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Question

Hard Drive questions

May 6, 2015 1:19AM PDT

So for over a week i have had a new desktop PC, and the HDD is apparently partitioned to both a C drive and a D drive, and with the C drive almost getting full. So what I want to know is, why was it partitioned in the first place? Also is there anyway of letting the C drive have more space?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
It's your or the installer's choice to do that.
May 6, 2015 1:25AM PDT

There are some dated ideas that you put the OS on C and other things on D. There's also machines with a small SSD for C and D is a classic HDD.

I'm running into folk that don't know their hardware. We have to pop the lid and show them the 2 drives.
Bob

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And if it is a name brand computer like Dell or HP
May 6, 2015 2:47PM PDT

they usually put the system restoration on the D drive. So D should be smaller and you are not suppose to put anything else on D. In some systems D is a hidden partition.

What Windows are you running? What size is your C drive? Usually C is very large and on newer computers should be big enough to hold all your stuff. Can you go to the Directory listing and right click on C and look at the properties? If your C drive is filling up, what are you putting on it? Maybe you have some malware or virus?

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reply
May 6, 2015 5:13PM PDT

I'm running Windows 8.1 and the size of the C drive is 149GB while the D drive is 764GB. I am mainly putting games on I find on Steam and various other websites across the net. What I am looking for when going into the properties of the C drive?

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Re: reply
May 6, 2015 5:22PM PDT

Why not put those games on the d:-drive?

Kees

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Starting to sound like 2 drives.
May 6, 2015 11:06PM PDT

There are machines with a boot SSD and a bit HDD. How many drives show up in Disk Management?
Bob

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That may be because of.....
May 7, 2015 11:27AM PDT

...having two recovery partitions? Has anyone thought that strange?

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reply
May 7, 2015 4:18PM PDT

I thought it was strange altogether, which lead me to believe there were 2 HDDs. Still the thing is a whole now.

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Answer
Re: why was it parttioned
May 6, 2015 5:02PM PDT

if it's one physical disk indeed, that's a question for the person who did it. And, if you don't like it, it's up to you do either (1) change the partitioning or (2) change settings and habits and start using that d:-drive.
If it are 2 physical disks, you only have option (2).

Kees

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reply
May 6, 2015 5:15PM PDT

I wouldn't know how to do any of that. See when I saw it online, it said it was a 1TB HDD, but nothing about it possibly being a partitioned or two HDDs.

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Re: HDD
May 6, 2015 5:20PM PDT

So you have 1 HDD of 1 TB that is partitioned. What are the statistics for the c: and the d: (used space and free space)?

Kees

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Answer
Most system today come
May 6, 2015 9:20PM PDT

with a boot drive and a data drive. Most of the time the drive will be C (OS) D system restore and the data is E. Typically they don't partisan a Hard with 149 GB on a 1 TB drive. Usually they would go 500 and 500 with 30 or so for the restore of the boot drive. Typically a boot drive that small would be a SSD. But that is typical. You can look in Disk Mgmt and see the drive information or there is a program you can download called Belarc that will show you your computer hardware specs and software that's loaded and their keys.

Vendors partisan drives to separate data volumes from the OS. You should use D as your data drive and where you install the applications.

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reply
May 7, 2015 2:31AM PDT

So both you and Bob have said to look into the disk management. How do I do this?

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For Windows 7
May 7, 2015 2:54AM PDT

Click start, help and type in Disk Management. There are now tomes on the web about it's use.
Bob

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reply
May 7, 2015 5:46AM PDT
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So now you kinow it's one disk indeed.
May 7, 2015 5:54AM PDT

That leads again to:
(1) use a partition editor to merge those 2 partitions or make one smaller and the other large
(2) start using that d:-drive to store things on, or
(3) both
I you feel you can't do (1) yourself have it done by a repair shop.

Kees

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reply
May 7, 2015 5:59AM PDT

Has I always lead to believe though that it's the C drive that stores things from your documents to your program files. Doesn't it matter in this case? Is it just simply redirecting the file path?

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Re: redirecting
May 7, 2015 6:27AM PDT

- For programs, most installers lets you chose on which drive you want to install the program. Once installed, you can't move them, but have to uninstall from the c: and reinstall on the d:
- For your My Documents and such, use the link Bob supplied to move it from c: to d:
- For all stuff you store in a folder outside your My Documents/Pictures etc, you can make folder on any drive you want. That's fully up to you how to organise your own PC.

Things that have to be on the c:-drive:
- Windows folder
- the subfolders of Program Files and Program Files (x86) that came with Windows or the PC
- hibernate and swap file
- the Users folder with a subfolder for every user - it contains a lot of subfolders and settings that are needed, but (as Bob said) you can move your documents, video's, pictures out of it
- system restore data assocated with Windows and Program Files on the c:-drive.
Usually, it won't be more than 100 GB at most, most likely about half, if you clean it a little bit once in a while with the Disc Cleanup Wizard and don't allocate too much space for the system restore data (10 GB max is more than enough)

If your 149 GB c:-drive is getting full, you've got some work to do.

Kees

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Nod to Kees. But what does Bob use?
May 7, 2015 5:57AM PDT
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No. C does not have to hold your files or docs.
May 7, 2015 6:12AM PDT
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reply
May 7, 2015 6:19AM PDT

Is Gparted a good third party software to help give back space to the C drive? Also I've just read that you can do it with Windows.

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Now I have to write no.
May 7, 2015 6:22AM PDT

Even my sharing "it's what I use" along with google links has not given you enough positive feedback so I think you'll have to find what you feel comfortable with.

-> And again. Anyone that does this without backup is also comfortable with high wire acting without a net.
Bob

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reply
May 7, 2015 8:36AM PDT

Right I've managed to give all remaining space to C drive, so there is no longer a D. I did this through Disk Management.

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Even better.
May 7, 2015 9:22AM PDT

I can't guess if the installer (the folk that set this up) used dynamic disks or other. Which is why I use Gparted all the time.
Bob

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Reply
May 7, 2015 10:11AM PDT

Well everything seems to be in order when I did it that way and C drive has all the space, but I will keep in mind about Gparted an thank you and everyone else for the help.

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For Windows 8 and 8.1
May 7, 2015 4:06AM PDT
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Answer
A parting thought.
May 8, 2015 1:42AM PDT

If it's working fine now, STOP FIXING IT.

And again, make a backup image so you can recover to your happy point/place.
Bob