Need help from the computer experts, please

[lynxstch]

will try to make it brief...sony vaio desktop, few years old..C drive (which computer considers the main drive I guess), has 15 G hard drive, D has 55G...C is almost full..have to reformat..computer is too full of old stuff..without physically taking the hard drive out and repartitioning it, is there any way to make D the MAIN drive so most of the stuff goes on there instead of C?
I keep getting the "C drive is running out of room" (like down to 200 megs), and no matter what I try to delete, I keep getting that message 3x a day or so! the D drive is almost empty!
Thanks in advance

I don't really want to repartition them, what I really want to do is reverse their order I guess..so that D becomes C and C becomes D..if that makes sense..lol

 

[dawson5]

do you mean full as in programs? If you are downloading songs and stuff like that, you should be able to designate those items to go to your D drive. My sons have filled up ours with itunes/songs and I had them move it to the D drive. I think between three boys and a husband, all with different tastes, we were at 11GB. Some of those were repeats.

I have dealt with that Sony install disc, I could never figure out a way to adjust the drive sizes. I will admit it is easier with Vista, not sure if it is Vista or the different pc we have now. I was dealing with XP at the time. I don't know what would happen if you just bought a larger hard drive and reformatted. I know when my oldest tried using it on an older computer (with Win98 on it) it threw out errors that it wasn't the Sony computer and that the disc would/could only be used in that computer.

 

[lynxstch]

like the games we download and stuff..that hard drive has 55 G and has almost 54 empty...the C drive only has about 233 megs free
We have formatted before..and just left it as it was..but I am thinking there must be some way to make the D drive be the main one as it's bigger? as it is now..all the main programs must be set to go to C! I want them to go to the other one..lol
I know there are a LOT of smart computer people on the DIS..hopefully one of them will come along soon and help
I appreciate your time answering, we have XP, not Vista..I looked on the sony site, but it's no help at all!

 

[lynxstch]

you mentioned 'moving' stuff to the D drive..how would I go about moving some of the larger programs on C to the D, if that's even possible?

 

[manning]

I believe the OS is the only program that needs to be on the C: drive. When you load a program and data load it on an external drive.

 

[dawson5]

We can run some things from D drive but not a lot, we had issues before (especially with the Sims games). That was on the old Sony, bought in like '02 I think. Have you gone through it bit by bit and looked at what is on there? Also uninstalled unused things? Our sony came preloaded with a bunch of things that we didn't use or were unusuable (particularly the pico player, we didn't have the tv tuner card so this was a waste of space).

This is going to sound sad, it's only been a year since we switched computers but I don't remember how we moved things. I think we just dragged and dropped to D drive. We might have uninstalled and reinstalled onto the d drive. I think you can look on your internet browser and look up top to the tools, ours is in "general" of the tools section and you can select to "download all items to (select drive)" and this will make sure everything goes in there.

We still have that pc upstairs (integrated graphics card is shot, we thought it was the one we bought for game usage and it wasn't. It glows green now, sometimes it pops out of that for a while and then it starts back up again.) I'll mess around with it later, I gave it to my youngest two and I think they put a password on it because their older brother kept messing with it.

Maybe clear it off and do a clean install and reinstall the games to the d drive and set the internet tools downloading. If it's a constant thing, where you clear off a lot of space and in ten minutes it's gone, I would just reinstall. I had that happen once or twice and I could never find a solution for it. Talked and read quite a bit and never found a solution but did see that it happened to a very small number of people and reformatting was the only thing that worked.

 

[lynxstch]

I believe the OS is the only program that needs to be on the C: drive. When you load a program and data load it on an external drive.

when I download games and stuff, I DO select the D drive..which is why that's the only thing on there..
Do you mean when I load stuff back in, like the printer, Norton , etc...to put it on the D drive?
Is there no way to reverse the order so that C is the larger of the 2 and D is the smaller?

 

[lynxstch]

We can run some things from D drive but not a lot, we had issues before (especially with the Sims games). That was on the old Sony, bought in like '02 I think. Have you gone through it bit by bit and looked at what is on there? Also uninstalled unused things? Our sony came preloaded with a bunch of things that we didn't use or were unusuable (particularly the pico player, we didn't have the tv tuner card so this was a waste of space).

