Adding an older hard drive

[Guest]

Hi,
I have been given a computer (1.2Ghz AMD) , with XP Pro Sp 2 . The hard
drive is a Maxtor D740X-6L (60GB on the name plate) but on My Computer it
shows as a C drive with 101Mb and D drve 3.9GB. I have added my old 20GB
drive from a Windows 98 system. I can use word etc and save to the 20 GB
disc, but as the D drive is virtually full i am unable to install large
programs . Is it possible to either use the full amount on the D drive or to
put programs onto the e drive (20GB).
I don`t have the installation CD`s for the XP or Office|word programs etc so
don`t want to risk losing those.

Is there a simple answer ?

Thankyou

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi,
I have been given a computer (1.2Ghz AMD) , with XP Pro Sp 2 . The hard
drive is a Maxtor D740X-6L (60GB on the name plate) but on My Computer it
shows as a C drive with 101Mb and D drve 3.9GB. I have added my old 20GB
drive from a Windows 98 system. I can use word etc and save to the 20 GB
disc, but as the D drive is virtually full i am unable to install large
programs . Is it possible to either use the full amount on the D drive or to
put programs onto the e drive (20GB).
I don`t have the installation CD`s for the XP or Office|word programs etc so
don`t want to risk losing those.

Is there a simple answer ?

Thankyou

It is unclear from your post which drive letter is used by
which physical disk. Please clarify.

Many installation processes give you the option of specifying the
target drive and/or folder.

 

[Guest]

..The Maxtor (60GB) drive is called Disk 0 and contains 102 MB ,NTFS , 84 MB
free space, labelled C drive and 3.91 GB , 4 MB free space ,NTFS, labelled D
drive, Healthy( Boot.) Then an unnamed section with 50.04 GB free space


The other drive is a Fujitsu, called Disk 1 . 19.07 GB , 11.96 free space,
FAT 32,. Labelled E drive

The Autocad program didn`t give me the option of installation drive , and is
too big for the space on D drive.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I read your reply three times and I am still unable to figure
out what is what. Please mark up the following table:

Maxtor partition 1 (Drive C: size=3.91 GBytes, free=84 MBytes
Maxtor partition 2 (Drive D: size=? GBytes, free=? GBytes (Boot partition)
Maxtor partition 3 (unassigned): size=50.04 GBytes
Fujitsu partition 1 (Drive E: size=19.07 GBytes, free=11.96 GBytes

 

[Guest]

Good Morning Pegasus,
Sorry for the confusion. I have marked the table up as requested.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

We're finally getting there . . .

Running a system partition with only 4 MBytes free is suicidal.
You should never allow the amount of free space to drop below
20% of capacity. I have seen machines that were crippled
because its owner ignored all the warning signs.

Since you have a large amount of unassigned disk space, you should
make use of it. Here is what I would do:
1. Increase the size of drive D: to 15 GBytes.
2. Create a data partition of 35 GBytes.
3. Store all data on the data partition. Reserve the system
partition for Windows and for your applications.

To do this non-destructively you need a partition manager
such as Disk Director from Acronis. It would be a good idea
to back up your important files beforehand. While partition
managers work great 99% of the time, they have their
moments.