repartion the osdrive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joakim
  • Start date Start date
J

Joakim

Hi..
Due to some odd things, downloading expansions to programs and games it
allways ends upp on c for some reason (probably in a tempfile). In the
begining i had the OS-partion (C) set to 14 GB and thought that would be
enough but no, I am installing everything else on other partions. Now i need
to extend it and repartion. Which program should i use (preferable for free)?
Is there any problems i should expect? I'll of course take a safetycopy of
all important stuff, like favorits and latest saved stuff in programs and
such.
thanks
 
Joakim

There are no third party freeware partition managers. You can get
shareware for periods up to 30 days. BootIt NG is one example:
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads-bootit-next-generation.htm

I use BootIt NG. It does not have the easiestuser interface but the
video on the web site are helpful.

Without resizing partitions 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.

Another 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.

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.

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.

You can move programmes but to do this you have to uninstall and
reinstall.

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


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
14 gigs is too small
and should be something
like 40 gigs.

i wouldn't trust a free
partitioning program
as it may be a guarantee
to screw up your data.

until you can afford
a reliable partitioning
program, like acronis
disk director, i would
simply make the effort
to free up some space
on the c.

for example, you can
right click on my documents
and relocate that folder
to the other partition.

you might also try to
move your pagefile from
the c to the other partition.

then if you have the
setup files for some of
those programs that installed
to the c, i would uninstall
them and reinstall them to
the other partition.

it would better to take
the time to do the above
rather than try to find a
quick and unreliable way
like a free partitioning
software that may result
in lots of lost data, wasted
time of restoring your system
and the cost for boxes of
kleenex and sleeping pills
for loosing irreplaceable
personal files.
 
Joakim said:
Hi..
Due to some odd things, downloading expansions to programs and games it
allways ends upp on c for some reason (probably in a tempfile). In the
begining i had the OS-partion (C) set to 14 GB and thought that would be
enough but no, I am installing everything else on other partions. Now i
need
to extend it and repartion. Which program should i use (preferable for
free)?
Is there any problems i should expect? I'll of course take a safetycopy of
all important stuff, like favorits and latest saved stuff in programs and
such.
thanks
Click to expand...

The "free" repartitioning program is Diskpart, which comes with XP.
However, it can't change the size of the system partition without deleting
it first, and this is done as part of a clean install.

Unfortunately, you're not in a good position, but fortunately, it's not
going to be difficult to back up data from a 14 gig partition.

Aside from what I describe below, I don't know of any other free
partitioning programs that would be worth more than their price. And with
any partition changes like this, you really do need to take a full backup
before doing anything.

There is a workaround you can try *if* you also want to shift to a new,
larger hard disk or have another larger disk that you can use as an
intermediate stage. Download the Acronis TrueImage free trial, install
it, then clone the C partition manually to the larger disk, changing the
partition size as desired. Then, you can clone or copy the other
partitions. Swap disks, and clone the clone back to the original drive
after being sure that the clone works perfectly - you are after all
destroying your backup in this step. If this description is unclear to
you, I suggest that you not attempt the procedure.

Really, though, it would be better to start fresh with a new install to a
larger partition.

This problem is why I personally use all the space on a disk for a
partition; if I need to use drive letters, I can always map or subst to get
the drive letter, and the only limitation is the physical size of the drive.

HTH
-pk
 
Tried the partionprogram from terabyte, but couldn't get to the setup. I've
followed all the steps on the videos but nothing explains how to overcome
this problem. I have created the .ISO-file but nothing happends. Thinking
about using the acronis but it feels a bit drastic to spend 49:99 on a
program i'm just about to use 1 time! Help?
Thanks for the other useful sugestions! Have temporarely solved it by
compressing all the data on C but in a few days I'll get the same message
again.
 
Joakim

A 14 gb partition is perfectly adequate for a Windows Partition, if you
have sufficient space on a second partition or a second drive to
relocate data etc. Don't forget you can uninstall and reinstall
programmes elsewhere if you need further space. I did not suggest this
because it involves more effort. Compressing the disk, as opposed to
compressing particular files, is not the answer as it will slow system
performance.

If you follow through all the suggestions I made you should end up with
a reasonable amount of free disk space on C. I current am using 9 gb on
my C partition and that includes a 2 gb pagefile, which could be
relocated to the first parition of the second if I needed to do so.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
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