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  • Freeing disc space

    I hope I include all the pertinent details here.

    A few years back, my old hard drive died. I took it to one of the computer guys at the office where I then worked, and he couldn't get any data off it, so I bought a new one. The new hard drive works beautiful, and it's 1 TB, so yes, it has enough space.

    Another computer guy told me to bring it to the office so he could install the programs for me. He did a great job - except that he created a new drive, D, which has the majority of the memory. Most of the essential programs are on drive C. Drive C keeps running low on memory, and I don't know what to do to put more on C or transfer programs over to D. If it helps, he installed Total Commander 7.02a - which I don't know how to work either.

  • #2
    Ok.
    So you have 1TB drive, and the C: partition (think a pie) has all the apps you need. D: partition is for..storage? Other stuff?

    Well, I'm assuming you're running XP. XP needs over 4GB of installation space - the OS plus some extra room to have temp files and stuff.

    So first thing to see is your Disk Manager.
    Start, find the My Computer Icon, right click. Select Manage.
    New window pops open.
    Find Disk Management on left hand side of menu.
    Show us with a pic of the divisions/partitions of that drive.

    If you're running W7
    start menu, administrative tools, computer management. Find the disk management on left side.
    Here, take a look at mine.

    See at the top my total space, and used space, and free? My C: drive is pretty big, enough for the OS and anything else I want to throw in there.

    Let's take a look @ yours first.
    Attached Files
    In my heart, in my soul, I'm a woman for rock & roll.
    She's as fast as slugs on barbituates.

    Comment


    • #3


      Here it is.

      I did copy the Program Files folder over to drive D, and THAT took some doing. The guy who rearranged my hard drive also made certain things available only to the administrator, and I'm not the administrator. He got fired not too long after working on my computer, and he's never responded to my emails, so I'm on my own here.
      Last edited by Eireann; 07-21-2019, 02:35 PM.

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      • #4
        Did you or a friend build the computer you have now or did you buy it from a store? If it was store-bought, you may have recovery discs that allow you to install the software just like it came from the factory. of course, now it's put in the larger hard drive you now have installed.

        If it's a Dell, you may not have the discs, but instead of paying for a restore DVD you may be able to contact Dell and get one sent to you for free.

        If it was built by someone they should have given you the operating system (XP, Vista, 7) CDs or DVD to allow the same type of restoration.

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        • #5
          Ok. You have less than 1% free space on your C: partition.
          There is ONE drive in there, and it's partitioned out (sliced up) and letters are assigned to the slices.
          In a perfect computer world, 20% space is free on a drive/partition/thing. When you're pushing 81, 85% usage, it's time to go think about a new drive. (you're using it up fast enough, get more space!)

          What you need to do is get some of that "unallocated space" put towards your C: partition.
          Is this XP or W7 you have? I think you've got W7.

          Reading around, W7 CAN delete/extend BUT only to an adjacent space. You have 4 slices. Backup slice, C: slice, D: slice and Unallocated slice.
          IF Unallocated was right next to C:, you could stretch C out and use some Unallocated. But you're kind of stuck here.
          But hold on, we can work around it.
          First thing I want you to do is free up ANYTHING in that C: drive. You need space to install stuff!!!!
          Where are you saving data? Are you consciously putting data onto D?
          Clear your temp files, text stuff...anything you can think of. Clear out the Firefox Cache. Cookies. Anything. Are you saving to your "My Documents" and "My Pictures" (those are part of the C: drive, by default!) Make a new folder in D:, scoot those over and free up a LOT of space in C:. Music. Pics. Documents. Doodles. ANYTHING.
          Save all that crap into D.
          Do your best to get more space for C:.
          Once you've done that, download the partition thing (hey, create a folder on D: to save all downloads to) and install onto C: drive.

          Ok. So, now you should have C:, installed partition fixer, D: with more stuff in it, and Unallocated Space.
          Is there a way to back D's stuff up? Any kind of major surgery on a drive needs to be backed up. Can you burn to a DVD? Anything you really want to keep goes on a USB stick or a DVD or some other media. Because mistakes can happen, ok?

          http://download.cnet.com/EaseUS-Part...-10863346.html
          That's what you download. Install into the C: drive.

          Start the program, you will need to use Resize. DO NOT PICK FORMAT. The F word is bad here
          What the Resize will do is add space to your C: by MOVING D:.
          Think this: cccccccccccDDDDDDDDDDuuuuuuu you have right now, but it will be cccccccccccccccccccDDDDDDDDDDuuuu .
          Add all 48GB from that unallocated space to your C: drive. D's got so much space it's fine.


          1. Free any space you can think of in C:
          2. Really really free up space.
          3. Download the program but save the file in D:
          4. Scoot as much as you can to D: (not the installed stuff, data! just data!)
          5. Again, free up space.
          6. Install program
          7. Back your D's stuff up. As much as possible, whatever's really super important.
          8. Use the program, RESIZE the C: partition
          9. Add the leftover 48GB to the C: partition
          10. Follow instructions, reboot, take pics, show us.

          Oh. With this program, I want you to also create Boot Disks (in case your install CD's get lost).

          Give it a shot.
          In my heart, in my soul, I'm a woman for rock & roll.
          She's as fast as slugs on barbituates.

          Comment


          • #6
            Okay, here's what I've done:

            I've copied Windows over to D.
            I've copied Program Files over to D.

            I always save to the D drive. Always. Pictures, documents, everything; I've created folders for them. When I download anything, I save to D.

            Now that I have copied Windows (7, by the way) and Program Files over to D, is it safe to delete them from C? No, I haven't tried it.

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            • #7
              What he did isn't a bad idea... but in my opinion he fucked it up by making your c drive so small.

              I've used partitioned hard drives before. You really should give yourself a LOT of room on the C drive and then use the D drive for your file storage - music, videos, documents.


              Personally I'd say redo the drive and give the C drive 200G for programs. But use the rest of the hdd for documents. This will take a lot of work to redo however, at least the way i'm use to partitioning things. (cos I'm use to having to reformat shit when i partition)

              but it also can save your ass in some ways. i once had to reformat my old (2004) hp beast and then thought to myself "fuck, i lost all my antivirus install files". then i looked at the files available and saw... i had never removed the partition. my "D" drive was still intact. so all my saved software install files were sitting there just waiting for me to use them.

              Comment


              • #8
                Quoth Eireann View Post
                Okay, here's what I've done:

                I've copied Windows over to D.
                I've copied Program Files over to D.

                I always save to the D drive. Always. Pictures, documents, everything; I've created folders for them. When I download anything, I save to D.

                Now that I have copied Windows (7, by the way) and Program Files over to D, is it safe to delete them from C? No, I haven't tried it.
                Question: did you COPY or MOVE? (if you moved, we're going to have to reinstall!!!!
                and those 2 sections (windows and program files) are NOT to be touched. Let's say you're in the C: drive and you start up SomeProgram. The registry has settings for you, the hardware and the software of SomeProgram. If SomeProgram is moved (via program files) the registry will get pissed.

                So.
                Go back through the C: drive and find stuff that can be moved. Sorry I wasn't more specific.
                Pics, docs, music, copies of your .pst (outlook files) (that can be a pita but ok), uninstall the browser you don't use. If you've got a program on a disk or 2 - uninstall those programs, and re-install after you've changed the space allocation.
                So, if you've got an application saved (the application's install part!) somewhere, can you uninstall it from C: ? Not Office. Something like Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader (those are super easy to dl when you need them); torrent applications. Itunes? Skype? Media player(s) - not the windows one. Shit, uninstall the Total Commander (you can get it from him if you want)
                You need to free up room.
                But don't futz with Windows or Program Files or App Data or Application Data. Those are very important OS files. I'm looking for smaller pieces that are directly tied to you.

                Get us a picture after you've freed up more space. The pic of the Disk Management (btw you did good getting there).
                In my heart, in my soul, I'm a woman for rock & roll.
                She's as fast as slugs on barbituates.

                Comment


                • #9
                  WinDirStat. It will let you find cruft hiding on your hard drive you didn't know was there, so you can nuke it.

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                  • #10
                    You can start breathing again. I only copied it.

                    I tried creating more space for the C drive some time ago, but it didn't work. I'd love to be able to drag Mr. Computer Guy over here to fix what he did.

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                    • #11
                      Eireann- you could TRY to install that app - you have about 300MB room and the app is around 11MB. If it installs, I'd do a happy dance.

                      I would then reboot, and get into safe mode (F8!!!!!!). Once in safe mode, back your puter stuff up. Your D: drive stuff, just in case ANYTHING goes wrong. Reboot.

                      Reboot into safe mode, and run that app to change your partitions.
                      If this stuff doesn't work, we're going to have to chat about reinstalling EVERYTHING FROM SCRATCH.

                      Pray, safemode, pray, adjust partitions.
                      In my heart, in my soul, I'm a woman for rock & roll.
                      She's as fast as slugs on barbituates.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Sorry I'm late to the party...

                        Eireann, did you get a copy of the UBCD for the memory install issue you had earlier?

                        If so, then just use that to boot into gPartEdMagic from the menu, and run GPartEd when it gets done booting.

                        Note: UBCD is an auto-booting CD that bypasses the HD and, therefore, doesn't use (mount) it. Gnome PARTition EDitor can then fold, spindle, or mutilate the drive at your heart's content.

                        Once launched, GPartEd can "move" the big partition(s) over to cover the unallocated section, then "resize" the smaller partition to fill the space. Instructions and examples are given in the link above. Personally, I'd move the partitions over, then resize the D drive down about 100GB and hand it over to the C drive for some extra "elbow room". This should give the C drive about 300GB, the D drive about 600GB, and the rest for the recovery/system use.

                        Another useful tool on PartEdMagic is something called "Ghost4Linux". After you get everything set up the way you like it, you can then "Ghost" the drives into "images", and copy them to an external drive (like a Seagate or WD USB travel drive). If something bad happens, you can then boot from the CD and un-Ghost them back to the old (or replacement) HD. It's based on Norton's (Symantec) Ghost utility.

                        barcode

                        Really, UBCD is one helluva tool for techs!

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Wow!

                          I've just been perusing the C drive, and I found some programs I'd forgotten I'd installed, and haven't used, so I uninstalled them (one had been installed twice!). I also discovered that iTunes, iPod, and Skype are on C. Is it safe to move them over to D, then delete them from C?

                          I love what barcode wrote. I'm also hesitant to, well, move outside my comfort zone, especially when it concerns my computer. It looks great; I just wonder if I can move the three abovementioned programs and, thus, create more space on C (where I don't download anything anyway).

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                          • #14
                            Oh, and one other thing - I found, for a VERY low price, firewire hardware and a cable from an IT guy who was cleaning house. I bought it. I installed it. It doesn't work. I discovered I don't even have the driver. I downloaded both drivers from Unibrain, but the higher one (64) isn't high enough. Where can I download the driver for firewire?

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                            • #15
                              Quoth Eireann View Post
                              Wow!

                              I've just been perusing the C drive, and I found some programs I'd forgotten I'd installed, and haven't used, so I uninstalled them (one had been installed twice!). I also discovered that iTunes, iPod, and Skype are on C. Is it safe to move them over to D, then delete them from C?

                              I love what barcode wrote. I'm also hesitant to, well, move outside my comfort zone, especially when it concerns my computer. It looks great; I just wonder if I can move the three abovementioned programs and, thus, create more space on C (where I don't download anything anyway).
                              Good, he's right about UBCD. I've used it before.
                              If you uninstall those programs, that's great, you CAN install them to the D: drive. Uninstall first on C:. Run CCleaner on C: drive. (frees space) Install to D: drive.
                              let's focus first on freeing space. If you want to change the partitions, again, back your important stuff up!! Dropbox. Docs.google.com. imgur. To cover your butt, write down the programs that are really important to you on some paper. In case something goes bad, you will know which ones to get again.

                              Free your space, change the partitions and flip the bird @ your friend who did this.
                              As for Firewire, aren't you going to the mfg of the hardware for it? Or checking MS?
                              What all are you connecting via Firewire? (not many laptops have this, it's not as ubiquitous as USB).

                              Keep us informed!
                              In my heart, in my soul, I'm a woman for rock & roll.
                              She's as fast as slugs on barbituates.

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