[alicem]

How Can I delegate more space to my drive H:/ that I am running for my winxp files? I get a virtual memory error at times.
I have TWO local discs no my hard drive.
C:\ Used space 9.42GB FREE spcace 135GB NTFS Capacity 144 GB
H:\ Used space 3.67GB FREE spcace 477MB NTFS Capacity 4.14 GB
I have two copies of winxp running on my pc. The updated and best working is on drive H:\. Now I see that drive h is alot smaller then c:\. Should I delegate more space to H:\? Also is it possible to remove the windows folder on c:\ so i don't have two operating systems? Right now i have drive H:\ and operating winxp system running great. Just updated it with sp3 and removed a virus. So don't want to mess with that. Thank You for any assistance you may have. This info i copied must not be H:\ local disk. I have downloaded sp3 and win updates that are not showing there. Please forgive my ignorance in this matter.

Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.2
OS Version: Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 2, 32 bit
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3000+, x86 Family 6 Model 10 Stepping 0
Processor Count: 1
RAM: 447 Mb
Graphics Card: VIA/S3G UniChrome IGP, 64 Mb
Hard Drives: C: Total - 148372 MB, Free - 138720 MB; H: Total - 4245 MB, Free - 475 MB;
Motherboard: ASUSTek Computer INC., Kelut
Antivirus: AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2012, Updated: Yes, On-Demand Scanner: Disabled

[Macboatmaster]

You do indeed have a problem
The main problem is the one you have highlighted. The drive H is too small in capacity to run anything except the basic XP Operating system. Even then all your personal data would have to be stored on another drive and all programs would have to be on another drive. Basically it is a non-starter to even consider running windows on that drive.

Is H a separate drive, or more likely I think a partition of the other drive lettered C.

Additionally to that you have only 512Mb of ram, the reason 447 is shown, is that 64Mb is being used by your graphics. So really you do not have enough ram to run the system with any real efficiency

Go Control Panel, admin tools, computer management and disk management
On the window that opens, you will see at the top of the window your drives listed

Then on the lower part of the window you will see that they are shown as drive 0 and 1 etc.
Drive letters are allocated by Windows, so that A and B are reserved basically for floppy drives
C is the first letter for a hard drive.

If H is a partition of C it will be shown on the same line as drive 0 with the letters C and H and depending on how the drive was set up possibly another letter

If it is a separate drive it will be shown on a separate line.

See my screenshot - so on that the internal hard drive has aprtitions C, D, E and I

[alicem]

MacBoatmaster

Thank You for your reply. I followed your advice and this is what I found.

(Top of page)
(C Partion Basic NTFS Healthy (System) 144.89 GB 93% No 0%

(H Partion Basic NTFS Healthy 4.15 GB 4% No 0%


(Bottom of Page)

Disk 0

Basic (H (C
149.04 4.15 GB NTFS 144.89 GB NTFS
Online Healthy Healthy (System)

So what does this tell me? What do I do Next?

[alicem]

Thank You!

[Macboatmaster]

If those lettered drives H and C are listed on the line under disk 0 as the C, D, E and I are on my screenshot it means that H and C are NOT separate drives but merely partitions on the drive.

The easiest and indeed the most suitable option is to concentrate on the Windows installation on C drive.

Then when you have that updated and running, we can look at what is on C partition and generally clean up that installation which you can then use with safety.

The immediate concern is as I mentioned the drastic lack of space on the partition H.

My advice to you, which you should I think treat as URGENTLY in need of you attention is to COPY your personal documents, music and images from the douments and settings on H Drive, do NOT copy the folders, that will not work, copy ONLY the files - If you have an external drive copy them there.

If you do not copy them to a CD/DVD - or to a flash drive and then to a new folder in docs and settings on another computer.

Then when you have them secure and you have CHECKED that they are all there.
COPY them to the C partition to the docs and settings - Users, _ you of course, and then to the folders My Docs, My pictures, My Music.

CHECK again then that you can access them and the DELETE them from H


What programs, if any are installed on H that are NOT on C.

[alicem]

OK Have all documents copied to disk and usb drive. They are secure and checked. Nothing on H: that I need on C:\. So what next? I really appreciate your help.

[Macboatmaster]

What about your programs

If you are certain, that all is now copied, what was the overall quantity of files involved in Mb or Gb
I would then COPY them to the correct places on C Drive.
Please check that you are only copying the actual files

The when you have them on C drive and you know they are accessible and opening correctly you can delete them from H Drive.

That will give you space to work on H Drive.

Then when you have established that all is OK we will either remove H completely and continue with C or we will do the opposite.

