Disk Space- Is It Adjustable? Without Formating

[Cherish 0]

Just recently I formated my computer due to severe virus issues and in an attempt to bring more organization, had my disk space divided into three hard disk drives; E: Storage, D: Programs and C: Operating System.Afterwards, however, to my dismay I started to frequently run low on disk space in drive C:, (considering that this is where each individual user account's documents, etc. go,) and it's causing me a lot of problems. Up to date, my other two drives seem to have plenty of space in them and I would like to adjust it to put more in my Operating System Drive. My question is, how do I do this without re-formating? I know probably only about 45% of everything there is to know about computers, so some help on this would be greatly appreciated.

[BuffaloHelp 24]

Although adjusting partition at this stage is risky (because you may ruin the whole file and partition sturcture) it can be done.One of the popular programs out there is called Partition Magic. Its use spans from all major computer tech shops and anyone who is willing to brave the "reformat" back-up plan.Partition Magic is pretty secure and offers trial version download. Try it on D and E drive first. You want to make sure it works before you adjust C drive.By the way, cool avatar

[kdr_98 0]

It's adjustable with 'Partition Magic' (always sure to use a version 8 or later).I shouldn't risk it with a trial version (because if something goes wrong you loose everything on the disk).An other option is mapping the other partitions to 'folders' in your C-Drive.Or move the location of your 'Documents and settings' map.This can be done in Windows XP and give you more safety when the system crashes.Another big file file probally on your C-drive is the swapfile, this file can be move to the E-partition.Use a fixed size , so it don't get fragmented (the size depends on your RAM size).Normally is the rule 1,5 times your RAM size, but if you have 1G or more you don't need that size.Or you can add an extra hard drive, use ghost (or something like ghost) to copy the C drive to your new disk. And use your old disk for data.

[rvalkass 5]

Repartitioning is possible, but just remember to back everything up, especially stuff on your D and E drives, onto separate DVDs or an external HDD just to make sure no data can possibly be lost. I read somewhere that defragmenting your hard drive first helps to reduce the chance of data loss, as bits of a file tend to be together, but there are still often fragments of files scattered around, so be careful.

[kdr_98 0]

Defragmenting is usefull when you are resizing the partition after the current.An other option is moveing all the data to the 1st parttion and 3rd parttion (if possible)Delete the 2nd partition.Resize the 1st partition and the create a new 2nd partition.It works faster and is a bit more secure, because the program parttion manager doesn't have to move some data.But also here make a good backup before starting the operations (if possible with Ghost or Acronis True Image Home).An alternative for Partition Magic is Acronis Disk director.Both Acronis products have a trial version you can donwload it from their site.

[ghostrider 0]

You should also always make your Safety DIsks, or Emergency Disks or whatever they are called. They helped me out a lot when I tried to install Linux the first time.

[Cherish 0]

Thank you for all the help guys

Partion magic sounds like a good deal to me, and I'll be sure to back things up before hand as well. Thank you again for the advice. Is Ghost free software? If not then I'll just go with Acronis.

By the way, cool avatar

Thanks =D
Edited October 3, 2006 by Cherish (see edit history)

[kdr_98 0]

No Ghost is not free software.Since Ghost id a product of Symantec there is no trial version also.So you have to buy it , if you want to use it.With Acronis there exists a 'Personal version' witch is sometimes free provided with a computer magazine.There is also a trial version.