Questions about multiple drives, types and possible instability

[PCfreezeguy]

Hello!

I have been experiencing random freezes with my PC, mostly while playing games (which are stored on my D: drive, and HDD). My primary boot drive is an SSD. Due to some strange issues I had after first installing Windows 10, I had to clean install it on the SSD, however a random "system reserved" partition was left on my HDD. I believe the OS got confused and put some system on the HDD even though that wasn't my intention.

After clean installing the OS (and making sure to unplug HDD), I deleted the SR partition on the HDD and am left with unallocated space before the primary partition.

http://imgur.com/a/R1t2E

Here is a screencap of my disk management, can someone more knowledgeable than me take a look and see if there is anything funny going on that may cause instability? I cannot extend the primary partition volume on the HDD without converting it from a basic to a dynamic disk, I'm not sure what this means or if it will mean data loss.

As well, the SSD is formatted in GPT and the HDD is formatted in MBR - is this a problem? I have had these instability issues since building my rig almost 8 months ago and have been troubleshooting since (sigh).

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

 

[CountMike]

Just merge that unallocated partition with other one.

 

[ArtPog]

Other than the existing unallocated disk-space on your 1 TB secondary HDD, it's hard to determine just what problem(s) you're having. You mention "instability" but provide no details involving an unstable system. So what precisely are the problems you're experiencing?

1. If you disconnect the 1 TB secondary HDD from the system and boot ONLY with the 240 GB SSD boot drive connected, does the system boot without incident and function without problems?

If not, describe...

2. Insofar as the unallocated disk-space on your secondary HDD...since it's only about 1/2 of a GB in disk-space, could you not just live with it in view that the remainder of the 1 TB currently has 500+ GB of disk-space available for add'l programs/data?

If that unallocated disk-space really bothers you...a third-party partition management program could merge that disk-space with the D: partition. But I believe (although I'm not totally certain) that you would need a commercial version of the pm program since the freely-available programs would not possess that capability. But there may be some "freebies" on the net that will do the job.

3. There shouldn't be any problems arising from the fact that each disk bears a different partitioning scheme.

 

[CountMike]

Practically any partition manager, even free one can do that: http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/active_partition_manager.html if partition is not used by windows you can do it right there from Disk management.

 

[ArtPog]

Practically any partition manager, even free one can do that: http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/active_partition_manager.html if partition is not used by windows you can do it right there from Disk management.

Good to know. Have you personally used this program and recommend it based on your experience? Thanks.

 

[CountMike]

Yes, using it all the time, when you install it, it would be called "PartMan", just so you don't get confused by it's name. There's also http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/easeus_partition_master_home_edition.html that's free although I use profi version for remote jobs. Also http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/gparted_live.html to mount on USB and do disk work when OS is not working.

 

[PCfreezeguy]

Just merge that unallocated partition with other one.

This prompts me to convert the HDD from a basic disk into a dynamic disk (windows 10 prompts me when I try to extend the volune and cannot extend without converting). I still don't fully understand the difference and don't want to contribute to further system instability if that is possible

 

[PCfreezeguy]

Other than the existing unallocated disk-space on your 1 TB secondary HDD, it's hard to determine just what problem(s) you're having. You mention "instability" but provide no details involving an unstable system. So what precisely are the problems you're experiencing?

1. If you disconnect the 1 TB secondary HDD from the system and boot ONLY with the 240 GB SSD boot drive connected, does the system boot without incident and function without problems?

If not, describe...

2. Insofar as the unallocated disk-space on your secondary HDD...since it's only about 1/2 of a GB in disk-space, could you not just live with it in view that the remainder of the 1 TB currently has 500+ GB of disk-space available for add'l programs/data?

If that unallocated disk-space really bothers you...a third-party partition management program could merge that disk-space with the D: partition. But I believe (although I'm not totally certain) that you would need a commercial version of the pm program since the freely-available programs would not possess that capability. But there may be some "freebies" on the net that will do the job.

3. There shouldn't be any problems arising from the fact that each disk bears a different partitioning scheme.

Hi, thanks for your response.

As for part 1: The OS now boots fine without the 1TB HDD plugged in (this was not the case before which is why I needed the clean install). The instability I am experiencing is intermittent system freezing (complete lock-up), usually while playing games. I have clean installed new graphics drivers and even RMA'd my GPU in the past because I was almost certain it was the card - it was not. I am doubting it is hardware since all components are new, unless it is the HDD. The games are all stored on the HDD so I thought it might be some kind of problem with the drive. I've scanned the drive using windows' tool and found no errors. I was wondering if having the 501mb unallocated space in the first section was a problem but it seems like it is not (I can live with it).

 

[ArtPog]

If you want to live with that modest amount of unallocated disk-space, well & good.
But if it does bother you by & by, you might want to try the freely-available partition management program that CountMike recommended above.