Relocating Hard Drive Capacity and File Compression

[tearsmith]

My computer is a Sony Viao, running Win XP. I have just finished defragmenting my C: drive. While in process I realized that the computer has both a C: drive and a D: drive. The capacity on the C: drive is 16.0GB and free space is about 25%. All the programs and files I have are on the C: drive. The D: drive has a listed capacity of 58.56GB with only .02GB used, leaving 99% free space. I never use the D: drive. Is there a way to reconfigure the drives to give some of the free memory space to the C: drive. Or, do I just have to remember to start using the D: drive for programs. If so, should I uninstall some and reinstall them on the D: drive to free up more C: drive space?

Also, my husband is under the impression that compressing files is NEVER a good idea. However, I know at my last employ they did it all the time to make our PC's faster. Also, Win XP alerted me in the Performance and Maintanance area that I should. Who's right? What does compressing do exactly and is it harmful?

Any light shed on these subjects is greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[bcastner]

Unfortunately the disk management tools of XP do not permit extending the boot or system partition. There are third-party tools such as Partition Magic (now a Symantec product) that could add the now D drive space to C to extend the drive. Acronis Software has a similar utility.

You will be very unhappy if you move the \Program Files directory unless as you suggested you reinstall all the applications on Drive D and remove the existing programs through Control Panel, Add/Remove programs that now reside on Drive C. (Remove them first to avoid confusion).

It is likely that you are storing file in "My Documents" or files under that Folder. If so, you can fairly easily move most of the shell folders:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&selm=O#r3QUrnBHA.1600@tkmsftngp07&rnum=2

You can also fairly easily move the pagefile.sys:

http://www.petri.co.il/pagefile_optimization.htm

 

[linney]

Because of a potential loss of performance, you may not want to compress some files." Any files that are compressed require decompressing prior to use. This is automatically done by XP each time the file is used and is again automatically recompressed after use.

You cannot encrypt an NTFS-compressed file.

A good amount of information can be found by typing "Compressed Volumes" in the Help and Support program.

307987 - HOW TO: Use File Compression in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q307987&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

This program might be useful for any diagnosing of Disk Space usage.

http://www.digallery.com/diskdata/

something is cosuming the hard drive freespace
thread779-810374

Where is my disk space?
thread779-719423

Delete Offline Flies
thread779-816712

316505 - Windows XP Does Not Recognize All Available Disk Space

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316505&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

How to Locate and Correct Disk Space Problems on NTFS Volumes in Windows XP(Q315668)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q315/6/68.asp

The Default Cluster Size for the NTFS and FAT File Systems(Q314878)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q314/8/78.asp

Run the Disk Cleanup tool and use the "More Options" tab to remove all but the most recent restore point.


You don't really want Restore Points going back too far as they will more than likely uninstall all programs or settings you have changed since your "go back point" causing you more problems than it may fix.

The average restore point is 25mb+ with a "first in, first out" policy on restore points. They contain mainly deleted or altered exe, dlls, shortcuts and a registry backup and user profile details. They do not contain users data.

Keeping restore points for a week seems adequate. Amount of disk space used depends on the size of your restore points. Some restore points can be as large as 500mb after major alterations to a system (ie a new service pack or several hefty program installs, or running SFC /Scannow).

310312 - Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310312&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

http://www.theeldergeek.com/system_volume_information_folder1.htm

2) More On Cleaning Out Old "Service Pack" Folders

http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-01-30.htm#2

308008 - How to Remove the Windows XP Uninstallation Files

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308008&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

Do you use Hibernation? If not turn it off to save 500+MB.