C drive too small, help!

[ianwri]

Just took delivery of my desktop today. As requested my 500gb hard drive has been partitioned 80gb/420gb.

The only problem is the 'c' drive is only 80gb and everything is installed on there and there is nothing on the 'l' drive 420gb.

So all my photos, iTunes etc will quickly fill up the 'c' drive. Am i doomed to having all that 420gb wasted or is there anything I can do?

windows 8 operating system.

Thanks

 

[vanthus]

You can store data files like photos etc on any drive you choose.
Just create folders on the "I" drive and name them anything you want,like photos or music for example.
There are several tuitions on how to move your iTunes library to a different drive.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
Not sure why you would want to partition the hard drive though,but 80GB isn't going to store much considering the operating system is obviously on it to start with,so you will eventually need to install programs on the 420GB "I" drive,unless you have another hard drive of course.
To install a program on the "I" drive,or any other drive,create a folder on it "programs" for example then browse to that location when installing an application,or better still simply delete the "C" on "location"when installing the program and type in the drive letter of the drive you want to install to (I) for example,this will automatically create the necessary folder on the drive the first time you do it.

 

[ianwri]

i just assumed it was the done thing to have hard drive partitioned so the os could go into the smaller drive, then all my prog files could go on the large drive automatically. I do now wish i had not partitoned the drive. Thanks for your help.

 

[vanthus]

i just assumed it was the done thing to have hard drive partitioned so the os could go into the smaller drive, then all my prog files could go on the large drive automatically. I do now wish i had not partitoned the drive. Thanks for your help.

If you want you could delete the 420GB partition then extend the "C" partition to use the full hard drive space,this can be easily done from "disk management".

 

[nathanjrb]

If you want you could delete the 420GB partition then extend the "C" partition to use the full hard drive space,this can be easily done from "disk management".

http://youtu.be/PofFTiMbCKM

 

[vanthus]

http://youtu.be/PofFTiMbCKM

It can easily be done in windows 7,I've done it numerous times and I assume it's the same in windows 8.Watch the video,all you need to do is delete the partion on the right of the "C" drive,the "delete volume" option isn't greyed out,the partition will now show as unallocated,then right click the "C" partition and select "extend volume",which will now not be greyed out,as unallocated space is now available,then select maximum available space.it's as easy as that.
The video is wrong and misleading,there is no need for third party software.
Where they're getting it wrong is the second partition needs to be deleted first to create unallocated space before the "extend volume" option will be available on the system drive.
(do not delete the "system reserved" partition,which should be to the left of the "C" drive.)

 

[nathanjrb]

http://youtu.be/PofFTiMbCKM

OOPS!

It can easily be done in windows 7,I've done it numerous times and I assume it's the same in windows 8.Watch the video,all you need to do is delete the partion on the right of the "C" drive,the "delete volume" option isn't greyed out,the partition will now show as unallocated,then right click the "C" partition and select "extend volume",which will now not be greyed out,as unallocated space is now available,then select maximum available space.it's as easy as that.
The video is wrong and misleading,there is no need for third party software.
Where they're getting it wrong is the second partition needs to be deleted first to create unallocated space before the "extend volume" option will be available on the system drive.
(do not delete the "system reserved" partition,which should be to the left of the "C" drive.)

My apologies, I was actually sorting out my partitions (in W8) quite recently, and I used a YouTube video to learn how to - but this wasn't the one! There is no need to use third party software. Thanks Vanthus, I should have watched the video I linked properly to ensure it was the right one!

 

[RS2OOO]

Agree with Vanthus comments here, its very easy to fix the issues you describe.

I changed my partition sizes even when there was data on one of the partitions and it worked fine.

If you use Google Chrome as your browser for example you can even change the download location in your browser settings to automatically download to a particular drive.

You can also move your documents, pictures, videos etc to a different drive and there are instructions on line to do this. I've always done this simply to keep everything separate from the Operating system as an extra form of virus security and to make backing up personal files much easier. However, when I tried to do this with my new PCS PC, it didn't work and then I couldn't get the folders back and had to do a system restore.

Not sure what went wrong but I gave up in the end though it does seem to work fine for everyone else.

To change location of all your personal folders, click start, go to your name/computer name at the top right of the start menu and click that, then a window will open with all your personal folders in. Go through them one by one right clicking and pressing "properties", then click the location tab and then change the location of the folder to your chosen drive.

From then on, everything downloaded to that folder or placed in that folder will go onto the chosen drive.

 

[ianwri]

Nanthus, Nathanjrb, you are totally awesome, sorted, I now have one 'c' drive with everything on there, thanks so much. rs2000 thanks for your solution too, but I just did the one drive thing and it was really quite simple.

 

[vanthus]

Nanthus, Nathanjrb, you are totally awesome, sorted, I now have one 'c' drive with everything on there, thanks so much. rs2000 thanks for your solution too, but I just did the one drive thing and it was really quite simple.

Glad it worked for you.