Solved Having trouble figuring out Disk Management

Hello all..
I am having issues figuring out my disk management (Dell Laptop, Inspiron 3521, Win 8.1), when I open disk management I have all of these different drives and I can't seem to be able to partition one for back up. I'm posting a picture of what my disk management looks like and can someone tell me if this looks right? Also wondering what 'virtual disk management/monitoring' is. Does someone in my house have control over my laptop? I'm using a Homegroup and I keep deleting 'Remote assistance' via the firewall and when I re-open it, it's checked again. ...View attachment DiskManagement.docx


If anyone can help me I would so much appreciate it...

What is with all of the Recovery Partitions? Have you tried to install other OS's on the unit, or have failed installs of Windows 8?

I have no idea what is going on. The strange thing is, when I try to do a 'repair' or create a recovery disc, it says my partitions are corrupted. I used a clean install of win 8.1 from a USB drive, that I actually was able to create through these forums (thank goodness). I just am not a computer expert and I have no idea how to manage these discs, as for some reason I can't even download anything because it says 'your administrator has blocked you from using this program' or something like that, and I AM the administrator. I don't use a Windows log on account, just a local which was forced as administrator. I'm on a laptop, connected to a router, which is connected to my husbands desktop. When I opened router settings I see he has DHCP enabled, and a few things I'm not comfortable with. My computer says it's a 'Workplace', but I'm joined to a homegroup. I'm lost. Thanks, maybe you can help?

I took a copy of your screen shot and number the partitions and will try to explain to you referenced to those #.

Initially, when you bought the Laptop with Windows 8 installed, you probably only had: 1,2,3,4 and 8.
Each manufacturer configures the Windows software differently such as what Function key to use to re-install Windows back to the factory copy as if you just bought the Laptop and also bundle all kind of bloatware. Then came the Update from Windows 8 -> 8.1. The update process created extra partitions and tagged on at the end of your C drive and move things around in those partitions. It is hard to tell what they have done/moved within those partitions unless you look what contained in them, read the XML's configuration files, BCD etc... However, you can open disk management and assign a letter for each partition and make them visible through Windows Explorer but some of the contents in those partitions are inaccessible due to permissions restriction. In this case, download: TreeSize Portable Free. Using this program, you'll be able to see the contents and read some settings to what go to where but you won't be able to modify/delete. Normally you'd modify thru the Admin Command Prompt with: reagentc, bcdedit etc... provided you know what you are doing.

I can't seem to be able to partition one for back up

Click to expand...

Since most hidden partitions are only several hundred's MB each except #8 which uses 11.68 GB for the original factory Windows 8 image and if you have the need for future, you can backup to an external HD and make use of 11.68 GB.

The biggie is your C drive which has 451.GB and depend on how much space you have left, you can shrink the C drive and make a new partition to store your data. However, you have to move this newly create partition to the end so that everything will be in the same order as shown in 1->8 otherwise you'll mess up the configuration set in the BCD (Boot Data Configuration).

what 'virtual disk management/monitoring' is

Click to expand...

Will allow you to take a portion of your HD and create a VHD and Windows will treat it as if it is just another hard disk.

'Remote assistance'

Click to expand...

To turn off remote assistance:

1. Win+X->System->Advanced System Settings->Remote and follow the step in the screen shot
   

Hope this helps.

Looking into it now

Thanks so much for this. That really explains a lot as well as gives me some steps, step by step, to do some working on it. I appreciate your time and effort spent helping me with this. Awesome!

Okay,
Thanks again for all of this info...NOW, I'm doing another clean install. I have the USB ready. My computer as of this moment is connected directly into our router via ethernet just so I would have the internet. BUT, there are some serious registry errors now, in which I'm unable to 'check disk', 'list disk' via cmd prompt. I have someone within the house who, for what ever reason is beyond me knowing or understanding, but think they have to be able to connect to my laptop (and they WERE doing this from work, via iPhone and their desktop, until I installed a new malware program, tweaked some things and was able to stop it. BUT, that didn't stop it. Rather they got a 'PC game in the mail Saturday, which was strange because it came in a big box, in which contained a box that said flight simulator, and then within that was a 'wrapped' "pc game" in it's box that was some simulator game. I knew it wasn't. When they began installing it I was on mine and I could see the background processes and what was happening. Minute by minute I was getting jacked. I disconnected wi-fi, took my battery out, and somehow he still was able to keep going. THEN, I saw him downloading 'GeoFence', or something like that. He said it was for his video card or the game, but then that evening I noticed my iPhone had changed. And I found an email from Micro Trend or something asking if I was happy with my trial) ...SO back to this issue, I'm getting ready to do a clean install AGAIN. Which now I don't even think it will matter since all our computers/phone are pretty much under the surveillence of some FBI type rubbish. Anyway, thanks and let me know if you have any suggestions.