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Hard Drive

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 10:37 am
by ohareward
Can anyone wise me up about my HD.
I have an Acer Travelmate 2300 series.
I am running Windows XP Home.
I have 40Gb HDD.
20Gb = Acer(C:), 20Gb = Acerdata(D:)
All of the stuff I have in my HD is in (C:). I have about 4Gb left in C: What happens when that is full? Does it switch over to D:, or do I have to upgrade my disc space?

Robin

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 1:23 pm
by catalyst
it looks like you have 2 partitions c: and d:, and hopefully 'my documents' is configured to use d:
in which case new programmes go into c: while docs, photos, music etc goes into d:
if not, you are filling c: with everything, and no it wont automatically switch to d:

unfortunately i am not good at giving computer advice unless it is in front of me, all my knowledge of xp is in my subconscious!

do you have any friends who know about computers? it is fairly simple to move my documents to d: - or a simple way is to instruct any files you want to save to save in d: not c: - and i'd suggest you go through c: deleting anything you KNOW is unnecessary/old (be careful dont delete anything in windows or other progs that you are unsure of)...

sorry couldnt be more helpful

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 2:26 pm
by wulf
Start saving stuff on D: instead of C: and look at moving your other data across there (this is assuming that at the moment D: is empty and not locked down with Acer files designed to restore the machine in the event of C: going belly up.

You will have to take charge of where the files live - the computer won't be clever enough to do that for you (although it probably will warn you when space is running short on C:)

Wulf

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 4:00 pm
by madasafish
In drive C: you will have Windows plus programmmes plus all your own files saved under MY DOCUMENTS.

Easisest thing to do is Move all MY DOCOMENTS to the D file: this will ensure you will start using the D file in future. You CANNOT move Windows and Program files without a lot of hassle.

To move My Documents.. you need to find Windows Explorer. Tools Accessories System Tools should get it.

Then highlight My Documents right click Move ... to file D:

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 9:56 pm
by colhut
madasafish is right, but I'll elaborate and hope I ain't insulting you !

click on start then right click on my documents, then left click on properties.

In the dialog box there will be a "target folder location" which shows where your documents are currently stored. if it starts with a "C" then all your documents are sharing drive C with windows and all your prgrams, drive D wont be used. To move it click on the move button, expand my computer and then click on the D drive. This bit is optional, I'd click on the "make new folder" and nam it something like "myFiles" then click on ok and windows will move the whole lot for you, if you have a lot of files be prepared for a long wait !

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 11:06 pm
by ohareward
Thank you all for your input. Colhut, I was able to follow your instructions. I have moved files across OK

Robin

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 10:02 am
by Muddypause
In Win98 you can just drag and drop My Docs to your chosen location. The desktop link will automatically update where it points to.

Although My Docs is a system folder that has to exist, you don't have to use it. I put most of my stuff into folders of their own, with only odds and ends going into My Docs. However you decide to configure it, you may have to make sure that some programs know to point to the new location - for example, Lotus Smartsuite (my preferred office suite) has default locations where it will save stuff to; it's simply a matter of entering a new folder path in the program settings.

If you put all your data files in a dedicated partition, not only does it stand a better chance of surviving if the main OS crashes badly (I can tell you all about that, if you've got a spare couple of hours), but it makes backing up your data a cinch - just one folder to back up.

You can usually tell your email program to keep its mail folders in that partition, and many programs will be able to keep their user settings there, too. Firefox, for example can store its user profiles, bookmarks, and extensions there, so if ever you have to reinstall, you just tell it where to look for the settings, and the program is back to how you want it. This is all eminently suitable stuff for including in your backups.