Partitioning Question in Vista

[Davy49]

Hello All,
I have a notebook computer that came with the hard drive partitioned like this:
1. Simple-Basic - EISA Configuration - 7.81 GB
2. Drive C: Simple-Basic-NTFS - Primary Partition,Sys.,Boot,Page File - 52.14 GB
3. Drive D: Simple-Basic-NTFS - Primary Partition - 51.84 GB
My question is this, my notebook came pre-installed with ms windows vista home premium on it, the very first time I booted my computer up I was asked if I wanted to make a set of backup recovery disc's, which I of course did. Now my problem is my C: drive is running out of storage space, and I'm interested in obtaining more room. By the way...my notebook is a acer aspire model # 5100-3357.

Yesterday, I installed Acronis Disk Director Suite software, so far..I've already used it to do the following, I increased the 'free' space on my C: partition to the maximum amount that I could. Now my hard drive looks like this, I still have three partitions like before, but now my 'main' partition ( C: ) has the desired amount of storage space I needed. These are the amounts per partition:

PQ Service - Primary - NTFS - 7.806 GB
Acer C: - Primary-Active - NTFS - 103.9 GB
Data D: - Primary - NTFS - 39.22 MB
The only items that I can see in the Data D: partition are:
ENU.log , erUBK folder ( which contains: Restore.dat, UBKInfo.dat, ), BurnMach.Log.txt, System Volume Information .
When I used the acronis software to increase the free space on my C: partition, it left those items alone on the Data - D: partition, I guess it decided I needed those files to stay where they were.
Thanks,
David :)

[thecreator]

Hi David,

You increase the working size of the Vista partition. What you had done, is to increase the time it takes to run Disk Cleanup, Chkdsk /r and to Defragment the Hard Drive partition.

You should have created a seperate partition, between the operating system and the Restore partition for a Data Partition to keep the Data in.

Just remember the larger the partition, the longer it takes for maintenance.

[MudCrab]

When you resized the C: partition, did you "take space from D:" or did you shrink D: and then resize C: into the unallocated space?

In either case, DD won't let you take space or resize a partition to a size that won't let it hold the files currently on it. Any files and folders that existed on the D: partition prior to resizing C: would still be on the D: partition.

[Davy49]

Hello,
Thanks so much for the replies...I took space from the Data-D: partition, and just had DD add it to the C: partition. I'm trying to decide if I really even need to keep the D: partition at all.
David

[Davy49]

Dear MudCrab,
So without giving you a headache or anything, in your opinion, what should I do with the data that remains on the D: partition ? If you would like...I could make more of a 'detailed' list of everything that is left on there. I had even thought about 'copying' that data to the EISA Config./PQ Service partition . I didn't know if that would hurt anything or not.
Thanks,
David :-\

[MudCrab]

A more detailed list or screenshot of the contents would probably help. You might want to turn on viewing of hidden files and system files (if you haven't) to see those too.

Was there anything on the D: partition when the computer was new?

I assume the recovery data is all in the EISA partition.

What is your partition strategy? As thecreator said, depending on your goals, you might be doing the wrong thing by removing the D: partition.

What are your plans for large data files, etc. If you have a lot of MP3s or video files or large email folders/files, those are usually better off not being on the system partition. It makes the backups much larger and it's usually not necessary to back them up as frequently.

Some people prefer to keep the system partition (the Windows partitions) as small and clean as possible and keep all their data on another partition. Others like to have everything on one partition.

[Davy49]

Dear MudCrab,
What would be the best possible way for me to provide you with a detailed list/snapshot of my D: partition ? I was hoping using ADDS it would provide the means to do so, it does show the files on that partition when I click on properties. Thanks so much for tying to assist me !
David :)

[MudCrab]

Just a screenshot of My Computer showing the D: drive's folders and files in detailed view.

The main concern is that you're not going to be erasing files that you need or that are important. If you know what the files are and don't need them, then you should be safe deleting them. Another option, if the total size of the files/folders is not very large, would be to back them up to DVDs or USB hard drive so you have them if you need them later.

[comradec]

Instead of adjusting the size of your partitions, you might consider changing the location of some of your data folders, e.g. documents, music, videos, downloads, pictures, etc.

Moving these folders from the C drive to the D drive would free up space and probably even make your computer a little bit faster overall.

If you go into your User folder (in my case called "C:\Users\Steve" but generally accessible via a desktop icon or the start menu), right-click on the folder you want to move (e.g. "C:\Users\Steve\Pictures") and then choose "Properties".

Within Properties, click on the "Location" tab. There you'll see the current folder location, e.g. "C:\Users\Steve\Pictures". Click on the "Move" button below that and then navigate to your D drive. There you can choose the location you'd like the folder to go from now on. In my case, I created a new Users folders on the D drive and located the folder at "D:\Users\Steve\Pictures".

I did the same thing with five different folders:

D:\Users\Steve\Documents
D:\Users\Steve\Downloads
D:\Users\Steve\Music
D:\Users\Steve\Pictures
D:\Users\Steve\Videos

This has left me with a much leaner C drive, which contains little more than the operating system and program files.