Partitioned Hardrive Question

rocky raccoon

I have a work laptop which a quiet a low spec (80G of RAM). The hard drive is partitioned and the C Drive is full with a few fairly hefty programmes. I still have 24G free on the E Drive and would like to free up some space on the C Drive and know it is not a simple case of copy and paste. I have moved all documents and personal stuff over but still need more room. Also, I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling programmes onto the E Drive but every time I try to install them they automatically install in the computer’s Programme folder in the C Drive. Is there a way of overcoming this? I would appreciate any advice.

swampgas

One easy way to take advantage of E: is to move your "My Documents" folders there.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310147

If you want to re-partition, you really need to back up everything first....

rocky raccoon

Cheers swampgas. I gave the link a go but it is for XP whereas I am using Vista. I searched the Mircosoft support website but haven't been able to find similar advice for Vista. I'll give the web a go. I may have to look at moving another folder as the Documents is of no great size. I've already moved most of the non programme files to a new Documents folder in the E Drive

bhickey

Some of quick & easy things that you might do to free up some space are :

Install & run Ccleaner
Reduce Percentage of disk space dedicated to System Restore
Remove old (e.g > 2-3 months) $NtUninstallKBxxxxxx$ folders in the C:\Windows folder

Most programs have an option during installation for you to choose the destination folder so use that option whenever possible for new programs

rocky raccoon

thanks for the advice bhickey. i ran ccleaner but it removed more than i wanted it to. it removed the audio output device for the laptop. i haven't created a backup in a while and not sure how to get the audio back. as for the C Drive space issue the cleanup create very little new space, i'll have to look to see what i programmes i can get away with removing.

bhickey

rocky raccoon wrote: »

...i ran ccleaner but it removed more than i wanted it to. it removed the audio output device for the laptop. i haven't created a backup in a while and not sure how to get the audio back.

Now that's odd. I've never seen CCleaner do anything even remotely naughty like that. You should be able to download new drivers easily enough.

Did you actually manage to move the 'My Documents' folder yet? It's also probably worth just doing a search in Windows Explorer for all files greater than a certain size as that can often throw up a few files that you mightn't catch otherwise. Just make sure you know what the files are for before you delete them

rocky raccoon

I didn't move the My Documents folder just in case. I managed to free almost 1GB so that will help in the short term. Going to have to look at uninstalling a couple of programs and reinstalling in the E Drive. The only difficultly I have have had with that todate is specifying the destination when installing from a CD. This is not a problem when installing downloaded programs. Thanks for your help.

hearny

Ive never seen Ccleaner do anything like that either.

Like bhickey said system restore can be reduced:
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76227-system-restore-disk-space.html

You can also reduce the Recycle Bin size:
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/72903-recycle-bin-storage-size.html

You could use G-Parted to increase the partition size but this is a risky procedure and not to be carried out without a backup.

Another option would be for a hard drive update.
If you replace the hard drive you could use cloning software to copy the drive contents onto the new one so you dont have to reinstall proframs or change settings.

corkcomp

you can move service pack uninstall files to the second partition, along with the paging file

hearny

I wouldn't recommend moving the pagefile that will affect the performance.
Its not a good idea to move the pagefile onto a different partition on the same hard drive as the os.

Tintee

Oh dear.Sounds like someone went a little crazy with the tick boxes on Ccleaner.

rocky raccoon

Thanks for the advice everyone. I managed to free up a GB so that should keep me going for a while. The laptop is a couple of years old so it might be time to look at upgrading and keeping this as a back-up rather than trying to attempt something I really do not have full knowledge of. Thanks again