Where to put large programs ?

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My C drive is full due to Photosop, Quickbooks, Dreamweaver etc. How should I
move these large programs to another drive properly? Can this be done? I have
lits of space on the D drive, and I just bought another hard drive as well
with 300 GB.
 
Can't just move them.

Bet bet is to uninstall and reinstall.

Moving them is tedious and usually unsuccessful.

Make sure to back up and create a restore point first.
 
To move major programs it is usually necessary to un-install/re-install
them. A simple cut&paste will not work.

A couple of suggestions on general disk organization:

1. Have multiple partitions, each dedicated to a specific class of files.
For example C: = operating system and really important or system-level
software, like virus scanner aand firewall. D: = other programs. E: =
large data bases for programs. For example, Delorme Street Atlas plus Phone
Search installs a DVD's worth of data for quicker access than from the DVD.
F: = user data files, like DOC, XLS, JPG. G: = videos like MPEG, AVI. H: =
backup of C: and E: via GHOST, Trueimage, etc. for easy restore Of course,
a good backup should also be off the PC, such as on DVDs or USB hard drive.
I: = backup of personal files, via copy&paste, or better via XCOPY (see
below). Such files should also be saved off of the PC. J: = temporary
files, like windows pagefile. These are just some suggestions, and what is
best you could be different. By the way, the drive letters are arbitrary in
terms of what they contain, except for C: which almost always should contain
the operating system.

2. Where possible, do not install programs on C:, since that slows down the
backup/recovery operation of the operating system. And, sooner or later you
will need to do that.

3. Once your personal data and large program data sets has been separated
from the operating system and program executable files, you can then use the
simple routine "XCOPY" to backup the data. XCOPY is supported from DOS
through XP and has the ability to copy only newer files. So, after the
first usage, which will be slow, incremental backups will be easy.

If you are unfamiliar with making and using multiple partitions, look into a
program called Partition Magic, now sold by Symantec. Download the manual
and get some ideas what is possible. While I personally have had good luck
with this program, you might also want to check into the competing products.
Try a web search on "partition change" or similar.
 
mrjohnny said:
My C drive is full due to Photosop, Quickbooks, Dreamweaver etc. How
should I
move these large programs to another drive properly? Can this be done? I
have
lits of space on the D drive, and I just bought another hard drive as well
with 300 GB.
Click to expand...


mrjohnny:
You didn't indicate the capacity of your present C: HD but I assume it's
considerably smaller than the 300 GB drive you just bought.

Assuming that's so, it would seem the most sensible approach would be to
clone the contents of your C: drive to the new 300 GB HD. In doing so, you
would have (for all practical purposes) an exact duplicate of your present
boot drive including the OS and all programs & data. But on a 300 GB HD. To
do so, you would need a disk imaging program such as Symantec's Norton Ghost
to carry out the cloning operation. It's a relatively simple &
straightforward process even if you haven't done this before. Another
alternative would be to use the disk copying (cloning) utility that is
nearly always provided by the HD manufacturer either included with the
retail boxed HD or generally available from the manuf. website. The
advantage of using a commercial disk imaging program such as the one I
mentioned is that it's usually considerably faster re transferring data and
sometimes a bit easier to use than the manufacturer's utility. And the
commercial products are more ideally suited for routine cloning of your HD
for later systematic backup purposes should you decide to use the program
for this purpose.

It you want to go this route and you also decide to multi-partition your 300
GB HD, this should be done before the cloning operation by installing your
300 GB HD as a secondary drive and using the built-in XP Disk Management
utility to create these partitions.
Anna
 
How many physical drives did you start with? One partitioned into C and D,
or two individuals? If it is one you can use a partition manager such as
Partition Magic to re size what you have into a larger C drive.
 
Bob, I have a slight issue with one of your statements. In your point 2 you
state not to install programs on C. I know your reasoning but if you have
to restore the OS you will also have to restore all the programs installed
by that OS unless you have an exact current copy of the OS when it failed.
Installing anything after the OS backup is made and then restore your system
from that backup, the system can become unstable. Yes it takes longer to
backup the C drive with the OS and programs included on that drive but you
always have a current registry/program match.
 
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