what is known as the Von Neumann Architecture. Basically, when you run a program, all of it's data and instructions gets copied from the secondary storage, to the RAM. This means that once copied, we don't have to keep asking the HDD for the next instruction, as our programs would be thousands of times slower than what they are now.

All of the programs your computer or phone or whatever... (TV?) is currently running, including the Kernel: the bit that handles talking to all the components of the system on a really basic level so that normal programs can have a semi-standard platform to run on; and the operating system services themselves. This is about 1GB on a slimmed down install of Windows 7. Generally this will be 2-3GB however, depending on what is running.

When you hibernate, you want to be able to turn the power off, but next time you run the computer, resume what you were doing... since memory is volatile, we have an issue.

That is why we have a hibernation file. It is a bit of your hard drive which is saved for when you need to hibernate. We write the entire contents of the memory to the hard drive before we turn off, and read it back into RAM next time we start. It is always that fixed size as it ensures that there will be the space no matter what... it does this by preventing any other file being saved in its area of secondary storage.

Since it has to store the memory, it has to be at least the size of the memory to get everything to fit, hence why yours is 8GB, as I gather you must have about 8GB of RAM in your system. If not, it might be to do with how Windows deals with the page file during hibernation. I dunno...

TL;DR... RAM forgets everything when you power off, so you write everything in RAM to the hibernation file before hibernating (that is what it is doing when the screen fades to black and it still runs for a few seconds). You then read it all back when you next start. That way, you can keep all your programs running even if you want to power off half way through.

Windows 10 uses Hybrid shutdown mostly now, which is a form of hibernation iirc, so this file is used every time you shut down. This is why the uptime in task manager is so long some times.
 
Thanks for the explanation, I knew some of the very basic stuff regarding memory (not to the extent to which you described, but just the basics) but didn't know that the 8GB of hard disk space had to be set aside specifically. I always assumed that when a computer went into hibernation that the RAM was still receiving power, and that was why my stuff was saved. So now I know it is the hard drive that is just being written to, thanks for that. My laptop has 4GB of RAM, so maybe the 8GB of SSD set aside is like you said something to do with Windows (or maybe the laptop came with 8GB and someone removed 4GB too, not sure). But anyways, thanks for the explanation. I will leave everything just where it is then. Thanks!
 
amodoko said:
Thanks for the explanation, I knew some of the very basic stuff regarding memory (not to the extent to which you described, but just the basics) but didn't know that the 8GB of hard disk space had to be set aside specifically. I always assumed that when a computer went into hibernation that the RAM was still receiving power, and that was why my stuff was saved. So now I know it is the hard drive that is just being written to, thanks for that. My laptop has 4GB of RAM, so maybe the 8GB of SSD set aside is like you said something to do with Windows (or maybe the laptop came with 8GB and someone removed 4GB too, not sure). But anyways, thanks for the explanation. I will leave everything just where it is then. Thanks!
Click to expand...

If the RAM was still recieving power, you would be on standby :)

It might be to do with the page file, but Windows manages it anyway so it is best to leave it.
 
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