PC techie question

[StevieM]

 A question for PC techie wizards.
My hard drive is partitioned into 'C' and 'D', but 'C' is particularly small and keeps running out of room, even though there's next to nothing on it that can't be moved. There's not even enough space to de-frag it properly. There's enough space on 'D' to lose a bit to 'C', so is there any way to re-partition this ( without clearing everything off and re-configuring)?
Please go slowly and use words of one syllable or less
Cheers.
Oh yeh, ought to say I'm using Windows XP

[Flash Harry]

You need a magical piece of software called partition magic.

Buy or nick it from woolworths (it's a joke) and I wouldn't for a minute suggest that you looked on a torrent site.....

[StevieM]

Thanks Mike, Think I'll probably take it to the repair place

[64Guitars]

My hard drive is partitioned into 'C' and 'D', but 'C' is particularly small and keeps running out of room, even though there's next to nothing on it that can't be moved.

What size is the C drive partition? I suspect that there's plenty of stuff on it that can be moved or deleted.

When you install any program, it will almost always default to a new folder under "C:\Program Files", but it will let you change it to any drive and folder you like. So, one way to reclaim some space is to uninstall some of the larger programs (games, for instance), then re-install them from the original CDs or download files and change the installation destination to drive D instead of the default "C:\Program Files".

Have a look in "My Documents". Just about everything in there can be moved to drive D. And you can change the location of "My Documents" to your D drive using this procedure so that your programs will default to that location instead of drive C.

Another way to get a (small) bit of extra space is to go into Control Panel and open "Add or Remove Programs", then click "Add/Remove Windows Components". Go through the list of checked items and un-check any that you'll never use. For example, MSN Explorer takes up 13.2MB. If you don't use MSN Explorer, you can un-check it and reclaim the space.

Another thing you can do while in "Add or Remove Programs" is to remove any programs that you no longer use. See this page for details.

Run the Disk Cleanup tool to remove temporary files that are unnecessarily taking up space. See item 3 on this page for details.

If you really want to change the size of your partitions, I'll second Flash Harry's advice to get a copy of Partition Magic. However, another option is to burn a Live CD image of GParted (a free program) and boot your computer from that CD. From there, you can easily re-size your partitions. It's highly advisable to do a full backup of both drives before you attempt to change the partitions by any means.

I won't elaborate on any of this as it's beyond the scope of this forum. So, if you don't understand it, enlist the help of a friend who does.

[StevieM]

Thanks for all that info, but there's something weird going on!
I've already cleared off anything I can, all that's left on C now is :- Documents and Settings, Programme Files and Windows. Bearing in mind this partition is 30GB, there's only 1.51 GB left!!!

There's other really buggy stuff going on anyway, so I'll probably just get it in to the repairers. Could do with a Ram upgrade too, so may as well get them to do that at the same time.
Cheers.

[64Guitars]

Thanks for all that info, but there's something weird going on!
I've already cleared off anything I can, all that's left on C now is :- Documents and Settings, Programme Files and Windows. Bearing in mind this partition is 30GB, there's only 1.51 GB left!!!

There's other really buggy stuff going on anyway, so I'll probably just get it in to the repairers. Could do with a Ram upgrade too, so may as well get them to do that at the same time.

30 gigabytes is way more than anyone should need for Windows XP. Your computer doesn't need repair, it needs organization! I guarantee that you've got many files on your C drive that should be on the D drive instead (or deleted).

I happen to be doing some maintenance on my brother's computer for him today. His C drive partition is 18GB and only 11.4GB is used, leaving 6.6GB free. My own computer's C drive partition is 48GB, but only 19GB is used (and I could move much of that to another drive if I wanted to). Both of these computers are running Windows XP Home edition. There's no reason why you can't reduce your C drive's content to well under 20GB, leaving you more than 10GB available which is plenty of free space.

• The WINDOWS folder needn't be more than 4GB.
• Documents and Settings needn't be more than 1GB.
• The Program Files folder will vary with the number of programs installed. But, as I said in my earlier post, most of the programs can be uninstalled, then re-installed on the D drive. My computer's Program Files folder is 10GB. My brother's is 3.7GB.
• You might need 3GB to 5GB for other files and folders.

If you add up the numbers above, the worst case total is 20GB.

What is the total size of your Program Files folder? I suspect that you have way too many programs installed there and you could re-install a large portion of them on drive D.

What is the total size of your Documents and Settings folder? If it's more than 1GB, move some of those files to drive D.

Regarding the RAM upgrade, how much RAM do you currently have? For most Windows XP users, 1GB is plenty in my opinion. If you do a lot of graphics or video work, or you're heavily into graphics-intensive games, then you might want 2GB. Although, in the latter case, you might be better off putting the money into a better video card instead of more RAM (assuming you already have 1GB or more).

[StevieM]

See, told you it's weird!
I've tried moving a lot of those, but it tells me they can't be moved. May be possible to shift a few programmes, but that wouldn't make that much difference.

I've cleaned up (and out) so much stuff so many times, nothing makes any difference.

Even tried putting most things on external hard drive ( which I save to anyway), then deleting them. No difference.

Ram is a huge 512Mb , so upgrade in order. I don't play any games, but want to do music composing on it ( sequencers and all that stuff).

The whole thing is generally buggy anyway, stuff doesn't work properly a lot of the time, even to the extent that most of the time when I'm just typing something, try to move the curser to a space in between words -------and strange things happen.

So a real good clean out is in order anyway.
I'll try once more------ then calls to techie type people is in order

Many thanks for your help and advice though, much appreciated!
Cheers.

PS. Quite often I HATE BLO*DY COMPUTERS!!!!!!!

[hewhoiscalledj]

Stevie,

I have pondered your situation and sympathize as i've had similar issues with my computer at work. turned out there was a virus/trojan thingy imbedded and hidden in my C drive that was taking up more than half the space allotted.

As I was thinking about what to suggest, the thought suddenly hit me. Sell your PC and get yourself a Mac in whatever flavor suits you. I've got a Mac Mini with the duo Intel processor at home and I havent had a single issue of any sort for nearly 2 years now. It works surprisingly well as a DAW/sequencer machine (once I maxed out the RAM that is...) I no longer fuss with my computer and instead focus entirely on the tasks at hand. It's like the computer became an invisible tool that I'd never have to think about again. Driver issues and viruses? Fuggetaboutit...

I dont want to start the whole PC vs. Mac debate... but I think I just did 

[StevieM]

I'd love to get a Mac, probably just for the music though. Too awkward for everyday machine, a lot of the programmes we've got wouldn't work too well on it, and there's so much stuff already on it that wouldn't transfer at all, so stuck with it!

[hewhoiscalledj]

That's completely understandable. My work machine is a PC and it runs well, meanwhile, my home Mac is strictly for internet access and music. The grass is never really any greener on the other side of the fence.

With that said, programs like Partition Magic is the way to go. Or like you said, take it to a tech to straighten out. they can back up your files to an external drive, wipe the system clean and repartition your drive into a more functional and less problematic format/balance. It's always best to have twice as much space as you need on the C drive. Have nothing but your OS on it and use the other drive partitions for your programs and files. Considering how much cheaper large external drives are these days, it's worth saving up for one of those 1tb externals. Gotta make room for the music afterall!

cheers and good luck.