Changing drive for startup and downloads

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bronx Deli
  • Start date Start date
B

Bronx Deli

Hi,

I have c and e drive. c is my system startup drive, I have ran out of room
on c. I would like to make e my default drive for start up and downloads
ect...is this possible. I do have a copy of xp home.

Thanks,
 
Changing the start up drive means installing win to the other drive, you
will then lose use of your applications currently on your C drive - assuming
no dual boot.

There are other methods to recover disk space, what is the size of the two
drives?
 
In Internet Options, General tab,amend max file (browsing history) settings
to no more than 50mb
From the start menu, select run, then enter "%temp%" without the quotes and
hit return
Delete all the files found, some will be in use
Check your Recycle Bin & delete files - if you are storing files there, that
is not the place to do so.
In My Computer icon, rt click, select Properties, System Restore Tab,
monitor only C, adjust settings to no more than 4%
On My Documents icon, rt click, Properties, select Move, to E drive

After all that, check properties of C drive and report back the amount of
free space
 
Bronx said:
C drive is 20 gig and maxed out and E drive has about 40 gig
Click to expand...

Chances are, those are two partitions on the same physical hard
drive. I have a copy of Partition Magic, and depending on
how the partitions were prepared, I could resize them with
that program. Make the C drive bigger and the E drive smaller.
But DL offers sage advice - reconfigure applications, so they
don't make a pig of themselves with your space. Clean the
recycle bin. You can do a lot to correct this situation,
without doing anything drastic or dangerous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_Magic

Pictures at the bottom of this page, show what the Partition Magic
screens look like.

http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/windows/Partition-Magic-Review-31911.shtml

Before doing brain surgery, a brain surgeon washes his hands. The
equivalent in the computer business, is *backups*. Using a
second hard drive, you should back up the contents of your
existing drive. The purpose of having the backup, is if
something goes wrong, while you're doing "surgery".
A backup drive does not have to be physically very big,
and there is an example here of a 160GB device with USB
interface, you can plug into the back of the computer.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136229

Some backup software wouldn't hurt either.

Acronis True Image Home V11 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832200004

HTH,
Paul
 
No, I have 2 seperate drives in stalled, no partitions, I screwed up by
making the smaller drive "C"

I was thinking about using transfer all files and setting which is an option
 
Bronx said:
No, I have 2 seperate drives in stalled, no partitions, I screwed up by
making the smaller drive "C"

I was thinking about using transfer all files and setting which is an option
on the XP install disk, then making E my first disk to boot up in set up?
any feedback on this approach will be helpful!
Click to expand...

Are both of those disks bootable ? Did both of them have
WinXP installed on them ? Or is E: just a data disk ?

I can see guides like this, for the settings wizard.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/crawford_november12.mspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457074.aspx

But the thing is, I just wouldn't do it that way.

If it was my computer, and I had a 20GB and a 40GB disk, and
the 20GB was bootable, and the 40GB was a data disk.

1) Disconnect the 40GB data disk. We don't want any accidents.
At least disconnect that disk from the motherboard. Taking the
usual precautions about the rules for IDE disks, if that is
what these disks are. (If you have questions, please provide
details about how the disks are connected, so someone can
suggest how to jumper and connect them.)

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/conf.htm

Leave the 20GB connected, as that is the one to be copied.

2) Purchase a new drive, something bigger than 20GB. Verify that
the computer can handle large disks without a problem. Some
computers, where the disk is connected via a ribbon cable,
have limitations. If the computer was made in the last five
years, this is probably not a problem.

3) Leave the 20GB connected. Connect the new disk too. Boot the 20GB.
Use Partition Magic, to transfer the 20GB boot volume, to the
new disk. Partition Magic can be instructed to make the new volume
occupy the whole of the new disk. So if you bought an 80GB
disk, not only will the 20GB be copied to the 80GB, but the
partition could be resized to 80GB as well. Now, your new boot
disk will be 60GB larger than before.

Note - some disk manufacturers provide utilities with exactly
these capabilities, free for download from their web site. So
you may not have to buy any software at all. Just buy a new hard
drive, and use the free software to copy the partition. I use
Partition Magic, because I happen to own a copy.

4) Shut down the computer. Disconnect the 20GB disk. Now, only the
new disk is connected to the computer. Turn on the computer.
Enter the BIOS. Make sure the new disk is in the boot order,
as on some computers, every time you change the hard drive configuration,
you have to check the boot order in the BIOS. Save any new BIOS
settings and exit the BIOS. The computer should now boot from the
new disk. (The reason for disconnecting the 20GB drive, is it should
*not* be present when the new disk is booting for the *first* time.
After the new disk has been booted once, then you can do whatever you
want after that.)

5) Shut down again. If you want, you can reconnect the 20GB and 40GB, or
just reconnect the 40GB and save the 20GB in a corner somewhere. If you
ever have a boot drive failure (new drive fails), you can quickly
pop that 20GB back in the computer and boot from it.

I'm a great fan of drive proliferation, and while I don't have a large
budget for computer hardware any more, I always leave room for a couple
new hard drives per year. "You can never be too rich, or have too many
backups."

By making a copy of the 20GB drive, onto a larger drive, *everything*
gets preserved, no wizards needed.

Paul
 
So did you try what I suggested earlier?

your thinking aint going to work;
If you are musing upon those lines you would be better off buying a larger
hd and cloning C
 
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