Sony have set up so little drive space on the c-drive

N

New Orleans Novice

My Sony PC has a partitioned HD.
The C:\ is small with the XP Home OS.
The D:\ is larger with the DATA files.

Is this good? Bad ? Why?

Why would Sony have set up so little drive space on the c-drive?

Leave it like this or repartition / format / reinstall ??
 
S

Shenan Stanley

New said:
My Sony PC has a partitioned HD.
The C:\ is small with the XP Home OS.
The D:\ is larger with the DATA files.

Is this good? Bad ? Why?

Why would Sony have set up so little drive space on the c-drive?

Leave it like this or repartition / format / reinstall ??

We are not Sony.
Someone random might appear that represents Sony - but they may or may not
be able to help you.
You may want to call and ask Sony.

What is 'small'?
What is the total size of this 'small' partition?
I would venture to say that if it is 12+GB, you'll probably be fine with
Windows XP for a long time - as long as you use it as it is setup to be
used - putting your data/programs on the D partition.

As for what you should do...
That is up to you.
Has it become a problem?
 
B

Bert Kinney

Hi,

How large is the C: partition, and how much free space is there?

The D: partition is where the system recovery files are stored. If no
recovery CD's shipped with the system this all you have in the event the
system needs to be put back to the day it was new.

Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org
Member: http://dts-l.org
 
S

Shenan Stanley

New said:
My Sony PC has a partitioned HD.
The C:\ is small with the XP Home OS.
The D:\ is larger with the DATA files.

Is this good? Bad ? Why?

Why would Sony have set up so little drive space on the c-drive?

Leave it like this or repartition / format / reinstall ??

Bert said:
How large is the C: partition, and how much free space is there?

The D: partition is where the system recovery files are stored. If
no recovery CD's shipped with the system this all you have in the
event the system needs to be put back to the day it was new.

Bert,

I have seen Sony's that do not have 'recovery partitions' - but do have the
setup described - coming straight from Sony.

Meaning they have Recovery DVDs that boot and restore to default, but they
have two partitions - one for the OS and one for data as described here.
Nothing 'recovery related' is stored on the system itself. This could be
the case for the OP - or you could be right. We won't know until they
respond. *grin*
 
B

Bert Kinney

Hi Sheanan,

I was not aware of that, but it is a good idea. I do it all the time. If
this is the case, we need to know how big each partition is and how much
free space each one has so we can advise further.

Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org
Member: http://dts-l.org
 
K

Ken Blake, MVP

New said:
My Sony PC has a partitioned HD.
The C:\ is small with the XP Home OS.
The D:\ is larger with the DATA files.

Is this good? Bad ? Why?


It is neither good nor bad. It depends on you and your preferences. My view
is that most people's partitioning scheme should be based on their backup
scheme. If, for example, you backup by creating a clone or image on
the entire drive, then a single partition might be best. If, on the other
hand, you backup only your data, then the backup process is facilitated by
having all data in a separate partition. Except for those running multiple
operating systems, only seldom does it make sense to have more than two
partitions

Why would Sony have set up so little drive space on the c-drive?


Since you haven't told us how big each of the two partitions are, it's
impossible to answer that question.

Leave it like this or repartition / format / reinstall ??


There is no right or wrong, and it's your choice. But tell us how big the
partitions are.
 
G

Gerry Cornell

Bert

I wonder whether Sony have pitched out the System Volume Information
folder <G>?

--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
G

Gerry Cornell

Bert

Of course I was teasing but who is to know how far branded OEM disks
are customised?

--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
D

DL

Its the way many OEM suppliers set up their sys, and they have differing
reasons for this
As others have said allways use Custom Install when installing an app and
select the D drive
 
N

New Orleans Novice

My PC when purchased had these specs. 120 GB ultra ata/100. Holding
cursor over c drive this is the readings. 2.49 gb free. total 16.0 gb.

D:\ 98.3 gb free
 
N

New Orleans Novice

My PC when purchased had these specs. 120 GB ultra ata/100. Holding
cursor over c drive this is the readings. 2.49 gb free. total 16.0 gb.

D:\ 98.3 gb free
 
N

New Orleans Novice

My PC when purchased had these specs. 120 GB ultra ata/100. Holding
cursor over c drive this is the readings. 2.49 gb free. total 16.0 gb.

D:\ 98.3 gb free
 
S

Shenan Stanley

New said:
My PC when purchased had these specs. 120 GB ultra ata/100. Holding
cursor over c drive this is the readings. 2.49 gb free. total 16.0 gb.
D:\ 98.3 gb free

Then you should be able to free up 8+GB by moving some stuff from C: to
another drive or archiving it off to CD/DVD/external drive...

Used Disk Cleanup?
Is hibernate turned on and do you use that feature?
Uninstalled unnecessary applications lately?

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 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...
(You may want to turn this off on your system.. 3GB?!)

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.

You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 128MB and 512MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 128MB and 512MB. (Betting it is MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.

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/

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.

You can also uninstall applications you installed on C and re-install them
on D...
 