This is going to sound sad, it's only been a year since we switched computers but I don't remember how we moved things. I think we just dragged and dropped to D drive. We might have uninstalled and reinstalled onto the d drive. I think you can look on your internet browser and look up top to the tools, ours is in "general" of the tools section and you can select to "download all items to (select drive)" and this will make sure everything goes in there.

We still have that pc upstairs (integrated graphics card is shot, we thought it was the one we bought for game usage and it wasn't. It glows green now, sometimes it pops out of that for a while and then it starts back up again.) I'll mess around with it later, I gave it to my youngest two and I think they put a password on it because their older brother kept messing with it.

Maybe clear it off and do a clean install and reinstall the games to the d drive and set the internet tools downloading. If it's a constant thing, where you clear off a lot of space and in ten minutes it's gone, I would just reinstall. I had that happen once or twice and I could never find a solution for it. Talked and read quite a bit and never found a solution but did see that it happened to a very small number of people and reformatting was the only thing that worked.

But it still works great..except that C is full again..we usually format once a year..this time it's been almost 2..and yes I went in and looked for all unused things..but I didn't look at the pico player..will check that and see if its worth removing..I am thinking it just needs a reformat, and to have everything put back in..they always told me that even when you delete things, and programs, and such,,that it always leaves bits and pieces all over the place..I defrag weekly, run the optimizer once a month..so I guess it's just FULL..lol

I did look under tools and options..but there's nothing there about selecting where anything gets downloaded to in ours..we are using IE 7 if that makes a difference..I just hate the thought of having to reinstall XP service pack 2, all it's updates, etc...pita..lol
thanks for the hints though..willing to try anything at this point!

 

[dawson5]

it probably does. I am in the middle of clearing off this new one so I can do a fresh install. Kids messed up something (a few days after I started having problems youngest told me "mom I updated something for you") and I now have the disappearing drive space again. we have it at a temporary stop, I don't know what we did, both the oldest and I were trying a few different things. gained some time to start going through our items and seeing what we have already cleared off, what is usable, etc.

When we first got this pc, we were able to adjust the sizes of the drives. I was never able to do this with the Vaio/XP. Can you add another hard drive? It sounds like you have under 70GB, I think that is about what we had on ours. I have a terabyte now and my C drive is full (973mb left), my D is dangerouslly close and the B still has 300 GB.

 

[themarquis]

I wouldn't mess around with remapping those drives. And it wouldn't really fix your main problem, which is that the smaller hard drive is totally full. Whether you call it C or D or whatever, it's still going to be full and causing problems. Keep in mind: a hard drive needs a little bit of "breathing room" to work correctly. Windows is bugging you because you're trying to get rid of some stuff on the drive, but not enough! I usually have 5-10 gigs free on my drives, but yours is very tiny, so I'd aim for 2-3 gigs free.

Another poster was correct that all you need on that drive is windows. In fact, that is a good strategy for you. KEep your operating system there and any essential files and delete or move everything else on it.

I started to type out extensive directions on how to identify what to delete/move, but it's a bit complicated if you don't already know how to do it. The biggie for a lot of folks is My Documents. Open it from the start menu, select everything in it (I think hold down shift or control while selecting stuff -- that will let you select everything). Then, with all that stuff selected, you can right click, select copy, then find a good spot in the bigger hard drive and right click and select paste. It's probably a good idea to make a new folder for all that stuff w/ a name you will remember! Then once that stuff is moved to its new home, you can get rid of it on the small hard drive: do the same thing (select everything) right click, then delete.

Other things to do:
Identify any programs that are not operating-system related that are installed on the small hard drive. Uninstall them with Add/Remove programs. Then reinstall on the large hard drive. You'll need the original disks or the file you downloaded!

delete temporary internet files (this can be a biggie)

You probably have more junk on that drive. locate any other stuff floating around on yoru small hard drive that is not operating-system or program-related. for a lot of folks, this might be stuff they've downloaded, pictures, movies, etc. Do what I described above to copy to the large hard drive then delete on the small hard drive.

turn off system restore (go to system in control panel). This can take up a lot of hard drive space and most people never use it.

