lost hard drive space

hi all
i have my acer travelmate 4000 now for nearly 3 yrs
during that time i recovered the system 3 times due to slow performance and the usual rubbish i seem to collect on my computeri originally bought it as i wanted a mobile computer i could take anywhere in the house. i don't use it for buisness only pleasure
anyway as my hard disk is partitioned i lost 3 gig of acer D and 3.2 gig of acer C
i have been told that the system recovery possibly installed outside of the discspace it should be and that explains my lost of disc space.
i was told to imagin boxes and it went outside of its designated box

my question is how do i get that disc space back especially now i'm so clogged up again i really need to start agin with a clear drive and get all those programs of i installed but don't really need

thanx for your help

"B"

 

Download a partiton manager and check for space.. right click on my computer and click manage.. Then Go to disck management.. Once there make sure there is no cd in the drive dso you dont get confused or any flash drive plugged in/memory stick.. then on the dick you an see your partition .. there may be hidden partition ect.. Once youve verified there are hidden partition you need to download a partiton manager because windows xp dosnt resize partitions.