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71811
November 7th, 2014 19:00
USE LOCAL DISK DRIVE D: AS AN EXTENSION OF LOCAL DISK DRIVE C:
The desktop is a Dell Optiplex GX260 with Windows XP, Professional Version 2002,Service Pack 3. The local disk drive C: has only 1 GB of free capacity remaining and the local disk drive D: is unformatted and has never been used. Both local disk drives show in My Computer. The local disk drive C: has an NIFS file system while unformatted local disk drive D: has a RAW file system.
I would like to know if it is possible to format local disk drive D: and use it as an extension of local disk drive C: ie with the same function as an external hard drive. I have assumed that it has the same capacity as local disk drive C: which is 20GB. The object is to copy and delete a sufficient number of programs from local disk drive C: to local disk drive D: so that I will have 8 to 10GB of free capacity in local disk drive C:
Details of any coding, firmware and driver changes etc. that would be required, if any, would be appreciated.
Is it possible to simply open Program Files in local disk drive C: and copy and paste each chosen program folder to local disk drive D: in My Computer, then delete the copied chosen program folders in local disk drive C: which would free up disk space in local disk drive C and would not affect these programs in the Control Panel? If it is more complicated than that,comments would be appreciated.
This is all based on the assumption that the computer will recognize programs in local disk drive D: and use them as necessary, just as if they were in local disk drive C:
Thank you
osprey4
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34.2K Posts
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November 8th, 2014 03:00
Hi Notfinished,
What you are trying to do is use your second hard drive for some of your files and possibly applications. I would suggest you format the D: drive as NTFS. The easiest thing to move to the D: drive would be My Documents, as described HERE. The same would apply to My Music, My Pictures, etc. Applications cannot be moved so easily. You'll need to reinstall the application and during the installation process, select the D: drive as the destination. For many applications, this involves using the "custom install" option.
Let me know if you have further questions.
osprey4
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34.2K Posts
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November 17th, 2014 16:00
Applications cannot be moved. You'll need to reinstall the application onto the D drive.
After the application is installed on the D drive, the corresponding program folder on the C drive may be deleted.
notfinished
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November 17th, 2014 10:00
Thank you for the information but I still need some more help.
I was able to format the D: drive as NTFS and move the My Documents etc. to it as you have outlined.
I still need to move programs from C:drive to D: drive to free up more memory in C: drive and I do not know how to do it. The computer has Windows XP, Professional Version 2002 with Service Pack 3. The pathway to the programs is as follows: My Computer > Local Disk C: > Program Files > 52 sub folders and each sub folder is a program and each sub folder contains many files. As an example, My Dell sub folder contains 60 files. Windows XP illustrates Program Files and its 52 sub folders with the folder symbol. I do not know if these programs are the same as applications. I was unable to find the "custom Install"option in my Windows XP.
Any further help that you can give me to move some of these Program Files from Local Disk C: to Local Disk D: would be much appreciated.
notfinished
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January 23rd, 2015 10:00
I followed your instructions and formatted the D drive in NTFS and moved My Documents, My Music etc. to the D drive from the C drive. I left all the applications on the C drive. This way I was able to free up a lot of memory on the C drive. The computer works well with this new arrangement.
The computer seems to work better, when I, from time to time use the Disk Cleanup and Defragment utilities on the C drive. The Disk Cleanup and Defragment utilities recognize the D drive when a choice has to be made which drive to use; C drive is the default. Would the D drive also benefit from using the Disk Cleanup and Defragment utilities on it, assuming these actions would not cause the D drive or anything else on the computer any harm ?