If all this doesn't work, you're going to need extra help that I'd be afraid to give you b/c it is complicated and easy to screw up. If you have a friend or family member who is a computer "guru", they'd be the best person to call. They can get rid of other junk files on the drive, reinstall windows onto that drive, and do other advanced stuff.

Best of luck -- that is a small drive and I'm not surprised you've jammed it full to the brim!

 

[themarquis]

But it still works great..except that C is full again..we usually format once a year..this time it's been almost 2..and yes I went in and looked for all unused things..but I didn't look at the pico player..will check that and see if its worth removing..I am thinking it just needs a reformat, and to have everything put back in..they always told me that even when you delete things, and programs, and such,,that it always leaves bits and pieces all over the place..I defrag weekly, run the optimizer once a month..so I guess it's just FULL..lol

I did look under tools and options..but there's nothing there about selecting where anything gets downloaded to in ours..we are using IE 7 if that makes a difference..I just hate the thought of having to reinstall XP service pack 2, all it's updates, etc...pita..lol
thanks for the hints though..willing to try anything at this point!

Hmm, okay, it sounds like you know quite a bit about working with a hard drive.

So my tips may or may not be things you've already tried.

In that case, it really is time to ditch that tiny hard drive. I'm sorry to tell you that, but it might just be too small and require too much maintenence to keep it running well. My suggestion would be to backup/wipe everything on both drives, install windows onto the larger hard drive, and then keep that small hard drive as additional storage.

After you backup and before you install windows onto the larger drive, You'll need to set some stuff in the bios, which will depend on your system. Usually, you hit a key when it's first booting, then you can select various options, one of which is the boot order. You want the cd/dvd drive to boot first (this is how it usually is set), then the larger hard drive to boot second and be set as "master" and then the smaller one not to boot or boot third and be set as "slave". (the details will depend on your bios)

Then you'll restart the computer with the windows CD -- it should boot first to that CD if you've set the boot order correctly. Then you'll follow the instructions on installing windows (let it erase your hard drive) and make sure you select the larger drive to install it onto. I think it should give you a choice of the 2 drives. Let it do its thing and then when its done, it should reboot (you'll need to take the CD out of the drive) and if all goes well, the large hard drive should boot and load windows.

It will most likely rename those drives as C: for the larger and D: for the smaller (though I'm not 100 percent sure), but even if it doesn't, you've accomplished your goal. The main drive and the one where windows and all your files will be is the large one. The small one can be used as backup or additional storage. If you haven't wiped it earlier, you can actually just go in (from your "new" windows on the large drive) and clear all the old windows crap out of it manually, leaving it free to store any type of file.

hope that makes sense!

 

[marlynnp]

You don't physically remove a hard drive to repartition it.
If you are going to reformat your drive delete the partitions before doing it.
If you boot up from your XP disk you'll have the option of deleting the partitions (you will need to delete D and then C) and then formatting.

 

[lynxstch]

Hmm, okay, it sounds like you know quite a bit about working with a hard drive.

So my tips may or may not be things you've already tried.

In that case, it really is time to ditch that tiny hard drive. I'm sorry to tell you that, but it might just be too small and require too much maintenence to keep it running well. My suggestion would be to backup/wipe everything on both drives, install windows onto the larger hard drive, and then keep that small hard drive as additional storage.

After you backup and before you install windows onto the larger drive, You'll need to set some stuff in the bios, which will depend on your system. Usually, you hit a key when it's first booting, then you can select various options, one of which is the boot order. You want the cd/dvd drive to boot first (this is how it usually is set), then the larger hard drive to boot second and be set as "master" and then the smaller one not to boot or boot third and be set as "slave". (the details will depend on your bios)

Then you'll restart the computer with the windows CD -- it should boot first to that CD if you've set the boot order correctly. Then you'll follow the instructions on installing windows (let it erase your hard drive) and make sure you select the larger drive to install it onto. I think it should give you a choice of the 2 drives. Let it do its thing and then when its done, it should reboot (you'll need to take the CD out of the drive) and if all goes well, the large hard drive should boot and load windows.

