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lakhi

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Unable to repartition hard drive - Windows 8.1

I had to take my laptop back to the factory defaults twice (long story...)
I originally wanted to create a partition for data only separate from my applications
That worked. I assigned a drive letter and seemed to be good to go
I did that successfully but then I noticed an extra partition that I couldn't access and thought I had made some kind of error so I used my restore disk to take the computer back to factory defaults again.
Now, I have the C: drive but it also shows the 450 MB partition I created, 2 D: (RECOVERY) drives, an EFI System Partition drive (don't even know what that is) and a 400 MB Healthy (Recovery Partition)
To make things more complicated, I can't do anything in Disk Management. I am signed with an Administrator account but there are no options to expand or shrink a partition, assign a drive letter or anything else.
I just want to keep the C: drive absorbing the partitions I don't need), one D: Recovery drive and the 450 MB I originally created.
I'm attaching a screen shot and would appreciate any help
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Seth Simmons
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lakhi

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Here is the screen shot. Sorry - I thought I posted it before
Disk-Mgmt.GIF
you obviously can't expand since there is no free space after C
the layout, though, is nearly identical to my home system
what exactly are you trying to accomplish?
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Are you able to shrink the "C:\" Partition? If so, just do the shrink, and after that you will be able to create your new data partition in the space you freed up.
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ASKER

No I cannot shrink the C:\ partition. I cannot take any actions on the Disk Management screen except  when I right click on the C: partition I get "Shrink Volume" or "Change Drive Letter and Paths."
If I right click any of the other partitions, all I get is "Help"
I understand that I need one recovery partition but I don't understand why D:\ is listed twice
You seem to contradict your comments. You say when you right click C:, you get Shrink volume. So what happens when you shrink the volume?
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ASKER

I don't want to shrink the volume. I submitted that information to indicate the only choices available to me.
you should understand that your whole disk is in use, so, in order to make a new Partition on it, you MUST  free some space first - and the ONLY place you have for doing that is the C: partition
the new partition can then be created in the free space
But WHY do you need another partition?
there's no real need imo
Then what is it you actually want to do, if you don't want to shrink C:\?
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Wht is your goal your want to achieve in partitioning this drive?
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Thank you for your help
You have explained my issue