thulium

This is probably a problem that's been posted numerous times so I apologize ahead of time.
PROBLEM 1:

I have a Sony Vaio computer that was a display model (XP SP1 installed but no disk) and am getting 'short on disk space' messages because the drive was partitioned into two drives with the C: drive only being 14 Gigs in size. It wasn't a major problem because I just installed/saved everything onto the D: drive, although I've had to uninstall some rarely used programs because C: still keeps shrinking. It's now down to about 350 Megs and still shrinking.The total capacity of C: and D: drives together total 142.9 Gigs.(according to my computer)

PROBLEM 2:

I need to install a new Epson R1800 printer and software but the installation process will not give me an option to install it on any drive but the C: drive!

PROBLEM 3:

My fix around involved installing another 160 Gig drive (G:) (my computer says the total capacity is 153 Gigs.); copying D: to G:; reformatting the D: partition, and then repartitioning the initial C: drive to take up the entire drive. Then rename the G: to D:. I would then have separate C: and D: drives.

It sounded good until I tried copying and pasteing D: to G: and receive an error message saying:"Error copying file or folder: Cannot create or replace System Volume Information: Access is denied.Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use." I tried copying in safe mode to no avail, same message. Someone suggested it was because I was trying to copy the recycle bin and System volume in D: info the new drive?

Is what I'm attempting feasible and, if so, how do I do it without copying those files onto the new drive?? If not, how can I approach it?.......Thanks

linderman

Welcome to TSF:


your goal is certainly obtainable rather easily; however you have over simplified the cloning process just a touch (coping & pasting) LOL we have all tried that though at some point.

what you need to do is a process called cloning (exact BOOTABLE copy) of one drive to another / download XXCLONE (30 day free trial & in my singature) then merely select the SOURCE drive(the drive you want copied) and TARGET drive (the drive you want the copy to go to) once you open the XXCLONE console >>> there is only one other step left >>>> when you are in the xxclone console you will see an "advanced button" click on that button / once you are in the advanced section >>>> place three check marks in the bootable options box >>> then close the advanced page and click start >>>> thats it !!!!! miserably easy to use!!

after you have cloned the "C" drive to your G drive (or whatever) you can then wipe clean (erase) the C drive if you so desire or keep it as a bootable back-up ?????? xxclone does not need the original drive to stay "alive" you can wipe it clean with a zero fill program like dban boot & nuke (free in my signature)

I am unsure exactly what you are trying to do other than copy your c drive to your g drive >>>> so thats as far as I dare to advise you until you ask more questions or tell us the whole expectations of your goal ????


regards

joe

Inactive

14Gs should be enough for the C partition. i'm using 8G and i have less that ½ used for years now. you can search the c drive for *.bak or *.tmp files to delete. watch what you delete and make sure you don't delete anything that might be in use. if the file path is in

C:\Documents and Settings\[who ever you log on as]\local settings\temp

then they are more than likely trash left behind by installations. you can set your virtual memory to the d drive as well. right click on 'my computer'

properties-advanced-settings [in performance area]-advanced-change

you can then 'set' the size and drive for virtual memory. you could search the c drive for *.dmp files and see what you get. if you had a bsod ever and had a memory dump there could be large files left on the c drive. i have a little program called treesize. you can view your c drive in % to see which folders are using the most drive space.

http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml

you can also make the c drive bigger using 'partition magic'. essentially you take space away from d and give it to c. i've never had trouble with it, but that's not to say it's flawless.

you can go ahead and clone c to the new hd, but why is it so big in the first place - especially since you say that you install programs on d.

linderman

I agree with Freddy 100% / I smell a fish ????? unless you have alot of dvd movies in storage or one ton of music files then you should be nowhere near full ???? have you run a deep file scan for viruses and other spyware crap ???



joe

thulium

I did have a couple of games installed on C: that took up ~3.5 Gigs and deleted one of them, now giving me 2.5 Gigs free. No music files, and all video files are on my D: drive. I have Spybot and it showed nothing but a few cookies and tracking bugs which were also removed. No viruses, worms, horsies or other malicious activities were detected.The C: drive seems almost to be saving several Megs of something every time I use the computer though .

