[kimerskine]

We keep running out of space on our C drive. Our C: drive has about 10 GB of which 8.5 is used. We also have added an F: drive with 54 GB of which 24 is used and a G: drive of 140 GB of which 58 is used. We have windows XP if that helps at all

I am trying to figure out how to move stuff to the other two drives.

THe F: drives has a total copy of the C: drive from Aug last year when we installed it. We haven't deleted anything from it, so that when I get delete happy and take out something important I can always find it in F:

I was wondering if I can move things like Microsoft Office over there and Quicken, how about spybot and ad-aware? and AOL? Should i be nervous that there are dormant viruses in the unused files? If I move them what will happen to the registry, the .dll files etc.

Our G: drive houses all pictures and Camera and Video software.

Can somebody help with this... I never know what I can delete and what needs to stay...

Is the fact that the C: drive is so full what is making it soooooo slow?

This all came to light as Iwas trying to install service pack 2 and it said I didn't have enough space.

Thank you in advance...

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Hi kimerskine...Welcome to G2G!

Where do I start?????

Slowness can be caused by any number of things including malware and virus infection. You can run "Disk Clean-up" and "Disk Defragmenter" (found under System Tools) to help speed things up. Temporary Internet files will also slow things down, so it wouldn't hurt to empty the Temporary Internet Folder. Malware is a bit tougher and is best handled by the experts in our Malware Forum...there are some good tools available there that can go a long way towards setting things right.

Transfering files from drive to drive is as easy as copy and paste...the trick is to remember where you put them so you can open them later. Identical folder names in each drive will make this a little easier.

Programs are another issue. An application will save it's data wherever you tell it to, but will only run on the drive to which it is installed. I have my applications installed on my C drive, but save all my data on my D drive. I also keep a backup of all my data in a folder on my E drive (in a zip format) and backup once a week to that folder.

If you have applications installed on your D drive, you can place a shortcut to them on the desktop and run them from that drive. Once again, you can save the data wherever you choose. If you want to move an application from one drive to another, it will have to be installed to the drive you want it to run from. The way I have set my machine up has proven to be very trouble free.

The importance of running spyware and anti-virus programs on ALL drives regularly is paramount. Anymore, surfing the net is like swimming in the sewer...you've got to protect yourself from the nasties around you and constantly monitor the health of your machine.

Looking at the way your machine is configured, I would put the applications on one of the larger drives and use the C drive for the operating system only.

Whew!!! Did I cover everything? If you have any more questions, please post back to this thread...there are lots of great folks here willing to help!

wannabe1

Edited by wannabe1, 09 September 2005 - 07:10 PM.

[wannabe1]

Hi kimerskine...Welcome to G2G!

Where do I start?????

Slowness can be caused by any number of things including malware and virus infection. You can run "Disk Clean-up" and "Disk Defragmenter" (found under System Tools) to help speed things up. Temporary Internet files will also slow things down, so it wouldn't hurt to empty the Temporary Internet Folder. Malware is a bit tougher and is best handled by the experts in our Malware Forum...there are some good tools available there that can go a long way towards setting things right.

Transfering files from drive to drive is as easy as copy and paste...the trick is to remember where you put them so you can open them later. Identical folder names in each drive will make this a little easier.

Programs are another issue. An application will save it's data wherever you tell it to, but will only run on the drive to which it is installed. I have my applications installed on my C drive, but save all my data on my D drive. I also keep a backup of all my data in a folder on my E drive (in a zip format) and backup once a week to that folder.

If you have applications installed on your D drive, you can place a shortcut to them on the desktop and run them from that drive. Once again, you can save the data wherever you choose. If you want to move an application from one drive to another, it will have to be installed to the drive you want it to run from. The way I have set my machine up has proven to be very trouble free.

The importance of running spyware and anti-virus programs on ALL drives regularly is paramount. Anymore, surfing the net is like swimming in the sewer...you've got to protect yourself from the nasties around you and constantly monitor the health of your machine.

