Calling all geeks, HELP!

[fpb]

The hard drive on my current computer is artificially divided in two virtual disks, "C:" and "E:". Is it possible to move or change the partition so that C: gains a couple of Gigabytes and E: loses them?

Comments

[dirigibletrance.livejournal.com]

I think what you could do is transfer the data on one of the partitions to somewhere else temporarily. Then, erase the partition (you don't necessarily need to reformat to do this, it just merges the partition with the other one, I think, but you lose all data in the partition in the process) and create a new partition of the size you want using the free space on the drive.

Or, at least, I think this is possible. I haven't actually tried it.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Thank you, what commands should I use to erase the partition? Disk E: is empty at present, anyway. And I have plenty of external storage for the data on disk C:.

[filialucis]

Hang on -- drive E is empty, and your operating system AND all your data are on drive C? If that's the case, can't you simply move your data files to drive E? That would free up space on C and you wouldn't have to go to the trouble of erasing partitions and reinstalling the OS and all your applications.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I do not know that this would save me a lot of work. For one thing, all the software addresses within the system begin with C:\program files\, so I would have a lot of discombombulated responses any time I tried to start a program. I might have to rename the two disks, and I'm not sure how.

[filialucis]

Um, by "data" I meant your personal files -- the stuff you write in Word, the pix from your digital camera, etc. etc. All the things that fetch up in "My Documents" by default. I do this as a matter of course; I have a 50GB drive C for nothing but XP and installed programs, and a 200GB partition for all my data. Which I ALSO back up to an external hard disk at regular intervals, plus a USB stick for quickly making a backup every evening of just the day's work.

[filialucis]

It would, of course, be quite easy to install programs on that partition as well if space was at a premium on the C partition. Perhaps that's something you might go for rather than trashing your partitions and starting from scratch -- locate the items in C:\Program Files that are taking up the most space, uninstall them there, create another program directory on E, and reinstall the stuff over there. I did that on my old Win2K machine when space became tight on the system partition, and it worked perfectly.

May I ask why, in fact, you're trying to free up space on C? Is it because XP is complaining about not having enough free space?

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I am having serious trouble with Windows updates, especially Service Pack II, for which I evidently do not have enough space. And I tried to transfer some software to E:, but the system would not let me.

[filialucis]

Eww. I hate it when the OS gets too crowded on its partition.

How did you try to transfer the software? I should have thought that a clean reinstall would let one specify an installation directory pretty much anywhere on the system. Unless XP is different from Win2k in that respect!

[fpb.livejournal.com]

A reinstall seems the only option, but I have inherited most of the software on C:\ - same problem as Windows Xp: no disk or installation software. But all the same, this looks like the way to go.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Just talking the matter over suggests possible new ways.

[filialucis]

Do you clean out your Temp directory regularly? That alone can hog a bit of disk space over time. (c:\Documents and Settings\Your_User_Name\Local Settings\Temp\)

Also, you might try checking for the uninstall files left by previous OS updates -- assuming you aren't planning to uninstall the updates of course. Those are in c:\Windows and look like $NtUninstall????????$.

My friend claidheamhmor just confirmed for me that you can delete any subdir in c:\Windows that starts and ends with a "$" sign; he says he does it regularly and has no problems. That should clear out a bit of space for you. You may need to turn on the display of hidden and system files, though, to be able to see them at all; Windows hides the things by default.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, another nuisance - the disk clean-up utility does not work. (Yeah, this computer is pretty crappy. I paid £120 for it, and I'm beginning to think I was overcharged.)

[filialucis]

Mmmm. Well, I second what redcoast said upthread about moving your personal files over to the other partition. If you have lots of MP3s and videos, that'll free up a lot of megabytes.

As for disk clean-up, you don't need a utility to get rid of the uninstall files for the service updates, you can just navigate to c:\windows in Explorer and do it manually. (Don't forget, also, to empty the Recycle Bin after you delete the stuff.) Also, to prevent the stuff in your temp dir from building up, you can use this thingy http://nodesoft.com/EraseTemp/ which can run at every startup and delete the leftovers from yesterday's session. I've been doing this recently and it's dead easy to set up, so I highly recommend it.

[headnoises.livejournal.com]

For stuff that links to the .exe files, you can manually re-write the link-- right click on the link, properties, change C to E. It *should* work.