Computer ? Memory In D Drive Instead Of C Drive

7/27/05

[Williams]

A friend has a computer issue that seems so wierd to me, I finally offered to seek Freeper help. His C Drive is his standard hard drive, but when he checks system status, almost all the memory storage capacity is shown to be in the D Drive. So on a computer with at least an 80 gb hard drive and not that much stored on it, the syatem shows the C Drive 95% full and the D Drive 95% empty.

Software won't load at times and he had such problems running internet dial up software that he gave up.

It's a Sony Vaio running Windows XP Home. When he would call "tech support" and explain this, the outsource workers would say (in refernce to his then brand new computer) "you must have a really old computer. He's ready to give up and I'm hoping one of you will tell me this is a simple matter.

[tfecw]

what are the partitions of the drive? His C drive could only be partitioned to hold 3 gigs and his D drive be designated to hold 77 gigs.

[hattend]

Yep, sounds like a hosed up partition of the hard drive.

[Terpfen]

It soundsl ike his hard drive has two partitions: the operating system is stored on a small partition labeled C:, and his free space is on a partition labeled D:.

The problem with software loading sounds like a lack of virtual memory. It sounds like the virtual memory is set to the C: partition, which is already pretty limited in size. Have him right-click My Computer, hit Properties, hit the Advanced tab, click the top Properties button, hit the Advanced tab, and click the Change button near the bottom. The Virtual Memory window should pop up and display how much virutal memory the computer has, and on which partitions it's set on. If it's set on C:, have your friend click the C: listing, click No Paging File, hit OK, and reboot. Then have him go back to the same screen and click D:, then click Custom Size, and have him enter a minimum and maximum amount double the amount of his RAM. (If he has 256MB, he should have a paging file min/max of 512.) Then he should hit OK, reboot again, and everything should be peachy.

[Americanchild]

Windows XP takes up a good amount of space all by itself. If the 80GB is not on the main drive, Windows may be using all the available storage. What type of drive is D referring to?

[stylin19a]

Sounds like his hard drive is partitioned. I.E. one physical drives split into 2 logical drives.

Perhaps his primary partition C: is small and the the D: partition is large.

His page file might be on the D: drive. That's ok and probably preferred.

Though it would seem more room should be allocated on the C: drive to accommodate installing any additional software.

There are utilities that can resize the partition (make it bigger or smaller)

You can see how much room is allocated to each partition and how much free space is available by left clicking on "My Computer"

[stylin19a]

You all are way too smart and way too quick with help.
Good job Freepers.

[Williams]

There's no question almost all the memory is on the D. I'm not well versed enough to understand the function of the D Drive, but I know that when I look at mine it says "system_sav"

Does he have to purchase a utility to repartition? Anybody have a recommendation of one?

All the advice here is great, the alleged tech support could do nothing.

[rdb3]

If the computer only has one drive, then that drive has two partitions. If the system files are on C:\, use Partition Magic to merge the drives. Back up whatever needs becking up before you begin.

[Williams]

There's only one hard drive. I take it partition magic is a product he can buy? By merge the drives I take it you mean repartition? Thanks.

[cowboyway]

I take it you mean repartition

UN-partition.

[stylin19a]

System_sav is a partition on your hard drive which stores crucial recovery information about your computer should you ever wish to restore it back to your original factory settings.

Whether it's the same on his or not is a different story.

On which drive is the *windows* folder ?

You can free up some space on his C: drive, by putting the page file on the D: drive.

Go into:
"Control Panel"
select "System"
select the "Advanced" tab
select "Settings" in "Performance"
select the "Advanced" tab
select "Change" under "Virtual Memory"
You will now see which drive contains the "Page file" ( virtual memory)
You can put a page file on the D: drive and set the C: drive to "no page file"
You can then click ok, then reboot.
You can then delete the C:\pagefile.sys file.

There are some other ways to increase the available space on the C: drive.
Freepmail me if you need help/additional info

Take it slow

good luck

[Williams]

Thanks very much again.

[rdb3]

There's only one hard drive. I take it partition magic is a product he can buy? By merge the drives I take it you mean repartition? Thanks.

I'm sorry about my last post. I must have really been zoning out because I didn't understand what I wrote.

Yes, Partition Magic is software you can buy. With it, merge the partitions, don't repartition. If the Windows system files are on C:\, merge them.

You have access to the partitions, they're just separate.

[Williams]

I know I'm being dense, but I have to ask this again. Are you saying use partition magic to merge the C and D drives, but only if the Windows system file is on C? I admit I don't know what it means to merge the two drives, I thought I understood the concept of the partition.

So far he shifted the virtual memory to the D Drive and made the VM larger. That helped, in that the computer loaded some software it was rejecting before. But the D Drive still is holding most of the hard drive memory.

[JenFeliz]

Hi...I am on a Sony Vaio which I am learning is a piece of junk. C and D drives are partitioned as described multiple times on this site. I did as you recommended which helped tremendously. I went from 60MB on the C to 1.3GB. Now I want more! Is the only way to really fix this to merge using Partition Magic? Any additional help you can offer would be greatly appreciated!

Jen

[A CA Guy]

So he should just F-disk then?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Partition Magic is by far the best and most widely used partitioning utility.
It is also extremely easy to use.

With a few clicks and a reboot, your friend can merge the C:\ and D:\ partitions into one large partition that uses the whole physical drive.

[stylin19a]

Fdisk is too limited in functionality and it kills data. I wouldn't use FDISK if I want to keep my data.

If one doesn't care about the data, a scratch install would be best.
figure how many partitions(or just 1 large partition) and which file system you want(Fat32 vs NTFS)then go ahead and Fdisk, then Format,then install WinXP. As always, when in doubt, don't.

[stylin19a]

First you need to find out how large the drive(s) is\are.
Left click on "My Computer".
Click "view" and select details.
You should now see all the drives in detail view.
It should tell you total space & used for each.

Once we have that, we can go from there.