I'm trying to help someone whose hard drive is full. I'm aware of the
obvious possibilities, like backing it all up and reinstalling on a
new, larger drive, or adding a D drive and trying to move stuff over
to it.

But I seem to recall that it is possible under XP, as it is under Unix/
Linux, to configure a new drive so it appears as a seamless extension
of the old one. Is my recollection right, and if so, how do I do it?

Have you tried XP's Disk Cleanup? It's located in Systems Tools folder

In XP you cannot join 2 hard drives to make it appear as 1 to XP

"jm" wrote:

> I'm trying to help someone whose hard drive is full. I'm aware of the
> obvious possibilities, like backing it all up and reinstalling on a
> new, larger drive, or adding a D drive and trying to move stuff over
> to it.
>
> But I seem to recall that it is possible under XP, as it is under Unix/
> Linux, to configure a new drive so it appears as a seamless extension
> of the old one. Is my recollection right, and if so, how do I do it?
>
>

Not with the operating system installed on it. Buy a bigger drive and
use the included software to "move" the installation over to the new drive.

jm wrote:

> I'm trying to help someone whose hard drive is full. I'm aware of the
> obvious possibilities, like backing it all up and reinstalling on a
> new, larger drive, or adding a D drive and trying to move stuff over
> to it.
>
> But I seem to recall that it is possible under XP, as it is under Unix/
> Linux, to configure a new drive so it appears as a seamless extension
> of the old one. Is my recollection right, and if so, how do I do it?
>

"John" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:E3C1E17F-5602-48B8-9174-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Have you tried XP's Disk Cleanup? It's located in Systems Tools folder
>
> In XP you cannot join 2 hard drives to make it appear as 1 to XP
>

You can actually. look up "Dynamic Disks" in help. (This only applies to Pro
BTW)

you *may* be able to do it by using dynamic disks. Search Help and Support
for dynamic disk.

"John" wrote:

> Have you tried XP's Disk Cleanup? It's located in Systems Tools folder
>
> In XP you cannot join 2 hard drives to make it appear as 1 to XP
>
> "jm" wrote:
>
> > I'm trying to help someone whose hard drive is full. I'm aware of the
> > obvious possibilities, like backing it all up and reinstalling on a
> > new, larger drive, or adding a D drive and trying to move stuff over
> > to it.
> >
> > But I seem to recall that it is possible under XP, as it is under Unix/
> > Linux, to configure a new drive so it appears as a seamless extension
> > of the old one. Is my recollection right, and if so, how do I do it?
> >
> >

With XP Professional you can extend or span dynamic volumes but you
cannot extend or span the existing System or Boot volumes.

John

jm wrote:

> I'm trying to help someone whose hard drive is full. I'm aware of the
> obvious possibilities, like backing it all up and reinstalling on a
> new, larger drive, or adding a D drive and trying to move stuff over
> to it.
>
> But I seem to recall that it is possible under XP, as it is under Unix/
> Linux, to configure a new drive so it appears as a seamless extension
> of the old one. Is my recollection right, and if so, how do I do it?
>

> In XP you cannot join 2 hard drives to make it appear as 1 to XP

Actually, you can...at least after a fashion. (Or there may be other more
direct ways, I don't pretend to be an expert on the subject.)

Once you've got the new drive in the system, you can make it appear to be a
folder on the C drive. So for example, you could move the entire Program
Files folder to the D drive, then set the C drive to have a folder called
Program Files that points to the D drive (though if anything in the original
Program Files folder is in use, you may have trouble moving it, so that may
not be the best approach unless you can shut down absolutely every last
thing that's locking files in that folder).

You do this through the Disk Manager: Right-Click on My Computer, then
select "Manage". In the "Storage" branch, select "Disk Management".
Right-Click on the D Drive, either in the list or the right-hand side of the
graphical display. Select "Change Drive Letter and Paths...", and then
select "Add". From there, specify (and/or create) the folder to mount the
new drive in. If you wish, you can also remove the customary mapping of
"D:", so that it appears as though there's only one drive...at least to most
high-level utilities.



Rob