Two hard drives one being used

[*Turbo* 10]

Hi, first things first I’m useless with computers! I could program BASIC on my old Commodore 64 but that was 30 years ago:hihi:

 

Ok so I have a laptop, many years old, but works fine - apart from this.

 

There is a C drive that holds 271GB with practically zero free.

 

I have a D drive that holds 407GB that is practically empty.

 

How can I start utilising the D drive? Do I just copy files over or is there a way of setting it up that the D drive is my main drive and everything uses it goes through that?

 

There must be some sort of wizard on windows for this?

 

For info it’s a Samsung laptop running windows 7 home premium. If you need any other info please let me know.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Rob

[swarfendor437 14]

You could clone the partition to the D: Drive - however, a word of warning. Windows likes to be near the 'Start' of the Drive, so putting it further down on 'D' might lead to other issues in the future. Have you tried cleaning the drive by removing all .tmp files. Also do a search for .chk files - if there are a lot of those the drive might be on its last armature!

[Cyclone 10]

Depends on what is filling up your first drive.

If it's your documents, videos, music, etc... Then you can just move it. You'll have to make a few changes to point "My Documents" at the new location, but that's about it.

 

---------- Post added 02-11-2018 at 11:21 ----------

 

Programs on the other hand can't generally just be moved, they need to be reinstalled to the new location.

 

As Swarf said, run your disk space checker to get rid of temp files that may be filling it up and empty the recycle bin.

[muddywolf 10]

I believe a simpler solution would be to extend your c: via disk management. Because you state it is a laptop that will be 1 physical disk, Samsung will have chopped that physical disk up into 2 for you.

 

You can check it for yourself, if you type 'disk management' into your search box and report back what you see, I expect you will have 1 disk split into 2 and if so it should be straight forward to extend your C: into the unused d: once you have anything in the D: backed up.

[Jomie 30]

As above - easier to extend the c drive via disk management or Easeus Partition Master Free. If you are not comfortable with this, probably best to let someone to do it for you.

[*Turbo* 10]

Hi

 

Thanks for all your replies:thumbsup:

 

Disk management has stated Disk 0 with the capacity being C plus D.

 

I have downloaded the EraseUS and had a play - play being the meaning so not applied anything!

 

I can partition D to get extra data but this gives me an option of creating an F drive so, presuming i have understood correctly, is not what I am wanting to do unless I make the new drive primary rather than logical?

 

Any idea in relatively easy steps of the best way?

[Ghozer 112]

Hi

 

Thanks for all your replies:thumbsup:

 

Disk management has stated Disk 0 with the capacity being C plus D.

 

I have downloaded the EraseUS and had a play - play being the meaning so not applied anything!

 

I can partition D to get extra data but this gives me an option of creating an F drive so, presuming i have understood correctly, is not what I am wanting to do unless I make the new drive primary rather than logical?

 

Any idea in relatively easy steps of the best way?

 

in very basic terms, you delete D so the space is essentially 'unused' to Windows, You then EXTEND C to take up the space that D used to take...

 

In terms of EaseUS, and such like, in reality it might not always work like that as there could be some files in use on D, or some 'hidden' recovery partition you could accidentally delete etc...

 

So the workflow should be..

- Copy Anything you need to keep to an external drive (I would say just copy things off D, but if anything goes wrong, it's good to have a backup)

- Restart Windows in Safemode if possible... (not always possible, and not on Windows 10)

- Load up EaseUS (or whichever software you're using) and Just delete the D partition, apply the change, and check in your 'My Computer (or This PC)' if only C (with original size) is showing. if this is ok,

- reboot at this point, and make sure it still works, and Windows hasn't broken it's boot or anything (it's been known).

- Load up EaseUS, and re-size C, to include the space that D was occupying, and apply, repeat the above (check in My Computer for correct size etc, reboot PC and double check etc)

 

-- If all is successful, you should have a single drive computer, with the full space, you can copy your files back, to where you want them...

 

-- If at any point there is an error or problem or failure, Windows and/or EaseUS may offer a 'rollback' option, and most things tell you if there may be a problem when you apply, it should also tell you why it can't apply any changes, then you can come back here and let us know to help you further!

[*Turbo* 10]

Hi and thanks

 

The EaseUS does not load in safe mode?

 

Is it wise to delete in normal mode?

[Ghozer 112]

Hi and thanks

 

The EaseUS does not load in safe mode?

 

Is it wise to delete in normal mode?

 

You can delete in normal - just make sure you have everything backed up, and nothing else running except EaseUS...

[*Turbo* 10]

You can delete in normal - just make sure you have everything backed up, and nothing else running except EaseUS...

 

Hi,

 

Everything ‘seems’ to be working fine with plenty of physical memory on C drive.

 

Thank you very much for your help:thumbsup: