At capacity... what can I do?

[FuzzyKitten99]

I have a lappy that is about a year old. Got it brand new (no, not refurbished, new) as a replacement of my old machine that died and I had the warranty coverage.

Windows 7 OS
I can't remember if I set it up as a split/partitioned drive or it was already that way.
However after a year of use and installing programs, my c: drive is almost full. it is set at 60gb and the rest of the drive is barely full at all. I thought I could add more space via the drive control panel, but it doesn't seem to allow the C: drive expansion, only my d: drive.

I tried googling a solution but I have yet to find anything.

At this point I have compressed data, cleared cookies, etc, but I can't seem to get more than 1.4gb in cushion space that seems to get eaten up pretty fast.

Can anyone help?

[Chromatix]

Assuming it is a single drive and not two separate ones, there may be a way to allow the C drive to expand - delete the D drive entirely. Obviously you'll need to move all the data off it first - but that's a great opportunity to start doing backups.

If that doesn't work, there are a few things you can do to save space on the C drive:

1) Turn off Restore Points and similar features.

2) Move the swapfile to the D drive.

3) Delete programs you don't use.

4) Move data from your "My Documents" directory structures to the D drive. This might include downloads, music files, photos, etc.

[EricKei]

Aye. Images, music, and videos, in particular, are massive space hogs.

Also, you *really* want to keep that C drive at least 30% free whenever possible -- even on modern comps, 30% free will cause slowdown, and 20% (or less) free can make Windows all but unusable.

It may be time to consider either replacing the hard drive (you can get a 1.5TB laptop-sized drive for around a hundred bucks these days) and then cloning the old one (may need help with this), or an external drive -- a 5 1/4" external SATA drive could easily be found on sale as low as $80 for a 2TB unit. That, or buy one and a USB case ($15-25 generally) or SATA adapter ($10-30). If you get a second drive, consider wiping the old one when yer done backing stuff up (make sure you have the install discs and codes!) and reinstalling Windows, and then putting NOTHING else on that 60 gig drive that you don't need to (read: Microsoft programs ONLY (they tend to drop a good chunk of their files on C no matter where you "officially" install them anyway), no docs/images/ etc)

60 gigs, tho, on a modern system? o_O I knew manufacturers tended to cheap out, but dayum...They could have gotten one ten times that size for ten bucks more...at retail prices...Half of that space is Windows itself anyway. How big is the D drive? If it has tons of space, then I guess they're not that cheap ^_^ (reserving a small chunk of space like that JUST for windows can actually speed things up as long as it doesn't get too full). The particion utility should allow you to change the C drive size, but it will likely require a reboot to do so. Keep in mind that it is CRITICAL to back up the C drive before doing this, as any mistake/power loss/glitch could obliterate the contents of the entire drive (meaning both C and D)

Note that, on Windows 7 you CAN tell Windows where you want the my docs, my pictures. my videos, my music (etc) folders to live. Set them to the D drive and Move their entire contents over to their new home. Same goes for the Downloads folder, tho you will also need to tell IE/FireFox/whatever to drop files in there, as well

[FuzzyKitten99]

Aye. Images, music, and videos, in particular, are massive space hogs.

----snip---
It may be time to consider either replacing the hard drive (you can get a 1.5TB laptop-sized drive for around a hundred bucks these days) and then cloning the old one (may need help with this), or an external drive -- a 5 1/4" external SATA drive could easily be found on sale as low as $80 for a 2TB unit. That, or buy one and a USB case ($15-25 generally) or SATA adapter ($10-30). If you get a second drive, consider wiping the old one when yer done backing stuff up (make sure you have the install discs and codes!) and reinstalling Windows, and then putting NOTHING else on that 60 gig drive that you don't need to (read: Microsoft programs ONLY (they tend to drop a good chunk of their files on C no matter where you "officially" install them anyway), no docs/images/ etc)

The laptop hard disk itself is I think 320GB, but I think when I first got it, I set it up to keep the OS on a different partition to protect certain data from any crashes. That is the only explanation I can think of to say why the drive is set up this way vs. just a regular C: drive. I believe I remember some option that Windows gave when I first started up the machine.

I actually do not have much in the way of images and I have ZERO music on my system. I have a 1TB portable hard drive that I used for all that stuff. I can't listen to music without it as I have all the files on that rather than my laptop itself. I have learned the hard way after losing 30+GBs of music from a hard drive crash on an old machine a couple years ago.

I already tried to move folders over and I was able to for the most part, except certain ones. The system would not allow me to move several that I thought I could. In the end, I somehow ended up deleting the microsoft games program file (which sucks because I liked them and I can't seem to find a 'fix' for it) but the folder itself is still in the system. And there are a few other quirks that are minor for the most part, that happened after I tried moving programs and files over.

I have taken several screen shots of the drive set-up and how it is partitioned and also what files are on it, etc.

I was told that I could expand the size of the OS drive partition but when I accessed the disk manager, that option was/is not available for whatever reason on my machine to expand the OS drive C:.

[EricKei]

Ok. Your drive does indeed have a Recovery Partition that should be usable for reinstalling Windows. The install codes are usually on the underside of the laptop. IF you go the Recovery route, it will wipe the C drive -- if you want to make C larger, D will be zapped as well. Back everything up first. It looks like you may be able to just make folders **on the external drive** called "c drive" and "d drive", and copy everything over there in chunks. There are certain things on C that won't copy over, though. If you can get help from a local computer place, just have them do it all.

As far as folders go: Do NOT move anything from Program Files or Program Files (x86). Copying stuff over to the external drive is fine (games often leave saves in there, etc), but programs removed from that folder will cease functioning and would need to be reinstalled.

I would recommend bumping C up to something more like 100 gigs. You could always choose to just get rid of D entirely and make C fill all available space, if you want -- it could make things easier -- and just keep using the external drive to hold documents and files you don't need right away (read: pretty much everything aside from programs). (just as an example -- My system has 3 actual drives: a 360 gig that is dedicated for use as C (half full) and used only for critical programs like Office and QuickBooks/Peachtree; a 360 gig D drive that is used for temporary storage and will probably end up as a RAID or backup to C the next time I do a wipe & reinstall; a 1.5 TB drive for everything else. All of my "My ____", Downloads, similar folders, and the like redirect here. I also try to use this as my Steam program drive, as well as for programs that are not mission-critical but take up massive amounts of space, such as MMO's)

Leave Recovery and the little 100MB partition alone (Windows 7 uses it), you'll need them. The Windows installation should re-format C for you. You will need to re-format D yourself. Some things will install to C whether you like it or not (browsers, etc), and some will drop files onto C even if the main install is elsewhere (pretty much anything from Microsoft, esp. Office programs). For those, you might as well install to C. Install everything else to D.

[FuzzyKitten99]

Ok. Your drive does indeed have a Recovery Partition that should be usable for reinstalling Windows. The install codes are usually on the underside of the laptop. IF you go the Recovery route, it will wipe the C drive -- if you want to make C larger, D will be zapped as well. Back everything up first. It looks like you may be able to just make folders **on the external drive** called "c drive" and "d drive", and copy everything over there in chunks. There are certain things on C that won't copy over, though. If you can get help from a local computer place, just have them do it all.

As far as folders go: Do NOT move anything from Program Files or Program Files (x86). Copying stuff over to the external drive is fine (games often leave saves in there, etc), but programs removed from that folder will cease functioning and would need to be reinstalled.

I would recommend bumping C up to something more like 100 gigs. You could always choose to just get rid of D entirely and make C fill all available space, if you want -- it could make things easier -- and just keep using the external drive to hold documents and files you don't need right away (read: pretty much everything aside from programs). (just as an example -- My system has 3 actual drives: a 360 gig that is dedicated for use as C (half full) and used only for critical programs like Office and QuickBooks/Peachtree; a 360 gig D drive that is used for temporary storage and will probably end up as a RAID or backup to C the next time I do a wipe & reinstall; a 1.5 TB drive for everything else. All of my "My ____", Downloads, similar folders, and the like redirect here. I also try to use this as my Steam program drive, as well as for programs that are not mission-critical but take up massive amounts of space, such as MMO's)

Leave Recovery and the little 100MB partition alone (Windows 7 uses it), you'll need them. The Windows installation should re-format C for you. You will need to re-format D yourself. Some things will install to C whether you like it or not (browsers, etc), and some will drop files onto C even if the main install is elsewhere (pretty much anything from Microsoft, esp. Office programs). For those, you might as well install to C. Install everything else to D.

So a system restore is really my only option on this?

[Der Cute]

No, you can purchase software to help you merge part of D: back into C:.
What it looks like to me is that someone didn't carve enough space from the whole hard drive to fit the OS & other apps installed, in the C: letter.
With W7, you cannot merge partitions (dammit) to create/give more space from one to the other.

I have an external drive that's 1.5TB. Now, I've got it sliced into a 1TB and 500G. If I wanted to add 250G to the 1T (making 1.25T), it is not possible with W7 drive manager. You have to use 3rd party software.

What I think you need to do is take some space from that D: drive and add it to the C:, so your temp files, other "fluff" has a space to go. By the way, do you use system restore, and where is the system restore stuff located? Where is it stored? Where is your backup of your "current settings" (the whole OS) going to?
Even if you ran CCleaner and a bunch of other apps to sweep up file space and defrag things, you still don't have enough room in C:.

Try this:
http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm

Or Partition Magic, or possibly BartPE or other boot discs to re-partition your master drive. (the 320G one). Looks like the 320G is sliced for OEM, C: (OS and apps) and D: for stuff.
C needs more closet space, D needs to give it up!

[suburbandecay]

You can also try GParted, http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

It's an open source software package that boots off of a CD or USB drive for managing partitions. It launches a GUI when it starts and is pretty easy to use. Just make sure you have a full system backup before you start.

[EricKei]

I'm just saying that Recovery is AN option. You should back everything up no matter which route you take (you have room).

I've used partition magic as well, it does the job. Tho I've managed to screw up with it too, and lost a lot of NON-backed up files.

[Fire_on_High]

There's honestly nothing wrong with the basic scheme of "smallish partition for system and installed apps, bigger one for data", but you can box yourself in so easily if you get even one or two programs that are hardassed about where they install to. EricKei's way of doing things is frequently the most efficient, but only if you plan it out ahead of time. It also can save you some measure of grief if something corrupts C:, or you just want to do a quick, no BS nuke and pave.

Do you have anything that could be safely uninstalled and then reinstalled to D:?

And, I hate to be the turd in the punchbowl, but it sounds like you've said you still only have one copy of your music, it's just on an external drive now. It'll save you if your OS goes south, and you have no option but to wipe the whole partition in the process of reinstalling, but that's it. That hard drive can fail or get screwed up (without the hardware being broken) and take your music out too.

Anything you value, make two copies of, on different hard drives. Anything you absolutely must have, can't live without, would be devastated to lose, no less than 3, with at least 1 never being connected to power or a machine except to update or retrieve the data.

Two partitions on the same hard drive offers no protection against mechanical failure. Two hard drives on the same machine can be taken out in a single lightning strike, fire, spill or drop. Add in a flash drive, external used purely for the emergency backup, offsite storage, even a burned cd or dvd, and you eliminate having a single point of failure.

Obviously, the last is more along the lines of what you'd do for irreplaceable pictures, financial data that could ruin you, etc...not the sort of data security you have to worry as much about for your mp3s. Still, worth keeping in mind...

[EricKei]

financial data that could ruin you, etc...

You have NO idea how many SMB's (small~medium businesses, read: any company making less than $1mil/year gross) have NO CLUE when it comes to protecting and backing up their data files. This, despite the fact that the accounting packages they used (that I used to support) both pestered them to make backups, DAILY.

This is an issue mainly because the main progs targeted at them that cost anywhere from $400/year (low end versions) to $7000/year (for the nicer ones), depending on the number of users, and that's assuming that you even WANT to upgrade every year -- these are less robust and (at times) less stable, and more prone to network irregularities (they're still good, but there's a reason they're comparatively cheap). However, they have easy simple-to-use backup routines and the more recent ones can even do automatic scheduled dailies for you. For comparison, the next level up in terms of robustness and price runs around 10-20k to purchase, nearly as much to install, and 2-5k/month for "Maintenance" and tech support. Fortunately. there is a brisk market in data repair services in case of the worst-case scenarios...if the data files still physically exist, they are generally recoverable.

My favorite was a place that THOUGHT they were making daily tape backups of their entire server for years. Note that the IT guy who set it up had not worked for them for at least five years. I think you can see where I'm going with this -- yup, nobody there had a clue how to run the Backup/Recovery software, and the tapes themselves had data files whose last update dates were nearly SEVEN years before the day I was called out to help them >_< Sadly, that was one of those times where I really could not help them. Because nobody had ever taken a few minutes a month to make a backup and burn it to a CD, they lost over half a decade's worth of accounting data -- which they presumably had to reenter out of the paper files I really hope they had...

[Fire_on_High]

Ouch, just ouch.

[FuzzyKitten99]

Thanks to all those who replied. What I plan to do is back up all my files from my external drive and the few files on my lappy to Carbonite. We already have an account for the store files, so I just need to expand our service.

Then I plan on just doing a complete OS reset. Honestly I don't mind doing that as it allows me to just set up the whole thing on one drive vs having it split in two, and really scrutinize what I re-install in my system. The only issue I have is I have to find the install disks for a few of my programs that I use somewhat regularly, but don't need the disk to run it, such as photoshop. No big deal aside from that.