Looking at the way your machine is configured, I would put the applications on one of the larger drives and use the C drive for the operating system only.

Whew!!! Did I cover everything? If you have any more questions, please post back to this thread...there are lots of great folks here willing to help!

wannabe1

Edited by wannabe1, 09 September 2005 - 07:10 PM.

[kimerskine]

Can I ask a stupid question? What are Operating system files and how do I keep just them on the c: drive?

I have done something in trying to clean my drive... I have moved or deleted something that makes me unable to add or remove programs or use the help program...

What I think you might be saying is that I should mirror my c:drive in F or G.. moving programs to those drives but leaving operating files on C:

Is this correct?

We just seem to have so much $%$^&*&* on our computer and I am not sure what are duplicates... This is going to take a while I can just tell!!

Thanks in advance for your help!!!!

[Tyger]

There is software that can tell you if you have duplicate files on your computer.

[wannabe1]

Hello again...

"Can I ask a stupid question?"

There's no such thing as a stupid question!

"I have done something in trying to clean my drive... helpsmilie.gif I have moved or deleted something that makes me unable to add or remove programs or use the help program..."

Do a System Restore to a point before you deleted the critical file. Start point to All Programs then to Accessories then to System Tools and choose System Restore. It should be set by default to "Restore my computer to an earlier time"...if it is not, put a tick in the box. Choose a bold date in the calendar to restore to earlier than the time your problem began and click "Next" Let it restore. This should return the funtions to "Add/Remove Programs", etc...

"What I think you might be saying is that I should mirror my c:drive in F or G.. moving programs to those drives but leaving operating files on C:"

That would be one way to do it, but you would also be moving the operating system that way. That would be ok, too...you could use the smaller C drive for backups, etc...
However...If you have all of your Program installation disks, the way to do it would be to uninstall the programs from "Add/ Remove Programs" or their own uninstall engines if they have one and reinstall them on the drive of your choice...then move all of your data files with the copy funtion to the same folder on the new drive. Once that is done and you have verified that they open and work as they are supposed to, you can safely delete them from the C drive or cut and paste them to a backup location. (Sounds difficult, but really isn't).

"We just seem to have so much $%$^&*&* on our computer and I am not sure what are duplicates..."

If you think duplicate files will be a problem, once everything is working on the other drive, you can reinstall XP on the C drive.

Please read "Rule #1" in my signature...post back if you have any questions!

wannabe1

Edited by wannabe1, 09 September 2005 - 08:42 PM.

[Guse]

In all likelyhood, your C drive is not "out of space". If you have 1.5GB of HDD space free, that should be more than enough for the paging file (usually equal to 125% of memory) and any spooling going on (the act of the computer "storing" printed documents so they can be queued).

However, if you're truely worried about free space on your C drive, there are a couple of things you could do.

1) You can go to your Add or Remove Programs in your Control Panel, take a look through, and uninstall any programs that you know haven't been used for a while.

2) You can download, install and run CleanUp!. This is a severe program, but one that will totally destroy any and all temp/temporary files.

3) You can move the paging file for your computer to an alternate drive. This is the most... difficult for some users and should only be done as a last resort.

4) Lastly, you can make sure the hibernation support isn't somehow active. For this, again go to your Control Panel, choose Appearance and Themes, Display, Screen Saver tab, Power button and finally Hibernate.

As for "undoing" what you've already done, listen to wannabe1. He's right on with the system restore.

[wannabe1]

Hey...Thanx guys! Good info...

I'm gonna miss Bart, Tyger....

wannabe1

[kimerskine]

Thanks for this info I will keep it when I get the yucky stuff out... I need to go to Malware as I keep trying to take stuff out and I actually end up with less room than more... I am not sure why I keep losing space when I am deleteing programs ... So will check with Malware forum to see if they an help... then be back to follw this stuff through

Kim