I am constantly getting a nag for low disk space on my xp system
I goggled for solutions and thats why I am here. I just want to use my cpu. I like xp better than vista on my 2 new laptops. I can live with anything as long as it works for me. My hard drive is 80gb i think and the particion is at 15GB for C drive I think thats the problem. I have 55GB on drive D available. I have deleted as many files as I dare. Simple solution for a cpu newbie is what I am looking for.

What is on drive D? Is it empty? Are you using Linux (this is a Linux forum after all)

You could try the GParted Live CD to resize your partitions, just make sure you have backups of all important files first. http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

As Nathan has pointed out, this is a Linux forum. However, we do have a "non-*nix General" subforum where your question/problem may get better exposure. Click the "Report" button at the bottom of your post and ask that this thread be moved.

This isn't really the place for that sort of question, however I'll try to help you anyhow.

Partition Magic is what you would normally use with XP to move a partition. What you want to do is make the "boot" partition (15GB) bigger by stealing some space from the "data" partition.

Investing in another hard drive (for more space and as a backup) wouldn't be a bad idea.

Who set up your system? It is somewhat unusual to have a hard drive split like yours (not a bad idea really) from the factory. I split mine so one partition can be reloaded without touching the other partition.

Another thing you can try is cleaning up your boot partition. Clear out temp files, browser cache, uninstall programs you don't use, etc. Make sure to clear out your recycle bin too.

If D: is empty you can right click the documents folder, open the properties and link it to D: if you haven't already.

Then move the stuff that lives into c:\documents and settings\ or whatever it's called to d:

This is nothing to do with linux
Reported for moving

Moved: This thread is more suitable in <GENERAL> and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

I was told to download a linux program to fix this partician problem. So thats why I ended up here. I tried to download the file and I couldnt. I would gladly be a linux user if thats the solution. My particion was factory. I also cleaned out temp internet file. It took out about 1gb + but there is about 13gb of index files (c drive)temp internet files, it wont let me dump. whats with that?

Well, I have 40GB harddrive with XP, with 8 gigabytes for C, and it works just fine (oh, and I even have 300 megabytes of free space there).
To increase amount of free space on C: you can do following:
0) Make sure C: is using NTFS.
1) Move "temp" folders to D: drive. Use google to find how to do it.
2) Move "my documents" to D: drive. Use google to find how to do it, because this folder can't be moved normal way.
3) Disable system restore on C. Dangerous if you'll break your system, but can free up to 2 gigabytes of space.
4) disable hibernating. hiberfil.sys takes a lot of space.
5) move C:\Documents and Settings\%USERPROFILE%\Application Data to D drive. This is tricky and requires registry editing. I'm not explaining how to do it, use google to find out. You can't do that by simply dragging folder to another location.
6) Move all heavy programs (which take larger than 100 megabytes) to D drive. This includes Macromedia Flash, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Visual Studio (I doubt you have it, but still), Microsoft Office, and all similar stuff.
7) Move swap file to D:, or make sure its' size is "system's choice".
8) Never install games on C:
9) Set "compressed" attribute for all large folders on C. Will work only if filesystem is NTFS. Using this attribute makes sense only with huge folders with a lot of text-like files, or maybe some dlls. Using this on movies, *.cab, *.msi, *.chm files (and so on) makes no sense.
10) Move all music, pictures, movies, and similar stuff to D:

This is all I can think of. I won't give detailed instructions for any of this steps, because I do not like solving windows problem. If you have any questions about any of the steps, search for answer with google.

As you are a newbie to using computers, I would suggest that you forget about partitioning your hard drive as it requires a little more knowledge than just putting a disk in and fixing it. There are several resources available online that will give you detailed instructions on how to properly partition your drive. If you need detailed information you should try to find one of these guides.

In interests of brevity understand the following:

1. Windows XP is designed to use a single partition. That is: It must be installed all on one drive. To avoid issues later, your programs must be installed in the same place.

2. If you have a computer such as HP or Compaq. And are using the factory installed system, you will have a portion of unsuable space that is reserved for restoring the system to its factory condition. If you run the restore, you will loose your data.