OR alternatively we will leave JUST the Windows and Windows ONLY on H, as a back up and you will then work from C.

Really the question cannot be effectively answered until you know that all is correct on the installations.

When you boot do you have the option on the screen to select which Windows installation you wish to boot to.

It may help if you send me a screenshot of disk management and tell me which IF ANY programs are on H but not on C.
Depending on how this was setup programs on C may or may not open from H and the opposite.

Screenshot

With the image on the screen press the prt scr key
Then go start
programs
accessories
Paint
Click the edit tab and click paste
The image will apear in Paint
Click the File tab
Click Save As
the file type defaults on paint to Bitmap
That is too large to attach on this site
Change it to JPEG
Then on your reply go advanced and follow the instructions

[ada101]

Have you tried gparted to shrink the C:\ Drive and allocate more space to the H:\ drive??? It will take a few hours but is worth it:

Live CD download

Video on how to get gparted up (after download iso and burn to cd)

[Macboatmaster]

alicem

With reference to the post from my colleague ada101
It is really a matter of opinion.

Personally I prefer Easeus Partition Manager
http://www.partition-tool.com/easeus-partition-manager/

It is also free and I have found it easier for the inexperienced user to follow with the guidance provided by the Wizard than GParted

HOWEVER I would tend to urge caution.

Were you to have a partition which contained ONLY DATA and not an operating system and wished to extend the operating system partition, that is rather easy.

When however you have two partitions, both of which appear to have XP installed on them and you wish to the shrink C and extend H, it is NOT by any means an assured success without problems.

I would advise you wait and see how progress is made when you have moved data and deleted it from H as per my suggestion.

[alicem]

k have attached screen shot

[alicem]

Also yes there i have two os to choose from at boot up menu.

[ada101]

I find gparted easier to use as all you really have to do to get it going is download, burn, restart, GPARTED

When however you have two partitions, both of which appear to have XP installed on them and you wish to the shrink C and extend H, it is NOT by any means an assured success without problems.

what alicem can do, is name the partition he doesn't want anymore, "xp old" or something, as titles do appear in gparted

[Macboatmaster]

alicem
When you started his topic you had, you said 475Mb of free apace on H Drive
You now only have 282Mb - 6%
Have you NOW deleted those personal data files from the Documents and users on the H installation and is the XP on the C working OK
CAUTION Delete on the actual files from your user account on H drive eg the files of docs, music and pictures you have copied and verified as OK

What programs, are on the H Drive that is on the H drive - Start, My Computer and then Programs
and are these same programs on the C Drive and do they work on that drive - partition.

On either boot go start, right click My Computer, click Properties on the window that opens click the advanced tab
2.
On the Advanced tab, under Startup and Recovery, click Settings.
3.
Under System startup, in the Default operating system list, click the operating system you want to start when you turn on or restart your computer.
4.
Select the Display list of operating systems for check box, and then type the number of seconds you want the list displayed before the default operating system starts automatically.



So you are going to select the default system as the one on C.
Do not set the time out too short for you to have chance to boot into the one on H if you need to.


Whilst in C you can still explore the folder in H.


I would prefer that you work on the Windows installation in C and get that updated and correct.
The relatively minor consideration of the operating system also installed on H, will when you have C
installation correct and all working well, be of no great consequence. It is such a small percentage of the total capacity of the drive that it is best left, for a number of reasons.

I consider this far safer than the shrinking of the C partition and the extending of the H partition.
INDEED however safe either tool is, or if it could be used Disk Management in XP, but it cannot be used in these circumstances, THERE is a risk.

However small that risk I see no reason at this stage to take it.

If you had for instance Windows installed on a partition and another partition with data, and the data partition had plenty of free space and the windows (system) partition was SHORT of space, then the resizing of the partition would be the way to go.

HOWEVER in your case I consider it an unnecessary risk

Here is what Easeus warns

Tips: It is important to backup data before resizing partition, because nothing is 100% secure.

and here is what
GParted says

Of course you have to realize I cannot give any guarantees, so you should probably make a backup of important data before toying with your partitions.

I am signing off - back about 1800hrs

[DoubleHelix]

I've used both and don't have an opinion one way or another. You have to be very careful making partition changes. You need to have all your data backed up. There's always the risk something could go wrong.

[ada101]

Personally i think the easiest way to do this is to put all your personal data from C: and H; onto an external HD, then either delete the C: partition and make H: large enough to fill the HD, or make C: smaller, and H: bigger, Which will be slower. I have run gparted and made partitions smaller/larger dozens of times and have never lost data, though have backed up just in case