Managing partitions with Windows Vista

[Roland Proulx]

I recently purchased a computer with Windows Vista and may have incorrectly
chose to have my 250 GB hard drive with two partitions (C&D) each 50%. I was
offered partition of 50/50%, 60/40% or 40/60%. They actually came through at
111 and 108 GB. At present partition C: has the operating system, all
program files and all personal data files. Partition D: is empty . There is
also a third recovery partition (E) which is about 10GB. I have searched the
post and can't find an answer which pertains directly to this. I was
planning to place all my data files in a seperate partition (D to make it
easier for backing up data.

I have three questions. 1. Is the 50/50% good for what I want to do or
should I have chose 60% for the operating system and programs and 40% for
data? 2. Since partition D: is empty cnd I change the size of C&D partitions
now to 60%/40% leaving partition E: untouched? 3. If yes how do I do it? 4.
How do I make my programs save all data, photos, music, video etc go to
partition D automatically? Thanks.

 

[Castell]

1. We don't know what you do so very hard to comment. But generally for
normal usage no partitioning is needed.
2. You can change partition sizes using third party partitioning software.
Don't touch E: - that is purely for recovering your system.
3. Talk to third party
4. You can move each of the folders located under c:\users\%username% by
right clicking each folder, selecting Location tab and moving them
accordingly. I wouldn't recommend it - much simpler to use one partition.

 

[Roland Proulx]

Thanks. I wasn't sure when I ordered the computer so I chose to have two
partitions. I'm finding out already that the 50% partition is getting full
so I believe you are right. One partition would be better for me.

 

[ais4orses]

Thanks.   I wasn't sure when I ordered the computer so I chose to have twopartitions.  I'm finding out already that the 50% partition is getting full
so I believe you are right.  One partition would be better for me.
--
Roland






- Show quoted text -

But now that you have 2 partitions, I would leave well alone and move
your
personal folders to the empty drive D and see how you get on space-
wise.

I have just gone from one partition to two and moved my personal
folders to D.
I had one minor problem when moving my folders, easily solved by
googling
for help, but in the process of splitting the partition I got into a
state where
Windows wouldn't boot.

Before you do anything, make sure you have backups, but moving your
personal data to D is a much less risky operation.

I already had 2 backups, but I actually moved all my personal stuff
onto
another machine before moving my personal folders and copied
everything
back afterwards.

 

[Castell]

You may want to merge the partitions using Disk Management (since the second
partition is empty this should be straight forward) go to Control
Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Disk Management - first you
would Delete Volume for the empty volume and then Extend Volume for your
primary volume. Remember leave the small recovery partition/volume as is.