It will most likely rename those drives as C: for the larger and D: for the smaller (though I'm not 100 percent sure), but even if it doesn't, you've accomplished your goal. The main drive and the one where windows and all your files will be is the large one. The small one can be used as backup or additional storage. If you haven't wiped it earlier, you can actually just go in (from your "new" windows on the large drive) and clear all the old windows crap out of it manually, leaving it free to store any type of file.

hope that makes sense!

It makes perfect sense..and just what I was aiming for..now if it only works that way!

THANK YOU!!

 

[lynxstch]

You don't physically remove a hard drive to repartition it.
If you are going to reformat your drive delete the partitions before doing it.
If you boot up from your XP disk you'll have the option of deleting the partitions (you will need to delete D and then C) and then formatting.

Do I take that to mean that I can will just have 1 large hard drive doing it that way?..

I have the sony recovery disks that came with it when it was new..and I am hoping that this option will show up..but don't remember seeing them last time..but I will give both yours and the marquis' advice a try!
Thanks again!

 

[dawson5]

I think she is referring to your original post where you state "without physically taking the hard drive out and repartitioning it".

I have those discs and have done the reformatting a few times but I never ran across info like what themarquis posted. I am half tempted to try this when they get home (after I find out the darned passwords).

I can't speak for what themarquis posted but I've done what marlynnp posted every time. My partitions always showed back up. I don't remember there being a lot of options. Those sony discs don't give you a lot to work with.

Are you dealing with XP? I remember my oldest and I editing the drive sizes with vista. I know that was what I was looking for when I was dealing with our old Sony and XP.

 

[lynxstch]

I think she is referring to your original post where you state "without physically taking the hard drive out and repartitioning it".

I have those discs and have done the reformatting a few times but I never ran across info like what themarquis posted. I am half tempted to try this when they get home (after I find out the darned passwords).

I can't speak for what themarquis posted but I've done what marlynnp posted every time. My partitions always showed back up. I don't remember there being a lot of options. Those sony discs don't give you a lot to work with.

Are you dealing with XP? I remember my oldest and I editing the drive sizes with vista. I know that was what I was looking for when I was dealing with our old Sony and XP.

and have no intentions of going to vista or the new windows anytime soon..maybe when we can finally afford a new computer..but for now we have to work with this one..

you confused me on the second part though..if I delete the partitions before formatting..and they show back up again..what would the difference be?..lol..I took it to mean she was telling me to delete the partions and just have one large drive which would be the C drive..

I am hoping that when I format that it's as the Marquis said it might be..and let me choose which one I want everything to go on ..in which case I will direct it towards the larger one..but I don't know if there's an advantage to having just 1 large hard drive over 1 small one and 1 med/large one?

again, I thank you all for your time and help..and yes, please try it on your computer first, so I know what works and doesn't..lol..I don't think we have any passwords on ours, since it's just the 2 of us!..good luck

 

[dawson5]

I'm not sure of the reasons why to do it that way but that is the way we always did it too. I think you're better off having the partition though. I don't know why but I'm thinking it's better to isolate the programs from some of your content.

I'm not a huge fan of vista either. It came with this pc, if it wouldn't cost me money, believe me I would be back to XP. I have no intentions of switching to 7 either, although my oldest has tried it and likes it. Swears it's more stable than vista and just a better OS.

Actually will probably put the oldest on that mission to test it out, I know he would have fun doing it.

I know about not wanting a new pc, I loved my vaio and if it wasn't for the graphics card I would still be using it--integrated in the motherboard, was going to cost $250 to replace. By the time I gave it to the boys it was in serious need of a GB of ram and probably add a larger HDD. That 70 wasn't doing anything with everything my kids wanted to keep on there and me with what I wanted. At least mine I burned off.

Good luck

 

[marlynnp]

Sorry, I wasn't back sooner.

I have never had the partitions show back up. You must Delete BOTH. Do not just delete the D drive thinking that the C drive will get bigger - you will get both back if you do that.

You used to have to partition drives in order to actually use all the disk space on large drives. You don't need to do that any longer.
Also your drive isn't that large and you don't appear to have enough specialized use to warrant the extra trouble of using partitioned drives ( I know you stated many things you're just downloading/installing without redirecting them to the other drive anyway).

