Can I use E: drive for storage?

Question

For two weeks ago I got an really old HP Elitebook 8440p laptop running Windows 10. The C: (Windows) have only 32GB of space, the F: (Recovery) have 10GB of space and the E: (Save) have 191GB space. There is also G: but that is DVD-RW.
I don't know why E: have the name Save. Maybe the previous owner changed it... The intresting thing is that I need administartive rights to enter one of the files inside E:. Here is a list of this files: MSOCache, Program, Sightline Vision AB, SMRTNTKY and AUTORUN. Don't know what this files do but the important thing is that I only need administrative rights for MSOCache and I have them.
So my first question is, can I use E: for storage and how? I know about formating but I also heard that you can't format stock drives inside windows (I mean you can't do it with drivers that came built in). My second question is, how can I format a drive inside windows without a DVD disk because that DVD player (or whatewer that thing is called that slides out of the PC so you can put a DVD inside) is brocken. My third question is, what does E:? Did the previous user create it?

Answer 1

Yes you can

Answer 2

Right click on the start button (bottom left) and select 'Command Prompt (Admin)' then in the resulting window enter the command:



DISKMGMT.MSC



This will show you the physical drive(s) and how they are partitioned into logical drives such as C:. E: etc.



So my first question is, can I use E: for storage and how? With 191 GB of space, then it is probably available for you to use as you wish. You can rename the drive from 'Save' to a more suitable name using File Explorer. F: should not be touched as it is normally there for repairing problems in Windows.



I know about formating but I also heard that you can't format stock drives inside windows (I mean you can't do it with drivers that came built in). Although Windows should not allow you to format C: where Windows is stored you can format the other drives either from DISKMGMT.MSC or File Explorer.



My second question is, how can I format a drive inside windows without a DVD disk because that DVD player (or whatewer that thing is called that slides out of the PC so you can put a DVD inside) is brocken. See my comment in the paragraph above.



My third question is, what does E:? Did the previous user create it? What may have happened is that C: was originally larger and the previous owner reduced its size using DISKMGMT.MSC and then created a new partition. In the disk management program you can change letters for the logical drives. I haven't tried it for C: as I am not sure what would happen, and changing the letters for other drives may cause existing programs to fail if they expect a file or folder to be on a particular drive and you have renamed it.



Regarding the various files already in E:, I would be tempted to delete them making sure they go to the recycle bin, and then see if anything stops working. If deleting them causes problems then restore them from the bin, otherwise delete them from the bin as well.



In C: if you go to your user folder and then right click on folders such as Documents, Music, Pictures or Videos and select properties on the menu, you should see a location tab. Select the tab and see where the folder is currently located - default on C:. You can select to move the folder to a different drive such as E: and if you want, into a folder on that drive. You will be given the option to let Windows move the files. If you say yes (or whatever the option choice is), then Windows will move the folder and its contents to the new location. This will free space on C:, and will also provide a redirection of any settings in existing applications so that they now use the new location.



I hope this helps.

Answer 3

Yes you can unless it is nothing but it is listed like the D:/ with nothing in it.

Answer 4

You can install software and store data on the E:/ drive, yes.



It might just be a different hard drive.