Windows 7 - Can I change partition sizes that came factory installed?

[TubeTote]

Hi all,

Just got my new Asus 1201N the other day, and it's my first comp with Windows 7. I fired it up and noticed in the computer folder that there are 3 partitions on the 320GB HHD. One is labeled local disk as I would expect, and it is alloted 100GB. The second 'D' partition is 132GB and is labeled 'new volume'. The third partition is 65.2GB and also labeled 'new volume'.

I'm confused about this. Why 2 additional partitions? I'm certain that one of the partitions is intended to be a recovery partition, but not sure which one. And why a 3rd partition? I guess this irritates me because I like a clean and simple setup that makes sense...and this does not to me.

I'm wondering if anyone has installed Windows 7 from the recovery CD, and if the install gives you options about partitions...or if Windows 7 is doing this for some specific reason.

Thank you in advance for your replies.

 

[MrColin]

That's not a windows 7 thing. I would RTM from ASUS to see if they have some clever suggested use for that. If not, I would put linux on it using all of the free space created from deleting the two empty partitions. Make sure they are in fact empty. Does one of them have a restore image? I would keep that for sure.