[drew00629]

I had problems with vista, so i created a new partition, installed a different version of vista, then formatted the original OS partition. (obviously i had no idea what i was doing, but thats beyond the point)
Now i have a problem with the new partition i created for vista.
The default drive on where to save things is C:
however, C: is my OS drive
how can i change it so that all files are downloaded to D: without manually entering it everytime?

Or, would simply changing the Drive letters work?
if so, how do it do it? Ive tried using the vista maintenance tools, but i get an error saying it cannot be changed because of files in use.

Or, should i get a new harddrive, remove the old drive, install a partition on it named c:, install vista on that. (i would assume the original vista disc i have has the ability to create a partition on it when booting from disc.. its preactivated)

Im not really looking for the easiest or cheapest way to do it. I have just googled the crap out of this, and im not really finding the info im looking for, because im not really sure what its called.
So any suggestions would be very helpful

[Elvandil]

If all you want to do is change your download path, it may be harder than you think since it can be different for every possible file type.

What you need is a good download manager. Though they do not appreciably (or at all) speed up downloads, they certainly have a lot of other features that make them worthwhile.

There are loads of free ones and you may want to find some at a freeware site and try them out. If you use one like GetRight, not only can you specify where to download, but you can even specify to download different file types to different places, pictures to one folder and zip files to another, programs to a third, for example. You can also set up a few download folders and choose among them.

[davehc]

Do you mean downloading in IE 7? If you do, then you get a dialogue box that shows you the
current default folder. You can accept it a, or change it to something else. If you change it, the new folder will become the default in the future.

[xpsolutions?]

If you're using Firefox as your browser, then you can direct your downloads to a drive and folder of your choice. Here's how to...
At the top of the mozilla firefox browser, Click 'Tools' then scroll down and click ' Options' which opens and at the centre or the second box is the 'Download' box. Click on the 'Save files to' and make your choice of drive and folder you want your downloads directed to.

[Elvandil]

Originally Posted by davehc

Do you mean downloading in IE 7? If you do, then you get a dialogue box that shows you the
current default folder. You can accept it a, or change it to something else. If you change it, the new folder will become the default in the future.

That works to some extent, but I find pictures still open the pictures folder by default, and some other file types act in a similar way.

[drew00629]

perhaps i misspoke.
I should have said installation of programs.
they all want to install on c:
and the shortcuts in my start menu (on the right side/documents/user/etc) all take me to c: as well instead of d:

[Elvandil]

Do the shortcuts and so on point to the actual location of the folders? All the things you mentioned are on the OS drive by default and all the programs and registry settings point there. Not all programs will install to a different drive which is why you should allow plenty of room for exapnsion on your system drive.

You can move some folders. This program will help by rewriting the registry entries for you:

Folder Mover can move the following to other drives or partitions:

My Documents
Windows Desktop
IE History
Recent Files
Outlook Express Emails
IE Temporary Files
Windows Temporary Files
IE Favorites

And this:

How to Change the Default Location of the My Documents Folder

[drew00629]

i realize now that i should have allowed much more room on the partition.
the location path changed worked for the start menu, but im going to keep looking for a partition manager that works with vista.
thanks for all the replies guys.

[Elvandil]

Originally Posted by drew00629

i realize now that i should have allowed much more room on the partition.
the location path changed worked for the start menu, but im going to keep looking for a partition manager that works with vista.
thanks for all the replies guys.

I haven't found any partition managers that do not work with Vista. The NTFS partitions are a newer version, but all of them work just fine.

Some will not install to Vista, but that is a different matter. It is always better to partition "offline" when the OS is not running, anyway.

Partitioning Tools-->

Free:

CloneZilla GParted LiveCD (Complete partitioning and drive imaging/restoration tools)
SystemRescueCD
Gparted LiveCD
Parted Magic
Vista Recovery Disk (Shrink, expand, create, delete partitions)
Free Paragon Hard Drive Manager 8.0 Special Edition (Make recovery CD for offline partitioning or defrag.)
XP Recovery Console CD image (Create and delete partitions with diskpart.exe)
Partition Logic
Ranish Partition Manager
Cute Partition Manager

Shareware:

Paragon Partition Manager
Paragon Hard Disk Manager
Terabyte BootIt NG
Acronis Disk Director
V-Com (Avanquest) Partition Commander
EASEUS Partition Manager
7Tools Partition Manager
Spotmau Partition Genius

[VistaRookie]

Someone that has more experience than I, should be able to tell you more about this. But it sounds like it could work?

Rather than change everything, you can fool the system into thinking drive D is drive C.
With DOS you could assign drives. So that D:\=C:\
The SUBST command might be able to be used.

But what one guy says here about using NTFS, is totally above me.

I suggest directly using NTFS "Junction points" to do all this more
flexibly. Right now, you have one huge partition that is associated with C:\
.. Nothing stops you from associating that same partition as D:\ to Windows,
or even associate partitions on another hard drive as "C:\mounted\HD2" from
the OS perspective.

http://www.issociate.de/board/post/2..._on_IIS_6.html