 

[themarquis]

Lest I be liable unless this goes terribly badly

I recommend you be:
a) moderately technically knowledgable
and
b) have a backup plan (i.e., "if that doesn't work I'll just reinstall windows on that first hard drive instead ...")
and
c) be totally backed up
and
d) have internet access on another computer so you can look stuff up if you run into trouble.

There are some unknowns in the process, particularly that everybody has a different BIOS and I can't give any clear guidelines on how to set those hard drives properly.

I know there can also be an issue with the setting drives as master/slave. On some systems, the drives want jumpers to be set on the hardware itself (i.e., you would need to pull those drives out and physically put the pins in the right place). I feel like that's mostly with older computers, but I don't know for sure.

I think you'll probably get away with just properly setting the boot order in bios, though (no messing w/ hardware needed, and possibly no need to set master/slave in bios??). If you can get that large drive to boot FIRST before the other drive (small drive set to boot third after CD then large drive, or set never to boot), you will be good to go.

Actually, just for fun, try this before you start in on the whole process ....

Get into the bios (a certain keystroke is needed depending on the bios, at boot-time) and TRY to set the drives as I sugested above (write down the current boot order because you may want to restore it later). Then save changes, reboot, and watch what happens. If it works, you will get some kind of message like "unable to boot from D:" or something like that. That's good -- it means that the computer is trying to boot from the other drive. If it doesn't work (that is, the computer boots into the usual drive) or if you are not ready to start yet, go ahead and get back into the BIOS and reset the drives to where they were originally.

 

[lynxstch]

Lest I be liable unless this goes terribly badly

I recommend you be:
a) moderately technically knowledgable
and
b) have a backup plan (i.e., "if that doesn't work I'll just reinstall windows on that first hard drive instead ...")
and
c) be totally backed up
and
d) have internet access on another computer so you can look stuff up if you run into trouble.

There are some unknowns in the process, particularly that everybody has a different BIOS and I can't give any clear guidelines on how to set those hard drives properly.

I know there can also be an issue with the setting drives as master/slave. On some systems, the drives want jumpers to be set on the hardware itself (i.e., you would need to pull those drives out and physically put the pins in the right place). I feel like that's mostly with older computers, but I don't know for sure.

I think you'll probably get away with just properly setting the boot order in bios, though (no messing w/ hardware needed, and possibly no need to set master/slave in bios??). If you can get that large drive to boot FIRST before the other drive (small drive set to boot third after CD then large drive, or set never to boot), you will be good to go.

Actually, just for fun, try this before you start in on the whole process ....

Get into the bios (a certain keystroke is needed depending on the bios, at boot-time) and TRY to set the drives as I sugested above (write down the current boot order because you may want to restore it later). Then save changes, reboot, and watch what happens. If it works, you will get some kind of message like "unable to boot from D:" or something like that. That's good -- it means that the computer is trying to boot from the other drive. If it doesn't work (that is, the computer boots into the usual drive) or if you are not ready to start yet, go ahead and get back into the BIOS and reset the drives to where they were originally.

And I know where to find him (?..I 'think' you are male..lol)..on the DIS..of course!...I won't hold you liable..at least not totally ,if something goes wrong..lol
as to your recommendations
a)...'somewhat' technically knowledged
b)back up plan IS to put everything back the original way and try again with either a new larger hard drive or wait till we have a new computer (but I have learned , that if I do it that way, I will try and put a lot more of the non necessary programs onto D
c)I already have everything backed up that I want to save..I probably make backups way more often that I need to..but who knows?..lol
d) I don't have this one..but hubby can access internet at work, or I can go to a neighbors house if necessary
NOW~~

your last suggestion is a good one..but I am a little wary of messing with the bios..but I may just try it if it won't screw anything up..just to see if it WILL give me that message and clear that problem up

Thanks again for all your time, help, and suggestions!..now I just need to work up the courage to actually do the process..lol


I still have all the original books and papers that came with the computer..would I by chance be able to find out what keystroke (I assume you mean like F1, F2, F3,etc?) it is to get into BIOS on a Sony Vaio?


thanks again to all of you!