Drive Full

[The Real Pink Baron]

Sorry this may be a stupid question.
My C drive is almost full, and the D drive almost empty.
Does it spill over when C is full, or do I have to transfer filles, if so how do I do it?
Thanks to anyone with the patience to reply,
Pinks.

[Parapunter]

Only if the plumbing is right:} No. Copy & paste or cut & paste files from one to the other. As a quick rule of thumb for me, I keep my drives no more than two thirds full - that is the drive that contains the operating system, to give it a bit of room for manouevre, so I'd whip some files across if it were mine, or get deleting as necessary.

[twiggs]

One option is using partitioning software to make your C partition larger or even to take up the entire disk, eliminating D altogether.
There is some good free partitioning software.
One that I have used many times succesfully is GParted
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

[Wader2]

twiggs solution would work if you have one hard drive with two partitions. If you have 2 hard drives then it won't work.

No one has asked the question though, why is your C-drive full.

One reason is programs install by default to the C-drive. This is sensible in most cases but if you have a particularly large program, like Autoroute, then it takes up about 1Gb and could happliy sit on the D-drive instead.

Another reason is loads of dead files such as ZoneAlarm logs all ending in .TMP. You can search for these and delete them. I had a glitch with Symantec and had over 16000 dead files. Talk about a full HDD.

Then you may have stacks on Uninstall files in your Windows Folder. These will be in folders such as 'kb96457665' and are installed when Microsoft does its weekly update. They enable you to roll back from an update. After a short period of a month or so you will probably not need to uninstall so these are simply dead space. I have just cleared a friend's computer of these folders for 2004-2007!

Then you may find the Prefetch folder is large too. A file might only be 300 b long but still occupies 4000 b of space.

Then your Documents folder may be stuffed with digital images. Create a new Documents folder on the D-drive and then redirect your documents etc to the D-drive. This is best practice as it separates the application files, that don't change often, from data files that do. It also simplifies finding data and backing up your data.

Then you could compress the drive. Open My Computer, right click on C-drive, select properties, tick Compress drive to save disk space.

[The Real Pink Baron]

Thanks guys, it is one drive with two partitions,(laptop)
I have just sent a mapping program over now it wont open, however music and photos OK. about 1/3 of C now free!
So getting there slowly, need a fresh beer!
Hope I havent lost the mapping program!
Thanks for your help, Pinks.

[Wader2]

I have just sent a mapping program over now it wont open, however music and photos OK. about 1/3 of C now free!

Agh! It won't open as it is a program and is pathed in your registry to the C-drive.

Your only way (well there are others) of moving it is an uninstall and reinstall provided you have the discs.

A harder method is to manually edit the reigistry and change the path for each occurrence - not for the feint hearted. Usual warnings about backing up the registry etc.

[twiggs]

If you save most of your files in My Documents, then move My Documents to D. Just right click on MY Documents then properties>Target>move.

[frostbite]

You could also run Disk Cleanup (Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools) and let it archive any little used files.

Get rid of any .tmp or .chk files too.

[The Real Pink Baron]

I think I have goofed it up!
Can I remove the partition and only have one drive? Will this find my lost info? AAAAGGHHH! Got to go flying soon (A340 can you belive!) Will try again in the morning. Any hints would help, thanks guys. Pinks

[Saab Dastard]

Put the mapping program back where it was!

Get a partition management application (lots free) and an external hard drive to back up your data.

Back up your data, and then use the PM program to delete (or reduce) D: drive, then expand C: drive.

Good luck with the A340! :\

SD

[BOAC]

An excellent programme I still use which does all the programme moving without hacking the registry or re-installing stuff is COA2.exe. Used to be around on PCMag as freeware but I suspect it has either died or is now payware. If you can beg a copy................................

[bnt]

A couple of things you can try:
- move the Swap file to D:, using Control Panel / System, Advanced tab. Since C: and D: are on the same physical drive, don't enable it on both. (If you had two separate physical drives, you could.)
- run Cleanup Manager (cleanmgr) and see what it can do. It can clean off temporary files from installations etc.
- check how much space is used by System Recovery - maybe you can lower that to free up space