Volt-Schwibe

something alot of people don't notice, if you boot from a mandrake install disc, when you get the the point where you'd set up partitions, you can rearrange them exactly like you can in partition magic.

since linux is free, and you only need disc one, it sorta makes partition magic useless and unneeded.

(i wish i had known that before i bought partition magic.)

linderman

nice tip VOLT !!


thanks

joe

thulium

"14Gs should be enough for the C partition. i'm using 8G and i have less that ½ used for years now. you can search the c drive for *.bak or *.tmp files to delete."

I did a search on the three file types mentioned and really didn't find anything that would probably be causing problems. ~350 Ms of .tmp files that were mainly from the printer installation that initially brought the problem to the forefront and a recent Nero 7 download,a 12 M
.bak files and a 3k .dmp file. I'm satisfied with the virtual memory as it stands at ~ 10% of the disk size. I'm going to try Lindermans approach to the problem this evening and will let you know the results afterwards. Thanks!

thulium

What's the purpose of activating the three areas in the advanced area? I really didn't intend for the new drive to be bootable since there will be no operation system on it. Is it suggested simply as a precaution?? What I planned on initially doing was: after cloning D: to G:,change the name of G: to D: and then erase and format the original D: and repartition it's drive so it will be a 160 G C:. After all was said and done, I'd have a 160 G C: drive and a 160 G D: drive. From what has been said though, a 160 G C: would seem to be 'somewhat' of an over kill.

thulium

after you have cloned the "C" drive to your G drive (or whatever) you can then wipe clean (erase) the C drive if you so desire or keep it as a bootable back-up ?????? xxclone does not need the original drive to stay "alive" you can wipe it clean with a zero fill program"

What's a zero fill program?
"

linderman

I really got lost here in what you are trying to do ???? you stated you wanted to repartition the C drive and make it one big >>> whole C drive >>>> in order to do that you would have to move the contents of the drive to another drive (thats a job for cloning) move all contents of " C" drive to the " G" drive (thus we can erase C drive, repartition into one big C drive you should be able to copy & clone the contents of the D drive partition (it is involved with an OS partition) over to the G drive at the same time / this will also make G drive become your temporary bootable drive until you repartition the drive ??????

try this process / but dont erase your c drive until you are sure that all data has been successfully move to the G drive including all contents of D drive also.

the cloning process will temporarily change the drive letter of you G drive to C drive when you boot from the G drive / dotn let that rattle you / as soon as you erase, repartition, reformat and clone the contents of the Old c drive back to your new BIG C drive everything will revert back to the proper or expected drive letters !!

you will need to do this process one step at a time and verify what you have done / its not really that hard to do unless you physic yourself out


zero fill programs "erase or wipe" a drive clean / formatting does not >>> formatting only erases the area it plans to put data on / numerous times I have had botched OS installs on a drive because their were data fragments left behind by formatting which interfered with the OS install / zero filling a drive makes sure that does not happen.

as to your bootable options questions / I'm sorry I lost you a touch in the shuffle The cloning program does NOT have an option for coping files or drives which are not on a bootable drive. :( but; your D drive is on a bootable drive so my gut feeling tells me xxclone will copy the D drive >>> just dont check mark any bootable options boxes ????? try it first >>> if it doesnt copy the files then we can adjust strategy

I believe should should be able to just drag and drop folders from one drive to another (coping all contents of the D drive) but you cant move any program folders that you are running at the time of coping. Including programs which are active in the task bar ????? you must close them prior to coping (ctrl alt delete >>> will give you an option to close an application in the task bar)

You should write down the size of the space used by the contents of your D drive in bytes size and compare after the coping process is over to make sure they match and you didnt forget anything int he process !!

you may have to enter the "folder options" of your system and check mark the show hidden files. to get to the folder options / double click my computer / then click on tools at the top of the menu bar / select folder options/ then click the view tab / then put a mark in the "Show hidden files"


sorry for the confusion / might help to print this message out

joe

thulium

"you cant move any program folders that you are running at the time of coping. Including programs which are active in the task bar ????? you must close them prior to coping (ctrl alt delete >>> will give you an option to close an application in the task bar)"

This was why I was trying initially to do it in safe mode.

