Techies: hard drive question

[bassman1956]

Okay, here goes:

 

My main hard drive, assigned as hard disk #0, and as letter C drive, is a 56GB unit. But for whatever reason, when it was last formatted, it only formatted 37GB as the C drive. 19GB are "unallocated", blank, useless, but otherwise will test okay. I can always allocate it as a drive, say E or such (D is my second disk). But, is there a way I can remove the current partition so that the C drive sees all 56GB? Or, is it only possible if I do a full reformat of the drive?

 

Please use baby steps in your answers, this is at the frontier edge of my knowledge base.

[bassman1956]

And while I'm at it, can I get rid of the 300+ "uninstall" files and 200 .log files in the Windows directory? That would free up like 1.5GB. Honest. Safe to delete?

[slapthefunkyfour]

Do a disk cleanup in the system tool in the accessories in the start menu. That should clear out a lot of the uninstall and log files. As far as making the computer see the entire 56GB, I think you have to reformat the hard drive again. I'm not sure about that.

 

Good luck.

[Zon5string]

You can't just "allocate" the unallocated space into an existing partition.

 

Don't just delete "uninstall" files. A lot of the time, those files contain information necessary to uninstall existing applications.

[ToeJamFootball]

www.ubuntu.com

 

[Jazz Ad]

Ccleaner will get you rid of unwanted files.

Small partitions like this typically exist forbrandware with pre-mount computers such as Dell and Gateway.

Next time you fully format, get rid of partitions too and make a single big one.

Other than generating twice as many unwanted install files, how is Ubuntu going to help anything in the present case?

[ToeJamFootball]

Ccleaner will get you rid of unwanted files. Small partitions like this typically exist forbrandware with pre-mount computers such as Dell and Gateway. Next time you fully format, get rid of partitions too and make a single big one. Other than generating twice as many unwanted install files, how is Ubuntu going to help anything in the present case?

Probably not at all

 

[JC Bass]

If you are using Windows Vista, follow the instructions below:

 

Right click on Computer

Select Manage

When the window comes up, select Disk Management in the left pane

You will see a graphical representation of your drives, including the unallocated space

Right click on the C: partition and select Extend Volume

Follow the Wizard that comes up

Done, all 56GB is being used by C:

 

If you are running anything prior to Vista, you will need a third party product to do this, or you will have to reformat.

[bassman1956]

 

Do a disk cleanup in the system tool in the accessories in the start menu. That should clear out a lot of the uninstall and log files.

 

Nope, it didn't. I thought it would, too.

I do have a Norton Utilities and Symantic anitivirus bundle that did better at cleaning my disk, but basically, the last install made stuff operate so botched up I uninstalled it.

 

 

As far as making the computer see the entire 56GB, I think you have to reformat the hard drive again. I'm not sure about that. Good luck.

 

 

Hmmm...

[bassman1956]

 

If you are using Windows Vista, follow the instructions below: Right click on Computer Select Manage When the window comes up, select Disk Management in the left pane You will see a graphical representation of your drives, including the unallocated space Right click on the C: partition and select Extend Volume Follow the Wizard that comes up Done, all 56GB is being used by C: If you are running anything prior to Vista, you will need a third party product to do this, or you will have to reformat.

 

 

XP-SP2.

I have the same windows and options. But... Extend option wants to assign it as a new drive. Not that I understand the "extend" option if this is what it is doing... What's it extending?

[t3ch]

You can do one of two things to get the rest of that space... Download a program like partition magic to format the unallocated space and tack it onto your existing partition. You could also format it and have it show up as a different drive/partition and use it as your file space, that way you have a place for backups if you need to reinstall your OS.

 

I would hesitate to think it's a repair partition put there by the factory as previously suggested since those are usually under 3GB. Regardless, if you CD's, it's generally unnecessary anyways, especially if you're installing your own version of an OS.

 

Also, stop looking in the Windows folder. If you don't know if it's safe to delete them, you don't need to be looking around system directories. No, it is not fine to delete.

[t3ch]

 

XP-SP2. I have the same windows and options. But... Extend option wants to assign it as a new drive. Not that I understand the "extend" option if this is what it is doing... What's it extending?

 

 

Yes, once you make a partition you can't just "add" space to it. It doesn't work like that regularly, and requires a specialized program to do that, such as the one I suggested. It's not a bad thing having separate partitions though, you might make some good use out of it and want to leave it as is.

[bassman1956]

I already have a D drive that's 80gig. And my C's running out of room, just from temp files and such, as I haven't added much in the line of programs since I loaded everything last year, which only used up about 12gig.

[t3ch]

Well then I guess you should use my first suggestion and use partition magic to add the space on. OR you can do a full windows reinstall, delete the C: partition, and reallocate the entire drive. Your choice. I've listed the only options you have, pick one. It doesn't matter to me which you choose

 

If your OS drive is running out of space, feel free to clean up files... But not the ones in system directions such as C:windows. Uninstall programs you don't use, check for large files in my documents/desktop, clear the temp directories (windows cleanup tool will do this), etc.

[bassman1956]

Partition Magic.

I see that's a Norton product.

Too bad it wasn't part of Works Premier.

[t3ch]

Partition Magic. I see that's a Norton product. Too bad it wasn't part of Works Premier.

 

There is a free trial, though I'm not sure how functional it is. I forgot that it's "free".

[Teletypist]

From the top:

 

It seems your drive was partitioned that way. You are running off the first (37GB) partition.

 

The second partition has not been formatted (initialized). Do that, and you'll get a second "logical" drive with the remaining physical space.

 

Why did this happen?

 

Old MS OS's assumed 37GB was an absurdly large drive, so they never planned for anything larger.

 

How can you change it?

 

There are some work-a-rounds to make it a single "logical" drive. They usually don't work well. The choices are:

 

1) allocate the remaining space as another drive.

 

2) Get another "boot" drive and clone all data, then reformat the original as a second drive.

 

3) These days 20GB is just the cost of a good cigar. If you need more space get another drive.

 

My advice: #3

[bassman1956]

I'm more concerned why 12gig of programs has eaten up 37 gig, when all my files are stored on a different drive. Will try a few more cleansing steps tonight. Maybe I'll pour in a bottle of magnesium citrate.

[bassman1956]

I set it up for the Windows cleaning the hard drive over lunch. After 40 minutes when I left, it was still chugging and the progress bar showed like 10% done. Last night, it ran through that in like 10 minutes and barely cleaned up a gig. So maybe this is more promissing.

[Chiisu]

Also run a program called ccleaner

[bassman1956]

Well, after a ftew cleanings, I'm up to 11gig of free space, beast the tar out of Internet Tourbus. I'll look into this further. I'm still not sure why a set group of files that only used so much space for ages is suddenly twice as big. Which is exactly why I don't do this for a living. BTW, any link to Partition Magic that I found would not let me download without buying it for $70, although a few let me get to the download button, then said download was unavailable due to licensing.