files and settings transfer wizard

[thymekiller]

I'm working on a computer running Win XP. We had previously installed a second, bigger hard drive, so she wouldnt lose any space on her c drive, which is only 9GB. Problem is, she's now down to about 147MB on the C drive, and we are afraid of a crash. Can I use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to move some of her programs to the bigger drive?? The new drive is 120 GB, and we want to just leave the operating system on the C drive, and move everything else. We have already run the disk cleanup wizard, emptied temp folders, and deleted unused programs (except for Quicken...it doesnt seem to want to uninstall...), Any suggestions would be helpful...it almost seems to be losing drive space just sitting there...
thanks a bunch!!! thyme

 

[sy2]

Off the bat, I'd recommend running CCleaner to free up some space.

Second, I would think that you could just drag and drop any files you want to move through Windows Explorer.

 

[Old Rich]

Not easy to move programs, but you can move the files by right clicking on My Documents . . select Properties . . click the Move button and naviate to the second drive . . it will ask if you want to move the files, say yes and it will do it for you.

Once you do that, all Windows programs that save to My Documents will save to the new location.

Using windows disc cleanup or ccleaner is a good idea also.

 

[sy2]

Ahhh... moving "programs"

Yeah, you're best bet is to just uninstall and reinstall the programs to the new drive. It's hard to just move them because they create entries in the Windows registry when you first install them. If you the move the program files, the registry entries won't be valid anymore, so the program will most likely break.

 

[thymekiller]

Well, I was over there earlier today, and we freed up some space, but I noticed that her Primary hard drive is devided into 2 partitions (C:\ and D:\) - is there an easy way to get rid of the second partition, and just "merge" whats on both drives into one single C:\ drive?? Also, I noticed shes using the old Fat32 file system. Should that be converted to NTFS? Would it make a difference in drive space? The D:\partition is showing to have over 5 GB of space, but C:\is showing less than a GB. the secondary drive has over 100GB of space left. Any advice would surely be appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[thymekiller]

Ok, I think I understand...after further research, I believe I can go into Computer Management, and delete the D:\ partition, making sure to back it up first to another drive. Once I have done that, then the C:\ drive should regain all of the space that the D:\ partition was using...is this correct, or is that too easy??? That would sure help with this issue...then we just uninstall and reinstall the programs to the second drive, to maintain drive space on C:\.

 

[sy2]

I'm not sure if that will work or not, actually; I think you may need a program like partition magic. I would do some Google searching on merging partitions before doing anything, because you don't want to lose all of your data.

 

[DoubleHelix]

CCleaner is useless in reclaiming disk space. It deletes temporary files. They're re-created during computer use as needed.

What type of information is on the D: drive? If it's data, it can be copied to another drive. If programs are installed on it, you'll face a disaster if you try to copy it and delete the partition.

You're not going to be able to merge two partitions (C: & D without a third-party utility such as Partition Magic.

The easiest solution would be to clone the existing drive to the new larger drive and just take out the smaller one.

 

[thymekiller]

I'm pretty sure the D:\ partition is just a data drive. Win XP is installed on the c:\ partition of the drive. I'm also sure all programs are on the C:\ partition as well. What we want to do here is continue to run XP on the C:\ drive, eliminate the D:\ partition, and use the bigger G:\ drive for music storage, pics, and programs. Thats why we are trying to leave both drives in the computer.

 

[thymekiller]

After a little more research, let me ask this: if this partition is not a system partition, and all files have been backed up to a different drive, could I then go into computer management, and delete just that partition, then resize my C: partition to the size of the primary hard drive?? And do this without losing anything on the system partition??

 

[thymekiller]

By the way, the other reason we are trying to keep the smaller HDD is because the installation of XP was an upgrade install-if I reformat the whole drive, I believe I will be unable to reinstall XP...

 

[dobbelina]

After a little more research, let me ask this: if this partition is not a system partition, and all files have been backed up to a different drive, could I then go into computer management, and delete just that partition, then resize my C: partition to the size of the primary hard drive?? And do this without losing anything on the system partition??

I still think you need a third party utility to resize/merge the drive....
Here's a freebie utility to that does just that:
http://zeleps.com/

 

[thymekiller]

I think you may be right...thanks for the link-I'll try it tomorrow when I go over there again. I have read that i can delete the partition in disk management, but I cant reclaim that space (ie-"grow") the C: drive back without the third party utility. I'm a little concerned about the ability to run under XP, but then again, they are Fat32 partitions...

 

[Doom_Machine]

just use system suite 5, it has a utility that will backup and restore any installed program, it finds all the registry entries and any file associated with it, then compresses it all to where ever you want, works good