3. Windows wants to have a large chunk of free disk space so that it can accomodate the pagefile (virtual memory) and the Defragmentation utility at the same time. If free space falls below a certain percentage, XP will start to complain.

4. If you have all your programs and the Windows XP install cd, you might want to start fresh and reinstall XP as well as your programs. Microsoft has a habit of cluttering itself up the longer you use their Operating System. Just make sure you back up your data files as your hard drive will be erased in the process. Install in the following order:
A. When you start the XP Setup, Delete all the partitions on the Drive. XP will structure and format the drive the way it wants it.
B. Install drivers (you can download them from the hardware's manufacturer page)
C. Install ALL Microsoft updates (including XP service pack 3)do not surf the internet or download programs except for updates.
D. Install Anti-Virus software. I say to install it at this step because anti-virus software can interfere with kernel updates if it has a rootkit detection utility.
E. Re Install your programs.
F. Restore your personal data.

You can of course give linux a try. Linux does not deteriorate over time like XP does. Sorry, but XP has a habbit of eating itself up over time.

As for the suggestion above about placing the pagefile or the Program Files folder on a different partition, I would avoid this because if you do not edit the registry properly, this will cause a hell of a lot of problems. Also some programs do not play well being on a different drive. If you need more space for programs, I suggest that you get a larger drive. Also the pagefile should not be moved unless it is on a different physical drive on a different IDE channel as you can cause the hard drive to thrash under certain high load conditions.

Good Luck.

Then don't even reply.

If you don't like helping people don't waste time giving half answers without reasoning or details. People who do this are lazy. You cause more problems than you solve and cause the rest of us to waste time fixing your mistakes.

Next time you need help. Just Google it.

To move you "My Documents" folder, simply right click on it in explorer, and it will give you the option to change the target (ie the location).

If you have plenty of space on your D partition, what you can do is defragment D, download a liveCD of gparted or similar (go to www.distrowatch.com), use the partitioning tools on the liveCD to shrink D so there is free space before D and then expand the C partition.

Make sure you back everything up before you make any partitioning changes, enev though you shouldn't do any damage.

Sorry, this is completely incorrect. Normal windows system should never be installed on one partition. Because if system goes down (and in case of Windows it is quite probable), all your data (on same partition) will be destroyed with it. There always should be at leas two drives - C: for the the system, and D: for the user data. The point in this that you can safely reinstall/format system C: drive and all your data will survive this. Also, with "fresh reinstall" simply killing C: and keeping everything else is much simpler than backing everything up.

moving pagefile doesn't require editing registry. In all I mentioned before only moving "application data" can't be done without changing registry manually.

Mind your own business. You are not in position to tell me what to do. I provide information in form I see fit. If you don't like it - this is your problem. Besides, I'm not microsoft technical support, I don't like windows, I'm not paid for providing informations, I am not obliged to describe every detail of the process, and I only replied because I had similar problems, solved it to some extent and had 5 minutes to write some quick pointers. So what the hell is your problem with that? If you have free hour or two to explain every single detail - go ahead and do it.

Anyway, to my opinion, it is better to point right direction than give no help at all. And in many cases pointing direction is enough, even without explaining every damn step in details.

Perhaps I did not specify very well. I was talking about Program Files and System Files. I never said anything about manually editing the registry in regards to the pagefile.

It goes without saying that user data such as pictures music and documents should be on a separate drive or at least backed up regularly

If Program Files and System files were meant to be installed on different partitions, then Microsoft would have suggested it to be that way.It is possible, but not recommended. It is not recommended because coders of 3rd party software do not always follow the standard and separating the system partition and the program partition can cause too many errors. Even if the system variables are set in the registry, there are too many applications that try to find necessary dlls via hard coding.

IF YOU WANT A STABLE XP SYSTEM: DO NOT Separate the programs from the system partition.


BTW- It is everybody's responsibility to point out poor advise when they find it. That way you don't ruin someone else s computer.