I have a HP Pavilion Desktop, 40 gb in my hard drive and 6 gb in my {D}drive. My problem is that my used space has only 900mb remaining. I don't know how to get rid of some of the stuff that is on there. I was told to go to Control Panel and remove programs that I no longer use or rarely use. I did that but did not gain and free space. Can some one help me?

thumudom

The D drive is most likely a Recovery Partition.

I'd suggest a new additional hard drive.

You can them move your data to the new drive leaving the original for the System and Program Files.

In many cases when you do not see any free space after deleting programs it is due to system restore or the recycling bin or any other backup software which is retaining the data.

jephree, I guess I don't really understand the terminology "Recovery Partiion". Could I get an additional hard drive and delegate it as my {D} drive? The additional hard drive would that be and external? The reason I'm inquiring is I tried to copy a DVD of a reunion and was notified that the {D} drive did not have enough free space. Is that factual? I empty my Recycle Bin everyday, clean out Temp Files, and ever empty out the files located in C:\DOCUME~1\OWNER\LOCALS/////`1\TEMP\ Thanks for the quick response.
thumudom




You can them move your data to the new drive leaving the original for the System and Program Files.

In many cases when you do not see any free space after deleting programs it is due to system restore or the recycling bin or any other backup software which is retaining the data.

What is the exact Pavilion model?

In general HP/Compaq install a Recovery Partition that contains a copy of the original operating system.

In case you ever need or want to return the computer to "factory condition" you run the Recovery partition off of D.

An additional hard drive can be either internal or external. Windows designates drive letters arbitrarily (beyond C). There is no need to specify a drive as D or any other letter.

How much free space is on C? You should never really have over 75% full as XP uses the hard drive for page file as well. 75% is basically full. Current systems are running 160GB drives at least.

Most DVDs contain almost 5GB.

jephree, I have a HP Pavilion a400y Desktop Computer. It has 32 gb of hard drive which has 68% of used space. I have used the recovery program a couple of times. I was unaware that it was called Recovery Partition.

Is there a method of designating where I want a program saved. When adding software can I designated where I want it saved? If so, will the software still show up in the control panel. I receintly purchased and external 80 gb unit to saved all the old photos and new photos of my family, wife's family, service, etc. I didn't want to lose them, so I have them saved there and also in CDs. Too many to want to lose. Can I save software there? Thanks

thumudom.

Your computer:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/p...&lang=en&cc=us

Steps to Recovery:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...=391723&dlc=en

I just post for the links if you ever need them.


Unless you have two internal hard drives, which I doubt, your main hard drive is partitioned. This means the section (D) was "walled off" partitioned from the bulk of the drive (C).

D contains the factory edition of XP. When you run a "Destructive Recovery" all of C is deleted and replaced by the data on D.

Partitions work as "virtual" distinct hard drives although they are on the same hard drive.

Your 40GB drive is partitioned into 32 + 6. The remainder is an issue in how Windows measures GB different from hard drive manufacturers.

Software (programs) must be installed to C as they write to the registry which is only on C (system root).

If the software/program creates data then this data can be moved to another partition or drive but not the program files themselves.

Back to the DVD in question: why not copy it to your external drive?

Are you copying it to edit it? Send it?

jephree, I appreciate the links and I will go to the finst and find out more about my computer.

I know that I don't have two hard drives but never knew that the drive was broken up into two separate units, or partioned off. I understand now after I performed a destructive test where the original information was stored. That aspect was like "voodoo" to me. On my desktop I have a folder with all my downloads and also keep that information on a couple of discs. This information, if deleted, after saving, will be removed from my main hard drive, is that correct?

The only question I have now, is: what is only the {D} drive besides the original information that was put in when I got the new computer? Would it be updates tlo software installed? Is that what you mean when you state, "If the software/program creates data then this data can be moved to another partition or drive but not the program files themselves."?

I guess I didn't know that I could copy the DVD to the external drive. I was copying the DVD to send a it to a friend that was at the reunion with me. When I was putting in the information that was on the disc, the original disc was in my [E] drive, when it was done a message came up stating to put a blank disc in the [E] drive for copying. So the answer was I was copying to Send It.

I must apologize if I come across a little dense but this was my first attempt to copy a DVD and I got a little freaked out because I just didn't understand. Thanks to you I'm getting a little bit of a grip on the handle.

thumudom

I am unclear what you refer to as "Downloads".

Downloaded data is one thing. Downloaded programs are entirely different.

When you download a program it usually downloads to a temporary file and from there installs the program. The program is installed into the Registry. The program files and the registry are stored on the "system root" aka C:. These cannot be moved.

If a program creates data you can save this data to other drives. The "Save As" option usually lets you put data wherever you want to.

If you run a "Destructive Recovery" which is similar to a "Clean Install" it formats C: which means it deletes all data on C:.

There is also a "Non Destructive" option which is similar to a "Repair Install" which does not format and retains your data and settings.

What is on D: besides the Recovery data I do not know. All partitions run both a Recycler and System Volume which are the Recycling Bin and System Restore respectively.

You can see for yourself by Opening D: from My Computer.

XP SP2 is probably @ 3GB so that is half the partition. System Volume by default runs 12% of the partition.

Again a DVD is generally 4.7GB so obviously you could never put a DVD onto D:.

There should be no reason why you cannot copy the DVD to your external drive. From there there are many options. I doubt you want to nor could send it via e-mail due to size.

There are many uploading sites for file sharing which is probably the best option.

PhotoBucket now allows both Photographs and Video and is free:

http://photobucket.com/

jephree, when I refer to downloads I mean programs such as 'Limewire", "Itunes", 'Winamp" and so forth. I guess when I download these they go into my [C] drive and not the [D] which is used for restoring my computer.

I fully understand the deletion of all the information on [C] during a "Destructive Recovery" now.

I have used the program where I go back to a specific date and put the computer back in the condition it was that that particular time.

I have a lot of XP2 Security Updates that show up in my Control Panel. Every once in a while a get a note to download the lastest and greatest stuff for my XP2 Securtiy and I download them. Since I bought this computer 4 years ago I have about 90 that show up in the Control Panel but do not show how many mb they use.

I'll experiment with all the information that you have given me. I know that I picked up a lot of information that I had no prior knowledge. It's sort of difficult when you reach an age of 76 to keep up with this stuff.

Thanks for the photobucket address.
thumudom