Hard Drive Partition Size

  • Thread starter Thread starter MartyAz
  • Start date Start date
M

MartyAz

My MAIN Drive C: is only 20% (14.94 GB) of my total capacity. My PARTITION
Drive D: is 80% (59.57 GB) of my total capacity. My C: Drive is full. There
is nothing <ON> my D: Drive. My computer runs SLOW. How can I improve the
performance of my computer?
 
Marty

You can create more free space in C by
carrying any of the measures suggested below.

The default allocation to System Restore is 12% on your C partition
which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700 mb. Right click your My
Computer icon on the Desktop and select System Restore. Place the cursor
on your C drive select Settings but this time find the slider and drag
it to the left until it reads 700 mb and exit. When you get to the
Settings screen click on Apply and OK and exit.

A default setting which could be wasteful is that for temporary internet
files, especially if you do not store offline copies on disk. The
default allocation is 3% of drive. Depending on your attitude to offline
copies you could reduce this to 1% or 2%. In Internet Explorer select
Tools, Internet Options, General, Temporary Internet Files, Settings to
make the change. At the same time look at the number of days history is
held.

The default allocation for the Recycle Bin is 10 % of drive. Change to
5%, which should be sufficient. In Windows Explorer place the cursor
on your Recycle Bin, right click and select Properties, Global and
move the slider from 10% to 5%. However, try to avoid letting it get
too full as if it is full and you delete a file by mistake it will
bypass the Recycle Bin and be gone for ever.

If your drive is formatted as NTFS another potential gain arises with
your operating system on your C drive. In the Windows Directory of
your C partition you will have some Uninstall folders in your Windows
folder typically: $NtServicePackUninstall$ and $NtUninstallKB282010$
etc. These files may be compressed or not compressed. If compressed
the text of the folder name appears in blue characters. If not
compressed you can compress them. Right click on each folder and
select Properties, General, Advanced and check the box before Compress
contents to save Disk Space. On the General Tab you can see the amount
gained by deducting the size on disk from the size. Folder
compression is only an option on a NTFS formatted drive / partition.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System
Information, Tools, Dr Watson and verify that the box before "Append to
existing log" is NOT checked. This means the next time the log is
written it will overwrite rather than add to the existing file.

The default maximum size setting for Event Viewer logs is too large.
Reset the maximum for each log from 512 kb to 128 kb and set it to
overwrite.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

You can generate more space in the system partition by relocation of
folders.

For Temporary Internet Files select Start, Control Panel, Internet
Options, Temporary Internet Files. Settings, Move Folder.

To move the Outlook Express Store Folder select in Outlook Express
Tools, Options, Maintenance, Store Folder, Change.
http://www.tomsterdam.com/insideoe/files/store.htm

How to Change the Default Location of the My Documents Folder:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310147

You may also need to change Default File locations in the Microsoft
Office programmes you choose to move the My Documents folder. For Word
go to Tools, Options, File Locations, highlight Documents, click on
Modify and change file path. For Excel go to Tools, Options, General
and change default file path.

My Documents is one of a number of system created Special Folders
including My Pictures and My Music. These can more easily be relocated
using Tweak Ui. Download TweakUI, one of the MS powertoys, from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

In TweakUi select My Computer, Special Folders. You can scroll down to
see the full list of Special Folders to the left of the Change
Location button.


Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp to
Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files. Also
select Start, All Programs, accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp,
More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System
Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.



--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
MartyAz said:
My MAIN Drive C: is only 20% (14.94 GB) of my total capacity. My PARTITION
Drive D: is 80% (59.57 GB) of my total capacity. My C: Drive is full. There
is nothing <ON> my D: Drive. My computer runs SLOW. How can I improve the
performance of my computer?

Along with what Gerry suggested, there are 3rd party partition programs
that will let you adjust the partition size of C, stealing from D. Or
you can just drop D all together and make C 100%.

But these programs have their risk and can fail, paid 3rd party and good
company or not. Stuff happens and you need a backup first. XP has
no partitioning software built in.

Partition Magic is the only one that comes to mind.
 
MartyAz said:
My MAIN Drive C: is only 20% (14.94 GB) of my total capacity. My PARTITION
Drive D: is 80% (59.57 GB) of my total capacity. My C: Drive is full.
There
is nothing <ON> my D: Drive. My computer runs SLOW. How can I improve the
performance of my computer?

Its easy if you have the correct 3rd party software. (Imaging software)
Backup your C: partition as an image file to removable media such as
removable hard drive. Verify that the boot media version of that software
can access that media afterwards.

Using the boot media (imaging) software, remove both partitions. Access the
image file on the removable media. There should be an option to restore the
partition to use the entire space on the boot hard drive in the restoration
menu.

If you have any substantial amount of personal files on your current C:
partition, it may be prudent to move them to the current D: partition.
Then, reboot, then commence making more space using windows options noted by
another reply. If this is satisfactory, then you don't have to resort to
using the entire hard drive for the C: partition. Before you begin such a
procedure, image backup the entire C: partition as is to a removable hard
drive. Stuff happens.
 
MartyAz said:
My MAIN Drive C: is only 20% (14.94 GB) of my total capacity. My PARTITION
Drive D: is 80% (59.57 GB) of my total capacity. My C: Drive is full. There
is nothing <ON> my D: Drive. My computer runs SLOW. How can I improve the
performance of my computer?
 
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