How to organise partitions, transfer files from C: to D: ..?

FreshFrost · 01-07-2008, 03:17 AM

When I bought my laptop, its 160GB HDD came separated in two partitions (is that the correct terminology?) = C: drive and D: drive.

I left it that way, and so far have only used C: because 1) I have no experience in using more than one drive, 2) that's where most programs download to anyway, 3) it contains the My Documents folder where I organise all my personal files into My Pictures, My Music, My Videos, etc. folders., and 4) I had not yet run out of space.
However, despite deleting what I can and buying an external HDD on which to archive and back things up, my C: has now used up its ~70GB of storage.

I've read up on partitions a little and believe that that's how my laptop's memory is organised. I'd like to ask ...

is my assumption correct? and if not, what is the explanation for the memory being split into C: and D: ?
which files are best (or at least safe) for moving from my C: to my D: drive?
how do I go about safely moving them?
will everything continue running smoothly after I move these files? or do I need to point programs, applications, etc. to the new location of the files?
is there anything else I should worry about (or at least take into consideration) before/when doing this?
there seems to be a lot of talk about the benefits of organising your files in partitions. how can I optimise my use of these two (C: and D: ) drives?
lastly, I noticed that my C: drive runs on FAT32 and my D: runs on NTFS. Does that affect anything?

As you can see, I'm a total partition-newbie. So thanks in advance to anyone who's read this ^ and posted that v

: .

JohnthePilot · 01-07-2008, 03:55 AM

Hi Francesca and welcome to TSF.
I'll try and answer your questions in the order you asked them, but first, it would be useful if I knew how your disc was partitioned. You can find this out by using Disk Management. Press Start>Control Panel. Then double click Administrative Tools then double click Computer Management then press Disk Management in the left hand pane. Maximise the window that opens and press the Print Screen button on your keyboard. Open up Microsoft Paint and select Edit from the menu bar and press Paste. Save this image as DM.jpg. Then when you reply in TSF use the Advanced option and attach this image using the paperclip at the top of the message box.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TRUEfrancesca

When I bought my laptop, its 160GB HDD came separated in two partitions (is that the correct terminology?) = C: drive and D: drive.

I left it that way, and so far have only used C: because 1) I have no experience in using more than one drive, 2) that's where most programs download to anyway, 3) it contains the My Documents folder where I organise all my personal files into My Pictures, My Music, My Videos, etc. folders., and 4) I had not yet run out of space.
However, despite deleting what I can and buying an external HDD on which to archive and back things up, my C: has now used up its ~70GB of storage.

I've read up on partitions a little and believe that that's how my laptop's memory is organised. I'd like to ask ...

is my assumption correct? and if not, what is the explanation for the memory being split into C: and D: ?

Yes, you are correct.

Quote:

which files are best (or at least safe) for moving from my C: to my D: drive?

It really depends on how much space you have on the two drives, but you can move My Documents to there. You can also install programs on your D:\ drive but you can't just copy those over.

Quote:

how do I go about safely moving them?

In Windows Explorer select the folder(s) you want to move in the right hand pane then click Edit and select Move to Folder.

Quote:

will everything continue running smoothly after I move these files? or do I need to point programs, applications, etc. to the new location of the files?

You will need to point programs to the new location. Programs that you install on the D:\ drive will run with no problems.

Quote:

is there anything else I should worry about (or at least take into consideration) before/when doing this?

Not at this stage.

Quote:

there seems to be a lot of talk about the benefits of organising your files in partitions. how can I optimise my use of these two (C: and D: ) drives?

That really depends on the size of the partitions.

Quote:

lastly, I noticed that my C: drive runs on FAT32 and my D: runs on NTFS. Does that affect anything?

It really depends on which version of Windows you are running. If you are using XP then you would be better changing to NTFS as it is more efficient then FAT32.

Quote:

As you can see, I'm a total partition-newbie. So thanks in advance to anyone who's read this ^ and posted that v

: .

