Lap top with 2 hard drives one nearly full

bolla

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Hi
My laptop has 2 hard drives C drive is 30.0GB and X drive is 65.1 GB the operating system is on the C drive and when ever I do or save any thing it automatically gets saved to the C drive. The C drive is now nearly full, what is the best way to fix this?
The lap top is a fujitsu siemens with vista
I know very little about computers so plese keep it simple
Thanks
 
er, move some of the saved stuff that's cluttering up C drive to X :nenau

not programs etc. just the porn and such like.
 
If using XP, you can choose where to keep your 'My Documents', look it up on Google, when you choose to change it to X drive, it will move all exicting docs as well so should free up some space. Use Ccleaner to clean and maintain not only the drive but the registry as well.
HTH
 
I would buy/borrow a USB hard drive caddy and create an image of your ikkle 30gb then buy a proper size hd 160-500gb and place that image onto it therefore keeping everything the same but giving you more space :) macrium reflect is the software I use for creating and restoring images of hd
 
Popell said:
If using XP, you can choose where to keep your 'My Documents', look it up on Google, when you choose to change it to X drive, it will move all exicting docs as well so should free up some space. Use Ccleaner to clean and maintain not only the drive but the registry as well.
HTH
Click to expand...

You can do the same on Vista and Win7 as well. On Win7 it's pretty painless, not tried it on Vista. I do this with my games PC which has a small C: drive (an SDD for faster booting) and a large D: drive (standard SATA one). Move over my documents, my music and the downloads folder and everything gets much smaller on the C: drive.

Only thing I've not worked out how to do yet is move the default install path to be D: rather than C: so I have to think about it when I'm installing something new.
 
I have put this really simply ,not trying to insult your intelligence.., I don't know your knowledge and this should be easy to follow, which is the intention...If you get to do an install and it is showing the path of the install as for example C:\program files\bla bla
then if you click into that field just in front of the C... so between c and colon.. press back space to delete the c , and then type D..... it will install on your d drive..........
 
rodders said:
then if you click into that field just in front of the C... so between c and colon.. press back space to delete the c , and then type D..... it will install on your d drive..........
Click to expand...

Not sure if that's aimed at me? If so, yes, I appreciate that's how easy it is, but I'm talking about setting it to default to D: rather than requiring me to remember to click on customise (if there is a customise option) every time.
The other problem is that if changing the default updates the environmental variable that points at the ProgramFiles directory I'm guessing that could cause a lot of pain for programs that are already installed there, which is another reason I've not looked too closely into it.
Badly coded programs / installers can't really be got around which is why I think cookie is coming from but the price difference between SSD and standard SATA drives prohibits an install of everything onto the C: drive.
Appreciate the thought around the advice though.
 
turbine_2 said:
Not sure if that's aimed at me? If so, yes, I appreciate that's how easy it is, but I'm talking about setting it to default to D: rather than requiring me to remember to click on customise (if there is a customise option) every time.
The other problem is that if changing the default updates the environmental variable that points at the ProgramFiles directory I'm guessing that could cause a lot of pain for programs that are already installed there, which is another reason I've not looked too closely into it.
Badly coded programs / installers can't really be got around which is why I think cookie is coming from but the price difference between SSD and standard SATA drives prohibits an install of everything onto the C: drive.
Appreciate the thought around the advice though.
Click to expand...

+1 for Cookie turbine_2's comments. I really wouldn't install programs on a secondary drive, for the reason turbine_2 outlines. Had a guy at work who installed the Adobe suite on a secondary drive and it was forever causing problems. Unless you've got mega bucks, SSDs are really only good for secondary machines.

It's always a good idea to move the 'My Docs'/User folder (depending if you're using XP/7) to a second partition or physical drive. That way, if the OS needs repairing/reinstalling, you don't end up losing all your data too. (Insert usual comment about backing up all your files here!)
 
Windoze 7 change defualt installation path:

For Win7 32 bit
1. Start Registry Editor by entering “Regedit” in the search All programs.

2. Locate the following:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

3. Right click on the value named ProgramFilesDir & change the default value C:\Program Files to the path you want to install all your programs in.

4. Click OK and Exit.

For Win7 64 bit
The 64bit version has two versions of regedit. Make this change as well:

1.) Enter into Start>Run: %systemroot%\syswow64\regedit
2.) Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion
3.) Change the Path in DWORDs ProgramFilesDir, ProgramFilesDir (x86) to the path you want to install all your programs in.
 
It's rare for laptops to have two physical disks, and I wonder if you might have the more usual arrangement of a physical disk made into two partitions.

If this were the case, then something like Partition Manager might allow you to increase the size of the C: partition by reducing the size of the X: partition. Personally I like to do this only after taking a full backup, and booting the machine from a Partition Manager boot CD, rather than relying on any method that uses Windows. I then like to run a full chkdsk once booted back into Windows, just to be certain all is well in the state of Denmark.

I know Windows 7 has integral partition resizing, I just prefer not to use it.
 
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