retreving HD space on C:\

[DavidplHinds]

hello everyone, i am looking for a lil help and possibly the best way to
undertake the project i am about to begin.
i have a genuine windows XP pro OS on a 5 year old desktop, the system is
running great, but i am running out of space on my C:\. (cleaned every thing
i possibly can of the drive) when i built my system 5 years ago i
partitioned my 120GIG HD into 4 partiton, personal preferance ) C:\=
10Gigs,(OS only) D:\=40Gigs, (programs only )E:\=40Gigs(music, Games ect
only), F:/=30Gigs, a while back i lost the F:\ so i no longer have access to
that partiton, now with the XP service pack 3 updates and other updates MS
desides it want my OS to update to i am now down to 1.5 Gigs on my C:\ . i
have back up / copied all may data and programs musics and other stuff to a
EXT HD so all my DATA is ok i was told that even if i delete my D, and E
partitons i cannot increase the size of my C:\ ? i do not want to buy a 3rd
party software to increase my C:\, if i cannot increase the C:\ size to
20Gigs i will have to delete all my partitions and create just one C:\ of
about 90Gigs, would / will that work ?? if not what wold be the best way to
proceed (without spending any $$$ ) i would appricate any solutions. thanks
in advance.

 

[philo]

hello everyone, i am looking for a lil help and possibly the best way to
undertake the project i am about to begin.
i have a genuine windows XP pro OS on a 5 year old desktop, the system is
running great, but i am running out of space on my C:\. (cleaned every thing
i possibly can of the drive) when i built my system 5 years ago i
partitioned my 120GIG HD into 4 partiton, personal preferance ) C:\=
10Gigs,(OS only) D:\=40Gigs, (programs only )E:\=40Gigs(music, Games ect
only), F:/=30Gigs, a while back i lost the F:\ so i no longer have access to
that partiton, now with the XP service pack 3 updates and other updates MS
desides it want my OS to update to i am now down to 1.5 Gigs on my C:\ . i
have back up / copied all may data and programs musics and other stuff to a
EXT HD so all my DATA is ok i was told that even if i delete my D, and E
partitons i cannot increase the size of my C:\ ? i do not want to buy a 3rd
party software to increase my C:\, if i cannot increase the C:\ size to
20Gigs i will have to delete all my partitions and create just one C:\ of
about 90Gigs, would / will that work ?? if not what wold be the best way to
proceed (without spending any $$$ ) i would appricate any solutions. thanks
in advance.

First off, I'd be very concerned as to why you lost access to your F: drive

did you check to see if your HD may be failing?

You should run the HD mfg's diagnostic
and replace the drive if it finds any errors. Since the drive is 5 years
old, it may be a good idea to replace it anyway.

That said, as long as you are sure everything is backed up
and you are sure the drive is not defective...

then I'd reinstall Windows fresh by deleting all partitions
and create just one large partition when you reinstall Windows.

Once Windows is reinstalled, you will have to update it and reinstall all
your apps of course.
Just make sure you have the cd's or setup files for all applications you
plan to use!

 

[DavidplHinds]

thanks to philo and louie and the groups ... i will try the partition method
first and if i run into any problems, i will just do a clean install . once
again thanks guys

 

[Guest]

hello everyone, i am looking for a lil help and possibly the best way to
undertake the project i am about to begin.
i have a genuine windows XP pro OS on a 5 year old desktop, the system
is running great, but i am running out of space on my C:\. (cleaned
every thing i possibly can of the drive) when i built my system 5 years
ago i partitioned my 120GIG HD into 4 partiton, personal preferance )
C:\= 10Gigs,(OS only) D:\=40Gigs, (programs only )E:\=40Gigs(music,
Games ect only), F:/=30Gigs, a while back i lost the F:\ so i no longer
have access to that partiton, now with the XP service pack 3 updates and
other updates MS desides it want my OS to update to i am now down to 1.5
Gigs on my C:\ . i have back up / copied all may data and programs
musics and other stuff to a EXT HD so all my DATA is ok i was told
that even if i delete my D, and E partitons i cannot increase the size
of my C:\ ? i do not want to buy a 3rd party software to increase my
C:\, if i cannot increase the C:\ size to 20Gigs i will have to delete
all my partitions and create just one C:\ of about 90Gigs, would / will
that work ?? if not what wold be the best way to proceed (without
spending any $$$ ) i would appricate any solutions. thanks in advance.

I have a contrary opinion.

Yes, you need to figure out why you can't access F:
Download the GPARTED live Cd. It has a long track record of resizing
partitions without messing them up. It can take forever, but it seems
to always work.
Run chkdsk /R on each partition. Takes forever. And you need
to figure out the F: problem before you can run it there.
Jumping thru hoops to avoid bad parts of a disk made sense
when it cost a buck a megabyte. At 8-cents a gigabyte, just buy
a new drive.

I'd keep your C: partition as small as possible.
Why?
Because it changes constantly and you need to keep it backed up FREQUENTLY.
A partition image is best because it avoids all the reinstall
roadblocks M$ has put in our way. You will not backup a 90GB
partition frequently. It's just too painful.
You don't need frequent backups of your movies, mp3, porn, stuff
that changes infrequently. But you DO need a VERY EASY way
to frequently image your C: drive.
You can painlessly image your C: drive to your D: drive.
That protects you against many types of hazards.
Copy the image files to secondary media periodically to protect
against complete drive failure.
You can often just copy files from the backup to other partitions.
But you need an image of C:.
Keeping C: as small as possible facilitates this.