G

Gerry Cornell

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp to
Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files. Also
select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk cleanUp,
More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System
Restore point.

It is likely that an allocation of 12% has been made to System Restore
on your C partition which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700
mb. Right click your My Computer icon on the Desktop and select
Properties, System Restore. Place the cursor on your C partition
select Settings and the slider and drag it to the left until it reads
700 mb and exit. When you get to the Settings screen click on Apply
and OK and exit. This will create 1.2 gb free disk space.

If your hard drive is formatted as NTFS another potential gain arises
with your operating system on your C partition. In the Windows
Directory of your C partition you will have some uninstall folders in
your Windows folder typically: $NtServicePackUninstall$ and
$NtUninstallKB282010$ etc. These files may be compressed or not
compressed. If compressed the text of the folder name appears in blue
characters. If not compressed you can compress them. Right click on
each folder and select Properties, General, Advanced and check the box
before Compress contents to save Disk Space. On the General Tab you
can see the amount gained by deducting the size on disk from the size.
Folder compression is only an option on a NTFS formatted drive /
partition.

Another default setting which could be wasteful is that for temporary
internet files especially if you do not store offline copies on disk.
The default allocation is 3% of drive. Depending on your attitude to
offline copies you could reduce this to 1% or 2%. In Internet Explorer
select Tools, Internet Options, General, Temporary Internet Files,
Settings to make the change. At the same time look at the number of
days history is held.

The default allocation for the Recycle Bin is 10 % of drive. On your
drive 5% should be sufficient. In Windows Explorer place the cursor on
your Recycle Bin, right click and select Properties, Global and move
the slider from 10% to 5%. Selecting global will make the change apply
also to your D partition, where the saving in disk space will be even
more significant.

Another saving of disk space can be achieved if you do not use
hibernation.

The items listed above create long term savings on your C drive.

On your system, System Restore should not be monitoring your D drive.
Right click on your My Computer icon , select Properties, System
Restore, place the cursor on D drive, click on Settings and click on
the box before Turn off System Restore on this drive. Click on OK,
Apply, OK and exit. Restart the computer for the change to take
effect.

Other ways to increase free disk space on your C partition can be
achieved by relocation of folders.

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

How to Change the Default Location of the My Documents Folder:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310147

You may also need to change Default File locations in the Microsoft
Office programmes you choose to move the My Documents folder. 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.

My Documents is one of a number of system created Special Folders
including My Pictures and My Music. These can more easily be relocated
using Tweak Ui. Download TweakUI, one of the MS powertoys, from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

In TweakUi select My Computer, Special Folders. You can scroll down to
see the full list of Special Folders to the left of the Change
Location button.

You can opt to relocate your programmes folder but in your situation I
do not feel that is necessary and there are arguments in favour of
leaving it where it is.

You should use Disk CleanUp regularly to Empty your Recycle Bin and
Remove Temporary Internet Files. Whenever you remove redundant files
you should always run Disk Defragmenter by selecting Start, All
Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. You will most
likely have problems running Disk Defragmenter if there is less than
15% free disk space in your XP partition.

The routine above does not remove all unnecessary clutter from your
hard disk, especially if there is more than one user Logon,

cCleaner does a better clean.
http://www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp
http://www.ccleaner.com/

With any cleaner you need to proceed with caution. To be safe you
should create a restore point before using cCleaner. cCleaner also
offers backup before removal.

When using cCleaner think twice before checking Autocomplete Form
History under Internet Explorer. You do get a warning but this one has
irritating consequences. You may need to restore your system's
recollection of passwords after use so keep a record off computer so
that they can easily be re-entered. Leave the Scan for Issues option
alone.

If you are using the Norton Protected Recycle Bin or Rollback RX Pro
these can create significant free disk space issues. The programmes
create hidden folders which can grow to colossal sizes.



--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
N

New Orleans Novice

Thanks. It must have taken you quite a while to come up with all those
tips.

That is a lot of good help. And informative to folks like me. I went
through it all and restarted. It took a while to follow all of it. The
only thing I need or use on my PC is making movies so I do need all the HD
room available.

The movies are only home made. They are on three Video websites;
1) You Tube Video
2) Google Video
3) MSN Soapbox Video

Walker Louisiana Christmas Parade 2006

Added September 22, 2006
New Orleans, St. Bernard Parish and Katr New Orleans, St. Bernard Parish and
Katrina in Louisiana


New Orleans, St. Bernard - Katrina - 03:35
New Orleans, St. Bernard Parish and Katrina in Louisiana 2005
Tags: atchafalaya orleans bernard katrina hurricane louisiana
cajun gumbo

Google Video: http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=lsuedu

You Tube Video: http://www.youtube.com/user/lsuedu
 
G

Gerry Cornell

I'm glad to be able to help.

The post was based largely on previous ones to these newsgroups, which
on this occassion I updated to include some new thoughts. Using the
TweakUi feature was something I picked up on the other day. I think
this can be used to move the My Videos folder created by Media Player.

Happy New Year.


--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
G

Gerry Cornell

Perhaps Bert, Sony are planning to team up with Rollback RX Pro!

--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 

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