Expand Drive Partition Winxp Pro

I bought my computer from a local technical who built it and partitioned the 160 GB HD drive into a 20 GB C drive and a 140 GB D drive. He said he did this to protect the programming from viruses. Now the problem is that although Winxp Pro is only about 7.5 GB, there are hidden files such as Application Data that is 3.6 GB and Local Settings that is 4.2 GB. This problem is made worse by the fact that many programs such as Adobe that won't allow you to install them to a drive other than C.

Despite moving everything I can off of drive C, I only have 828 MB of free space left. Fee Space is now too small to run defrag or install System pack 3. While there are still a few programs I could move to drive D, they're so small the impact would be negligible. Meanwhile, the free space keeps shrinking. Before moving everthing meaningful that I could off of drive C today, programs were slow loading or couldn't load until I closed something else or a window wouldn't open, etc.

There are programs that advertise that they can expand a partition size without losing information or damaging the system and that this can be done by a novice without technical expertise. Question is, is there a program out there that can do this reliably and live up to these claims? Does anyone have first hand experience with this?

TIA,
Frank

 

Steve and Peter

Thank you for your recomendations and suggestions.

Peter, the folder that is causing most of the trouble is C:\Documents and Settings\1 which is 7.7 GB. This folder holds two hidden folders, Application Data that is 3.6 GB and Local Settings that is 4.2GB.

I'm wondering if it is all right to try and move these hidden folders or do they have to be on drive C? And if I try to move them do I risk crashing my system and making it unworkable? Do you know the answer to these questions?

TIA,
Frank

 

Peter

It's not Documents and Settings I was thinking of moving, it was folder 1. Is folder 1 movable considering it has Application Data and Local settings hidden folders in it?

Also, if I have to expand the C drive, since the hard drive is partitioned into C and D drives, I would assume that I would have to back-up both of these drives, since any expansion of C would take away from D. Is that correct?

TIA,
Frank

P.S. I only use a computer and am not technically knowledgeable about computers, so expanding the partition would be my last choice. And even then, I would likely only do that if the program was easy to use and understand for a layperson. Otherwise I would expect I'd have to get someone knowledgeable in these matters to do it for me. But, time is running out for me as I'm now starting to experience a lot of problems loading files and computer can get very slow at times. I'm starting to fear a lock-up or an inability to boot-up. So, this matter has now become high priority.

 

While pondering, take a look at your C:\Documents and Settings\1\Local Settings\Temp folder. Under normal circumstances, you can safely delete anything you find in that folder.

You may also consider using some freeware tool such as ATF-Cleaner or CCleaner to free up some space that may be wasted by unwanted temp files.

 

Pete, I was thinking that the folder named 1 was a user profile folder that has been created. That sounds reasonable based on its location. That's the basis for my suggestion of dumping the TEMP folder for that user profile.

 

Hi Pete,
I am not disputing your comments regarding moving My Documents, I have though used the function that MS provides in XP by right clicking on the "My Documents" Icon on the desktop Properties and Move and it will ask if you want to move all the files and folders with it to the new location. I have done this and moved not just to a different partition but another HD on the system.
Maybe I am barking up the wrong tree in this situation.
hawk22

 

surferdude2 PeteC Hawk22

Hi Guys!

I sincerely want to thank you for all of your help. Here's the update:

Ran Disk Cleanup which found "Old Compressed Files" which I deleted.

Ran defrag but defrag was still saying I only had 1.1 GB free and needed 1.5 Free to run defrag completely. I chose to run defrag anyway. It reported back that a number of items wern't defraged such as the Windows folder.

surferdude2

There wasn't any C:\Documents and Settings\1\Local Settings\Temp folder.

I Used eCleaner which I had and assume it is similar to ATF-Cleaner or CCleaner to remove: Temporary Internet files, IE typed URLS, IE history, Recent Documents List and Windows Temp Files.

PeteC

Ran Start > Run > type in %temp% it found 43 folders or files I was able to delete 42 of them.

In C:\Windows\Temp there were 13 folders or files and I was able to delete 12 of them.

In Temporary Internet Files - Tools > Internet Options - Browsing History I deleted check Temporary Internet files, History and form data.

I set Computer icon > Properties > System Restore tab slider to 6%

Hawk22

I don't have any My Documents folder on drive C but I do have a Frank McLean folder that may have originally been a My Docs folder that was renamed. But this folder is 0 bytes in size as I don't put anything in it.

I tried to move folder 1 to drive D and a "Move" window poped up with the following message: "1 is a Windows system folder and is required to run properly. It cannot be moved or renamed." Perhaps this folder is unique to Windows XP Professional or the sysem folder might have just been named "1" but the person who installed windows.

Thank you all again for you help, especially PeteC for taking the time to provide such very explicit instructions. The net result of all of the above is that it now indicates that I have 3.08 GB of free space on drive C.

Peter I have downloaded the PDF file for Acronis Disk Director but haven't read it yet. Reading that and evaluating other partition programs as well is next on my todo list. Tonight I'm going to try to defrag again, now that I've got a little more free space. Then it's on to expanding the drive C partition. I will let you know how that progresses or works out.

Thanks much,
Frank

 

You would still be well advised to run one of the tools I linked earlier or else clean your user profile/profiles temp folders manually. They likely are wasting lots of space. The eCleaner you ran does not touch them.

Check in Control Panel under User Profiles to verify if the "1" is a listed profile. If so and you aren't using it, you can delete it while viewing profiles and dump the files within it when asked. I think you may be carrying along quite a bit of baggage in that profile based on what you posted earlier:

You certainly don't need Application Data and Local Settings for a user that will never be logged on.

 

Hello I've deleted all my Temp files etc but still come up with only 2.60KB of free space on my C drive. I do have a empty D drive 80KG of free space. What in your opinion would be the best solution for myself to gain more C drive space so at least I could defrag again my C drive. I'm not what you call a expert by no means but I read alot.
Please could someone inject there expertise on my issue. Step by step if you know what I mean. Thanks you very much.
Garry