We were all newbies at some time.

FreshFrost · 01-07-2008, 06:59 AM

Thank-you for your answers! They were really informative, even given the limited info you had to go on.

Attached to this reply is the screenshot you asked for.

Also, since I am running WinXP Media Center Edition, and you said that NTFS is preferable to FAT32, I'm wondering if it might be possible to convert not only my C:\ but also an external HD to NTFS?

Otherwise, I'm pretty much clear about everything. Again, thanks for helping out and being really kind about it too. Am looking forward to the wisdom that you can extract from that screenshot

JohnthePilot · 01-07-2008, 11:58 AM

Conversion is fairly straightforward.
Press Start>Run and type Cmd in the box and press OK. In the DOS box that opens type convert g: /fs:ntfs and press return. This will convert your external drive. Then type convert c: /fs:ntfs to convert your system partition. Because it is the system partition you will be prompted to schedule this for when you restart your machine. When prompted press Yes. You may be prompted to enter the volume name. If so enter this and press Return. That's all there is to it.

FreshFrost · 01-08-2008, 01:25 AM

Wow, that sounds simple enough :D
Again: thank-you!
*sets off to carefully backup her life in preparation for partition-transfers and file-system-conversions and whatnot :) ...*

01-07-2008, 03:17 AM	#1 (permalink)
FreshFrost Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 8 OS: Windows	How to organise partitions, transfer files from C: to D: ..? When I bought my laptop, its 160GB HDD came separated in two partitions (is that the correct terminology?) = C: drive and D: drive. I left it that way, and so far have only used C: because 1) I have no experience in using more than one drive, 2) that's where most programs download to anyway, 3) it contains the My Documents folder where I organise all my personal files into My Pictures, My Music, My Videos, etc. folders., and 4) I had not yet run out of space. However, despite deleting what I can and buying an external HDD on which to archive and back things up, my C: has now used up its ~70GB of storage. I've read up on partitions a little and believe that that's how my laptop's memory is organised. I'd like to ask ... is my assumption correct? and if not, what is the explanation for the memory being split into C: and D: ? which files are best (or at least safe) for moving from my C: to my D: drive? how do I go about safely moving them? will everything continue running smoothly after I move these files? or do I need to point programs, applications, etc. to the new location of the files? is there anything else I should worry about (or at least take into consideration) before/when doing this? there seems to be a lot of talk about the benefits of organising your files in partitions. how can I optimise my use of these two (C: and D: ) drives? lastly, I noticed that my C: drive runs on FAT32 and my D: runs on NTFS. Does that affect anything? As you can see, I'm a total partition-newbie. So thanks in advance to anyone who's read this ^ and posted that v : .

01-07-2008, 11:58 AM	#4 (permalink)
JohnthePilot Manager, TSF Articles Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Cheltenham, near Wales. Posts: 30,099 OS: XP Home SP3, PCLinux, Vista Home Premium SP1 My System Blog Entries: 1	Re: How to organise partitions, transfer files from C: to D: ..? Conversion is fairly straightforward. Press Start>Run and type Cmd in the box and press OK. In the DOS box that opens type convert g: /fs:ntfs and press return. This will convert your external drive. Then type convert c: /fs:ntfs to convert your system partition. Because it is the system partition you will be prompted to schedule this for when you restart your machine. When prompted press Yes. You may be prompted to enter the volume name. If so enter this and press Return. That's all there is to it. __________________ Submit New Articles Here If you feel that TSF has helped you please make a donationand help to keep the forum free Cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb galon Folding@Home - Team 85015

01-08-2008, 01:25 AM	#5 (permalink)
FreshFrost Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 8 OS: Windows	Re: How to organise partitions, transfer files from C: to D: ..? Wow, that sounds simple enough :D Again: thank-you! sets off to carefully backup her life in preparation for partition-transfers and file-system-conversions and whatnot :) ...