unbalanced hard drives

[Guest]

I have Windows XP Media cneter edition and my C drive is 13 gig while my D
drive is 129 gig....my C drive keeps filling up....I try and move stuff to
the D drive but most things just go to the C drive without giving me a
choice....is there a way to change the sizes so that they are even? Or to
make my C drive my D drive and vice versa?

 

[Don MI]

I have Windows XP Media cneter edition and my C drive is 13 gig while my D
drive is 129 gig....my C drive keeps filling up....I try and move stuff to
the D drive but most things just go to the C drive without giving me a
choice....is there a way to change the sizes so that they are even? Or to
make my C drive my D drive and vice versa?

Symantec Partition Magic will allow you to decrease the size of your D:\
drive and increase the size of your C:\ drive.

"...but most things just go to the C drive without giving me a choice.."
What things? While some applications have files that must go on your
primary drive, they do permit most the files to be installed on a drive of
your choice. An installed application must be uninstalled and then
reinstalled on the desired drive. My Documents and its folders can be moved
to any drive your desire. TweakUI {
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp } can help
you move the folder. There are other actions that can help you clean up your
primary drive depending on what "things" are.

Don

 

[Vagabond Software]

I have Windows XP Media cneter edition and my C drive is 13 gig while my D
drive is 129 gig....my C drive keeps filling up....I try and move stuff to
the D drive but most things just go to the C drive without giving me a
choice....is there a way to change the sizes so that they are even? Or to
make my C drive my D drive and vice versa?

Although I've never tried it, I bet you could create a folder called "Apps" on your D drive, move all the folders under Program Files to that directory, then use "linkd.exe" to create junction point from C:\Program Files to D:\Apps on your PC.

I have a junction point in the c:\dev directory:

12/10/2004 07:41 PM <DIR> .
12/10/2004 07:41 PM <DIR> ..
04/03/2004 04:44 PM <JUNCTION> bin
12/10/2004 07:41 PM <DIR> doc
09/16/2004 06:27 PM <DIR> lib

That "bin" folder is actually a junction to the "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\SDK\v1.1\Bin" folder.

NOTE: This is not a shortcut! This is an actual symbollic link.

So, it stands to reason that you could do the same with your Program Files folder. All apps that are looking for C:\Program FIles will find it because they will be "fooled" by the junction point to D:\Apps. Also, all apps that want to install to C:\Program Files will actually (and unknowingly) be installing to D:\Apps.

How's that for a quick fix?

carl

 

[Guest]

Thank you I will try these suggestions. I never cud understand why the
drives came so severely unbalanced in size in the first place. To answer
Don's question, as an example, today I downloaded musicmatch jukebox and the
install never gave me a chance to pick anything...I clicked on agree to the
terms and off it went and it is all on my C drive. This is not the first
time this has happened because of course given a choice, I wud obviously pick
my totally empty D drive....

 

[Guest]

Vagabond, I moved ( I shud say copied, not moved yet) all my files like you
said into a new folder and tried to run linkd.exe and it said not found?
Where is this exec? Thanks

 

[Guest]

Downloaded TweakUI and then typed it in on run and nothing happened except it
opened a box and I found something under my Computer that says Files Stored

 

[Vagabond Software]

Vagabond, I moved ( I shud say copied, not moved yet) all my files like you
said into a new folder and tried to run linkd.exe and it said not found?
Where is this exec? Thanks

Here I thought I was being slick and I was actually telling you the hard way to do this.

The knowledge base article explains how to solve a problem if Microsoft Office cannot find the Program Files folder:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;164808

Duplicate C:\Program Files to D:\Program Files, then follow the instructions for using regedit to change the location of the ProgramFilesDir and CommonFilesDir. After doing that, I would rename C:\Program Files to C:\Program Files_OLD, then reboot.

If everything boots up and works for awhile, then your golden and can probably safely delete (or at least compress) the C:\Program Files_OLD folder and all its contents.

Good Luck,

carl

 

[Guest]

Carl, renaming C:\Program Files is not an option....other folders give me
that option but not this one?

 

[Vagabond Software]

Carl, renaming C:\Program Files is not an option....other folders give me
that option but not this one?

:

Ok, duplicate the Program Files on the D: drive, including hidden folders like WindowsUpdate. Make the changes to the ProgramFilesDir and CommonFilesDir values in the Registry, then reboot.

If that works, we can deal with C:\Program Files at our leisure in a manner we think best.

carl

 

[Guest]

I had already done that but with a small problem which I don't want to
redo...I had named the folder Apps as per your note yesterday and now my path
has to be D:\Apps\Program Files.....is there any way to remove the
unneccesary top level folder without redoing this whole copy...it took a long
time. BTW wud love it if we cud email cuz this method is a pain or IM...if
you don't mind my email is (e-mail address removed) or if you use IM, my screen
name is tellchris5....don't ask why...

 

[Guest]

BTW I have already renamed the directory pointers but am afraid to
reboot...what if I can't get back in? Signed, Scaredy Cat

 

[Vagabond Software]

I had already done that but with a small problem which I don't want to
redo...I had named the folder Apps as per your note yesterday and now my path
has to be D:\Apps\Program Files.....is there any way to remove the
unneccesary top level folder without redoing this whole copy...it took a long
time. BTW wud love it if we cud email cuz this method is a pain or IM...if
you don't mind my email is (e-mail address removed) or if you use IM, my screen
name is tellchris5....don't ask why...

Well, it's too late for this, but never post a valid email address in a newsgroup. Anyway, my screen name for AOL IM is GladimirEQ. I've already added you to my buddy list.

carl

 

[Guest]

Oops. I added you to my Buddy list but you do not appear to be logged on to
AIM. I actually had to reboot cuz of another problem and everything appears
to be working okay now. BTW was that a Yahoo Messenger screen name or AIM?
Okay so I also tried to copy Documents and Settings over and got NTFS still
being used and stops the copy. I logged out of everything including Internet
connection but it still gave the same message. So now I check in All
Programs and it says the shortcut points to D:\Apps, etc but general points
to C:\Docs and settings, start menu etc...I think this is okay? And
interestingly enuf, I can now rename Program files on the C drive but when I
did it gave me a warning so I quit it...

 

[Guest]

Vagabond, I replied earlier but it went in the middle so Iam just copying it
to try and put it on the bottom of the list
Oops. I added you to my Buddy list but you do not appear to be logged on to
AIM. I actually had to reboot cuz of another problem and everything appears
to be working okay now. BTW was that a Yahoo Messenger screen name or AIM?
Okay so I also tried to copy Documents and Settings over and got NTFS still
being used and stops the copy. I logged out of everything including Internet
connection but it still gave the same message. So now I check in All
Programs and it says the shortcut points to D:\Apps, etc but general points
to C:\Docs and settings, start menu etc...I think this is okay? And
interestingly enuf, I can now rename Program files on the C drive but when I
did it gave me a warning so I quit it...