How do I change the size of c drive - SBB Digital Scrapbooking Forums | Scrapbook-Bytes

jenwantstoscrap · #1 (**permalink**) 04-14-2007

I have a laptop that is about 3 months old. Today I was having hang time problems with PSP and it shutdown on me so I went looking for answers. I found that my c drive is almost full but I have a d drive that has 43gb free space on it. So, my question is can I move some of this to the c drive so I can use it? My laptop is suppose to have a 120gb hd which is why I bought this one but most of this is sitting unused. What would be an adequate size for the d drive? At the moment only 32mb are being used on this drive. Can I move things into this drive to free up the c drive? Any answers would be wonderful. Thanks.

Flower Power · #2 (**permalink**) 04-14-2007

My opinion is not to move anything to the d drive. Most programs refer internally to something on the c drive and if it's moved, the program may not run correctly. Pesto could give you better advice if he sees this thread, but I always thought the d drive was for disk restore only. Why don't you get an EHD for your scrapping things? I use two, one for all my photos and one for my scrapping kits, layouts, and other miscellaneous things that I might need to use on the other computer. Good luck!

~Heather W~ · #3 (**permalink**) 04-14-2007

You can't move space from one to the other, but you can store things on the D drive. Think of the drives like big storage containers, one is a shoebox and the other the box from a case of paper - there's no way you can "add" the space from the case of paper to the shoebox, but if there are too many things in the shoebox, you can put them in the case.

(Of course, as Daisy mentioned, you do also need to back up somewhere else if that's what you've been using your second hard drive for.)

I used to have a tiny C drive so I would load new programs onto the D drive and had no problem, but I guess moving programs already in place might be more of a challenge in missing pieces when you move them (I just know enough not to try it

). But there's no reason you can't have files on the other drive. If you store all of your scrapbook pages in a particular folder on the C drive, you can just move that folder to the D drive. Same with your elements, etc.

(I also just asked my husband who spends 90% of his work time repairing laptops, and he said there's a good chance that the D drive is actually a partition of the original drive [think of that like the organizer for holding silverware we put in our drawers - you COULD just throw all of the silverware in one drawer, but it's a lot quicker to find the forks if you use the organizer]. That doesn't really change my answer, but just so you know, there may not actually be two separate hard drives in the laptop.)

coffeequeen · #4 (**permalink**) 04-14-2007

My laptop has an 80GB harddrive and it is divided pretty equally in space between the C and D drives. I keep many elements, kits, and all finished layouts on the D drive, that is, until I back them up to an external harddrive and dvd. Just keep your programs and needed documents, photos, and kits you know you'll be using soon on your C drive and you should have plenty of working space. Just right click on all those pretty layouts and kits and then choose Move To, then choose the D drive and that's all there is to it. YOu can add organizational files to the D drive, same as your C if you like. But as mentioned before, I wouldn't try moving programs.

arti-bytes · #5 (**permalink**) 04-14-2007

The only thing I keep on C are the programs and operating system.
My Documents and everything else automatically go to the D drive.

But at this point, I have three individual hard drives in my computer, so I have lots of room to keep kits etc. EHD is not hooked up at this time.

As long as your computer is not configured to keep the D drive as a back-up, you should be okay to use it for storage of scrapbooking files you create or download.

Do NOT try to move programs unless you uninstall and re-install on the other drive.

jenwantstoscrap · #6 (**permalink**) 04-14-2007

Thanks for answering everyone, you are all very helpful. It appears from the specs that it is one hdd so it must be partitioned. I have been googling for answers and have found that there is some software available to change the size of partitions. Has anyone got any experience with these and can provide feedback. There is very little in the D drive at the moment so I don't think it is a backup.

soniecat · #7 (**permalink**) 04-14-2007

Jen - yes there is software available to change the sizes of the partitions, but I don't believe it can be done while there is data on either drive that you want to keep. Changing the partitions typically wipes all data off the effected drives.

If your C drive is nearing capacity there should be plenty of things you can move to your D drive that won't affect the way your programs run. The best things to move are digital images, scrap supplies, mp3s, documents, any of the stuff you typically keep on your desktop or in My Documents can typically all go to your D drive without messing anything up

Pesto126 · #8 (**permalink**) 04-14-2007

Not true.. you can create partitions at anytime and combine them into larger partitions with data. Look into programs like partition magic.. they work quite well. However, to be honest, for the price of the program you can just buy a nice EHD and use that - that is the route I'd recommend..