Partitioning Drives and Free Space

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hobar
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H

Hobar

I use a partitioned drive (partitioned into 3 x 4 Gb drives, 1 x ~74 Gb
with all my system files on the C:\

When I check the properties of the C:\ drive (4 Gb), it shows onl
about 270 Mb free space, but when I look through the files, to clea
out some space on the drive, I seem only to have about 2 Gb used.
have my settings set to view hidden files and the like, but it seem
like I'm using twice the amount of space than I actually am.

Is there something I'm missing, using a partitioned drive? Does i
actually take up more space on the drive, for some reason that I'm no
aware of? I'm getting low on space on C:\ but I have plenty in othe
places to use, if I'm in need, but there are certain programs that
can't change where it allocates space (Excel, Photoshop), and I com
across problems when I try to run or install them.

Any help would be appreciated! I'd like to claim my 2 Gb back, if it'
possible
 
Hi,

On the root, check the sizes of pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys

The first is necessary (virtual memory), the latter can be deleted if you
disable hibernation. Frankly, I would get some partitioning software and add
at least a gig to the system drive.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
I use a partitioned drive (partitioned into 3 x 4 Gb drives, 1 x ~74 Gb)
with all my system files on the C:\

When I check the properties of the C:\ drive (4 Gb), it shows only
about 270 Mb free space, but when I look through the files, to clear
out some space on the drive, I seem only to have about 2 Gb used. I
have my settings set to view hidden files and the like, but it seems
like I'm using twice the amount of space than I actually am.

Is there something I'm missing, using a partitioned drive? Does it
actually take up more space on the drive, for some reason that I'm not
aware of? I'm getting low on space on C:\ but I have plenty in other
places to use, if I'm in need, but there are certain programs that I
can't change where it allocates space (Excel, Photoshop), and I come
across problems when I try to run or install them.

Any help would be appreciated! I'd like to claim my 2 Gb back, if it's
possible.
Click to expand...

I agree with Rick about adding more space to the XP partition. Personally,
I still saw low space warnings when I was using 5GB. My personal preference
is at least 10GB and now usually set it at 15GB.
 
Having worked on countless computers, and having personal use of 4-5
personal computers (varies with the situation) I would recommend that the
Windows partition be at least 10 gig in size. Everything you install, even
though you install to another partition, will put a lot of information on
your Windows partition (usually called drive C:).

You can us Partition Magic 8.01, or later, to resize your partitions.

Start by defragmenting your C: and D: partitions. Then back up everything
you absolutely need from these two partitions (accidents can rarely occur).

Boot the computer from the 2 floppy set you create from within Partition
Magic. You will want to shrink partition D: (prom the left side to the right
side please). When you are done with that task, you will have XXX free space
between C: and D:.

Now you choose partition C:. Enlarge the partition on the right to encompass
the free space you just created. Press apply changes. It may take an hour or
so for the procedure to be completed. DO NOT, under any circumstances, turn
off your computer or in any way abort the procedure when once you have
started the process. To do so will likely cause a loss of a great amount of
information.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"
 
Hobar

I have two 40gb drives partitioned into two 20gb each drive.. drive C is
20gb and has XP SP2 and all major applications installed onto it.. in the
event that XP needs to be reloaded from scratch, all of the applications
will have to be reloaded anyway because of the way that program installation
integrates with the Windows system files and folders..

Presently, I have almost 10gb free, but I have not yet installed all that I
could or will want as yet.. I work on the basis that one should keep at
least 25% of a drive free for page files, defragging etc, so I have a little
bit of space left to go..

Games are installed on the second partition because they sometimes 'fall
over', and when they do, I have no desire to see the primary partition
affected..

The second drive is also split into two equal parts.. the first partition is
where I save all of the updated installations files for printers, scanners
etc and also anything that I have come across on the internet that I thought
may be useful.. the second partition is reserved for document backups,
music, photos.. I save everything to this partition, and then copy to CD as
a backup..

Why am I telling you this?.. the moral is that when creating partitions, do
not skimp.. I learned this to my cost many moons ago.. better to be
excessively large than excessively small..

The primary partition especially must be large enough to give Windows space
to breath.. as time goes on, the threats from virus and trojan authors will
mean ever more patches, which in turn means ever more space required.. one
also has to take into account 'running' temp files, system restore points
etc..

And just in case you forgot, a 1k file takes up 4k of space on the drive..
for people who have many word processor generated documents, this can make a
difference..



--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/User

"If hard work were such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have kept
it all to themselves." - Lane Kirkland
 
I started of with a 20GB partition and having the full compliment of Office
2003, Adobe Creative Suite 2, and Visual Studio installed (I also use
hibernate rather than powering down my pc) it soon made the 20GB look sick,
so i've recently increased the partition, using partition magic, to 30GB.
However, for normal use I agree that 15 to 20GB is about right.
 
If you want to know internals of Partitons, File System and Data
Recovery etc you may go for the Book "Data Recovery with & without
Programming"

You can Find the Details and Contents of the book on following Link:

http://www.DataDoctor.biz/author.htm


The Book Also has a Free CD with it, which has all the Source Codes of
the Programs, described within the Book

Regards

TT
 
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