I was trying to avoid cloning the C: partition because it had the OS on it and thought I should avoid 'disturbing' it if possible. My thought was to just clone the D: partition of the drive (leaving the C: partition alone) and then repatitioning the drive with C: still on it to one large drive but, if I read your last post right, xxclone will not let me clone the D: partition of my first drive to the new drive (G:) because there's no OS on it?

linderman

if your 160 gig drive has two partitions I would try just coping the contents of the D drive to one of your partitions and see if you can accomplish that ???? you may still have to "show hidden files" to get that done ???

if you are successful at / I would also clone your c drive to a partition on the big drive just in case the partition moving doesnt go as planned ????

the cloning is easy and doesnt disturb anything / then what are your plans for changing the partition size of your c drive ???? I dont believe windows has any tools for partition resizing / although linux does ?????

have you considered just cloning your C drive to the big drive / and copy the contents of D drive to another partition on the big drive and then use the old C as just a back-up drive ???? i think that would be an easier task for you ????


let us know how you wish to proceed


joe

linderman

what you really need to do is drive imaging / you need to make an Image of your D drive and put it on your E drive

here is the basic premise: (scroll down to item # 2 >> drive imaging)

http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-07-03.htm#2



also you can download a 30 day trial period of BOOTITNG that will perfrom your goal
http://terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html (print out the manual before using)

thulium

You may be right on your last suggestion. SInce the second drive is empty, it would make more.sence to just clone the C: partition from my first drive to it and be done with it. I'd assume it would be a good idea to run the boot and nuke utility on the empty drive before I clone C: to it though as a precaution?

thulium

thulium

The only drive that is partitioned at the moment is my original 160 G drive. It's partitioned into the C: and D: drives. The new 160 G drive has no virtual drives.

thulium

Linderman
In answer to a question in one of your previous posts:

"what are your plans for changing the partition size of your c drive ???? I dont believe windows has any tools for partition resizing / although linux does ?????"

I had planned on (after formatting the D: partition) using a program called 'Ultimate Boot' and just going into the disk managment, eliminating the D: drive, and changing the C: drive figures so it would see C: as occupying the entire drive. Sound feasible, or just too complicated?? ~L~

linderman

I am leary about answering some of your info because I am not 100% sure I understand what you want to do and the easiest way to do so. You must understand there are a ton of options on how to do stuff / then you need to incorporate easiest way and safest way ????????

easiest way & safest way I think would be to clone the contents of your C drive to your big drive / and image the D drive to your other partition on your big drive / then do a reboot to make sure you have ALL your data and progs safely stored on the big drive and it boots !!!! yeah

now we can SAFELY play with your old C drive / wipe it clean becuase allthough the ultimate boot will let you change drive letter you need to do more / you want to DELETE the extended partition created by the Old D drive and also delete the logical drive letter of D ?????? and then reassign the space that used to be controlled by D drive and give it to C drive ? this is not mere wave of the finger type work >>>> its can be done but its not a drag and drop endeavor.

Thats why for my money the easier route is clone what you have for safe keeping and maintaining a bootable environment / after which you can erase your old C & D drive / and repartition and reformat into one big C drive ???

then its an easy step process of just cloning back the C drive contents onto the new C drive and leave the Old D drive residing on the big drive ????

sound feasible / do you understand this ?????? it can be deep water if you THINK its deep water ?????

but we want a risk free approach !!

joe

linderman

The first step of the process is to boot your computer with the new big drive connected as slave and empty of all data / this action should make your drive letter assignements move !! because you already have a C drive and a D drive the letters of you new big drive should become E & F ?????

if they do then you are home free . simply clone your C drive to the E partition and Image your D drive to your F partition