Hard drive space ?

[Guest]

My Sony came with the 120 gig hard drive partioned into 14 gig ( C drive )
and 100 gig ( D drive ) . The C drive is filling up and I can't figure out
why but I am trying to move stuff to the D drive . Is there an easy way to do
this ? Thanks

 

[Gerry Cornell]

To increase you free space on your C select Start, All Programs,
Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp, More Options, System Restore and
remove all but the latest System Restore points? Restore points can be quite
large.

To move programmes use Add / Remove Programs in Start, Control Panel, Add /
Remove Programs to uninstall programmes. Create a Programs Directory on
your other partition and reinstall there.

Some other notes you may find useful.

Create a My Documents folder in another partition and copy ( not move ) the
contents of My Documents to your new folder. Then delete the files in your
My Documents folder ( if you encounter problems deleting use Shift + Delete
to bypass the Recycle Bin ). You will also need to change Default File
locations in the Microsoft Office programmes you use. For Word go to Tools,
Options, File Locations, highlight Documents, click on Modify and change
file path. For Excel go to Tools, Options, General and change default file
path.

For Temporary Internet Files select Start, Control Panel, Internet Options,
Temporary Internet Files. Settings, Move Folder.

To move the Outlook Express Store Folder select in Outlook Express Tools,
Options, Maintenance, Store Folder, Change.
http://www.tomsterdam.com/insideoe/files/store.htm



--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Shenan Stanley]

My Sony came with the 120 gig hard drive partioned into 14 gig ( C
drive ) and 100 gig ( D drive ) . The C drive is filling up and I
can't figure out why but I am trying to move stuff to the D drive .
Is there an easy way to do this ? Thanks

14GB is really a pretty sparse C drive. Especially with a 120GB to play
with (114GB or so really.)
I personally wouldn't make one smaller than 20GB and prefer 30+GB for C..
Especially if I will not be the one utilizing the system.

Find out what might be using the space..

Do you have hidden and system files visible?
How's your system restore settings?
Used Disk Cleanup?
Is hibernate turned on and do you use that feature?
Uninstalled unnecessary applications lately?

Other ways to free up space..

SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

DX Hog Hunt
http://www.dvxp.com/en/Downloads.aspx

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed..

http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but yuor
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:

- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest 5% or
higher.
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

 

[John Smithe]

My Sony came with the 120 gig hard drive partioned into 14 gig ( C
drive ) and 100 gig ( D drive ) . The C drive is filling up and I
can't figure out why but I am trying to move stuff to the D drive . Is
there an easy way to do this ? Thanks

Your hard drive is probably filling up with:

1. Programs you are installing.
2. Data you are collecting and or creating.

1. Programs typically (automatically) install to 'c:\Program Files\'.

Caution: The 'Prgogram Files' folder has special significance to Windows.
You must treat it properly to retain its special functionality and keep
windows and your programs configured properly.

For example I have a program called 'Steam'. Steam automatically
installs itself to 'C:\Program Files\Steam\'. As you can see, your C:
drive will fill up as you install more programs. A simple way around this
is to install your programs to the D: drive. Create a 'D:\Program Files
\" directory on your D: drive and install new programs there. (Actually,
you can call it anything you like.) Keep in mind that when you run a
program installer, you must select the install location manually while
the installer is running. Most installers allow the user to select the
install location. Also, you may have to select the 'custom' install
option to be able to select the install location.

Most programs cannot be copied from one location to another, so don't
expect to be able to simply copy programs from 'C:\Program Files' to 'D:
\Program Files'. When most programs install, they set/create many new
system settings in the registry and those registry settings will not be
adjusted when files are copied. To safely move prorams, you will need to
uninstall them and then re-install them to the d: drive. Don't forget to
backup any data you want to keep.

2. User data may be saved under the install directory of a program or
under a users 'My Documents' diretory. These two locations are the
typical places.

Caution: You may have data stored elsewhere.

For example, data associated with the aforementioned 'Steam' program
might be stored under 'C:\Program Files\Steam\' or it might be stored
under 'My Documents'. So as you accumulate new data, C: will fill. There
is a way to move your 'My Documents' folder to d:.

Caution: The 'My Documents' folders have special significance to Windows.
You must treat them properly to retain their functionality and keep
windows and your programs configured properly.

To move your 'My Documents' folder see:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310147

I don't know of a way to move the 'Program Files' directory this way.

Finally, for the more adventurous, you can create a custom installer for
Windows which will place the 'Program files' and 'Documents and
Settings' folders wherever you like. {'My Documents' is a subdirectory of
'Documents and Settings'.) So, whenever you do a clean install, these
issues will be taken care of automatically.

For additional information,take a look at:

http://www.nliteos.com/
http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/

This is what I have done. My 'Documents and Settings' and 'Program
Files' directories are automatically installed to my D: drive when I
install Windows. This way I can use a c: partition of 10GB and it never
fills up because nothing is ever added to the C: drive. It does grow a
liitle bu tit is a very tiny tiny amount.