[underground]

I'm not sure if this is possible, but if it is can anyone shed any light on expanding the disk space allocation on my primary partition (C:\)? I appear to be running out of space on there (6GB), in spite of the fact that I use it for WinXP and my profile data, all programs, data etc. live in different partitions.

I read something about diskpart.exe but I'm nervous of messing up. Ideally i'd just like to nick a bit of space off the next partition.

[Bubba]

I tried this once using Partition Magic and it screwed it up - let me know what works for you.

[JR]

screwed up when i tried it too...

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Before you start mucking around with partitions, have you cleared of all the crap off your primary partition? If not you'd be surprised how much space you can free up.

Theres loads of guides on line, but to get you started....

make sure all your system files are visible...

-search for ~
-Search for *.tmp
-search for uninstall packages beginning with '$NTuninstall...' (check on google if it is safe to delete, most are fine)
- 'really' clear out the IE cache, as 'delete files' does not empty 'temporary internet files' you have to do it manually, search the 'temporary internet files' folder and delete all the subfolders in the 'IE6' folder
- search for files by size and/or type, eg.*.avi greater than 10mb, you'll fine lots of random help movies, or lots of *.bmp backgrounds you never use.

I recon most people have at least 2gig of garbage they can delete.

[Jim]

easy way to clean up c:
right click and properties.
just right of pie chart is 'disc cleanup'
click this and follow the prompts and you should free up a bit of space.

how big is your hard drive?
you should really allow 10gig for a system drive.
best off saving all stuff off the whole disc, deleting the partitions formating and starting again fresh like the prince of bel air.

[underground]

I recon most people have at least 2gig of garbage they can delete.

Thanks Obi, i just cleared 1 gb or so based on that! Any idea if it's safe to mess with the C:\Documents and Settings\Jim\Local Settings\Application Data folder?

If it's stuff like autocomplete in Mozilla / Google etc. I'd rather delete it TBH.

[Bubba]

you should be able to clear all that shit from firefox options

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

If you want to find out where lots of space is taken up a 'folder size' plug in for windows explorer is very useful. There are loads available for free, this one http://foldersize.sourceforge.net/ seems to be good. It adds a 'folder size' column to the details view.

There are several folders you can clear from 'application data' however you do need to check on google for each one if you want your apps to keep working. So I'd only bother with the huge folders. For example, I just found out that you can quite safely delete the 'cache.dat' file from the Google earth folder C:\Documents and Settings\[whatever]\Application Data\Google\GoogleEarth

Doesn't seem to effect Google earth at all (unless you go to the same location all the time I guess), 175mb (in my case) freed up.

[Bubba]

If you use Outlook, then also move your .pst files away from your C: drive - saved me 1/2 gig.

[Bubba]

Apparantly you can move the whole documents and settings hierarchy to a different partition and also point all c:/program files to another partition.

Looks complex and may be easier to do at XP install time, so I'm not going to attempt it now, but would probably be the best solution in the future.

See here if you're interested:

http://sean-janus.optionpc.com/move-dirs.html

[underground]

Just managed to resize my C: to 18gig taking space off the others, using Partition magic 8. Dunno how long it took but I left it at bedtime and it was working ffine when i got up this morning...