[adifrank]

Hi. I'm trying to help out a friend who has kind of made a mess of his filing system across multiple hard drive partitions and I have questions regarding moving what seem to possibly be system related files from one partition to another.

Here's the deal...

First of all, he's running WinXP. He has a 500 GB drive split into two partitions:
C: about 400 GB
D: about 100 GB

Windows has been installed on D: which I suppose originally was intended to be a System dedicated partition. In actuallity, he has personal files in both C and D. Also it seems that certain programs were set to create and access files on the C partition by default (as C is usually where the system resides) and I assume he did not pay attention to the fact that things which should have been done on his D (system) partition where actually done on his C.

So I'm here trying to clean up things - moving all his personal stuff and Windows special folders to C and keeping his D partition clean of clutter - pure system stuff.


Now, the reason I'm posting here is regarding those files and folders currently located on the C partition which I think should be in D, yet I'm afraid to just move them there. Possibly moving these files from their current location will cause things to stop functioning.

Some of the files are even faded meaning that they are hidden files, which just strenghtens my notion that moving these files could be harmul.

I'd really appreciate advice on this.

Here's what his C partition looks like:


Notice the hidden files such as: System Volume Information (which is not accessible, I can't open the folder), boot.ini, MSOcache, Config.msi... etc.
I have no idea what these are or what they are for. If someone could please advise me if whether or not these can be moved, if they in fact SHOULD be moved (to the D partition), or if if I can just safely delete them.

Then there are two folders with names that are just a long string of numbers and letters. They too seem like they might be related to the system and I don't know what to do with them.

The first is 8b563b59fb8fe85e2d03621b. Here is its contents:



And here is the other one - titled 7107714b0fd07609f3bd



Thats it for now.

Looking forward to your replies.... Thx!

EDIT: sorry about the awkward pics, he only has Paint which i've never used before and don't know how to crop with it.

Edited by adifrank, 01 September 2010 - 06:03 AM.

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Howszit adifrank?

Uh... Since the system was setup with D: having the Windows folder, the boot sector in C is looking there.... Why mess with it if its working ok? What I see down here sometimes is the C drive is limited to like 20 GBs and has a HUGE drive D partition, but of course Windows Updates eventually fills up the small Drive C...

Do not move, (OR ATTEMPT TO MOVE THOSE HIDDEN FOLDERS). It appears that you have unticked the "Hide Protected System Operating Files" in the view options. They appear to have been updates that have come through and have already been processed

I personally like having all the hard drive space available to my system so do not normally have more than one partition on a drive, but there are some advantages to it. You didn't include a pic of the Drive D contents. Is the Documents & Settings folder in that partition? That is probably why you 're getting a split in where things are being saved. Also the program file folder is probably there as well. As long as his programs know where they are to save the info, (Drive C would be the choice I guess), there's no real harm being done. Each program needs to be set to do that or it will not happen automatically. Email, for instance, will be in the Doc & setting folder on D in the profile being used. If he uses Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail or whatever, change that so it will use his large Drive C.

Hope this helps...

[Mark D]

Howszit adifrank?

Uh... Since the system was setup with D: having the Windows folder, the boot sector in C is looking there.... Why mess with it if its working ok? What I see down here sometimes is the C drive is limited to like 20 GBs and has a HUGE drive D partition, but of course Windows Updates eventually fills up the small Drive C...

Do not move, (OR ATTEMPT TO MOVE THOSE HIDDEN FOLDERS). It appears that you have unticked the "Hide Protected System Operating Files" in the view options. They appear to have been updates that have come through and have already been processed

I personally like having all the hard drive space available to my system so do not normally have more than one partition on a drive, but there are some advantages to it. You didn't include a pic of the Drive D contents. Is the Documents & Settings folder in that partition? That is probably why you 're getting a split in where things are being saved. Also the program file folder is probably there as well. As long as his programs know where they are to save the info, (Drive C would be the choice I guess), there's no real harm being done. Each program needs to be set to do that or it will not happen automatically. Email, for instance, will be in the Doc & setting folder on D in the profile being used. If he uses Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail or whatever, change that so it will use his large Drive C.

Hope this helps...

[adifrank]

Thanks Mark D. I like having all system related stuff in one partition for a couple of reasons:
1. in case I need to make a clean install of Windows, I can easily just format the partition and install without losing personal data and without have system files left over in other partitions.
2. i have a small hard drive that used to be in a laptop which I currently use as an external hard drive. I use a free software called Paragon which basically just mirrors my system drive onto that external drive. In theory, as I understand, using the Paragon boot-cd I can basically restore my system to whatever version I have backed up on the external drive. If certain crucial files belonging to the system happened to be located on some other partition - I don't think they would be included in the back-up drive and therefor excluded from the restored system.

That's how I understand it anyway. I could be wrong.

But if I'm right and as you say - those files should absolutely not be moved - then I guess he'll have to live with it and give up the idea of backing up his system.

If i've misunderstood something, please let me know.

Thanks!

[Mark D]

I've always tried to be sure to back up my data files and rebuilt systems from scratch, (after hitting problems with full backup programs). That was years ago, so maybe they gotten better. I use a program now called Allway Synch, which allows you to set up jobs that backup different data folders to external hard drives, USB flash drives or network drives, and it works very well, (the latest version now includes an option to save to an internet backup service, but haven't tried that out yet). I know its nice to have an offsite backup, but if its not equipment I control???

Remember to do maintenance checks on the drive periodically, ( I see so many XP systems just begging for a defrag with the client moaning "It's SOOOO slow...)

Cheers...

[diabillic]

Those long random directories are temporary folders used by Windows Update. It would be wise not to delete them.

[adifrank]

ok. thanks for the help.

For my own computer I also run backup software which is a bit similar to Allway Sync. Its called Synkron. Allway Sync works much faster, but Synkron is free.

Thanks again!