My computer tells me it has a C drive and a d drive

[nymphadora]

and an E drive (CDs)

My C drive is almost full and the D drive is empty. Can I use the d drive for storage?

I have no idea, what happens if you double click on it?

the D drive is normally there as a back-up drive, so check first what's on it.

Someone has partitioned the hard drive. I do this so that all my programs are on C: and all my work / docs are on D:.

However, sometimes it is done by the manufacturer to store recovery data incase you need a restore.

What is listed as being on D:?

Nothing in it and nothing happens when I click on it.

Oh actually it has a folder in it with some random letters& numbers as its name but I dont have permission to view it.

It could potentially be two hard disk drives, though I admit that this is unlikely and that the more likely scenario is it's one disk that has been partitioned.

Presuming you're using Windows XP give this a go (Vista might be similar, 7, no idea).

• Right click on "My Computer" on your desktop and select "manage"
• Expand the item labelled "Storage" so you can see an item labelled "Disk Management" and select it.
• That should then show you your disk drive(s) and how the named drives map onto them.

Unless your D: drive is a physically different drive to your C: there's not much point backing up to it as a mechanical failure will cause both parts to be lost.

PeasPlease is right about partitions, sometimes they're done to separate programs from data and sometimes it's also done by the manufacturer to store restore files.

What is on there?

How much spare space does it have?

bless

Am on vista
Drive C is called acer and has 1.13 GB of 32.3Gb left

Drive d is called data and has 32.2GB or 32.3 GB

There is a row called disc 0 and it contains both C & D and another box with no name

Then a row that says CD rom

Disc D says healthy and primary partion.

Does this make sense?

Do the instructions for XP make any sense on Vista at all? Microsoft have a habit of changing names around seemingly just to be difficult but it might be something close to what's described.

I'm guessing it's quite an old machine, that's a pretty small disk drive?

You should be able to use the D: drive fine your storing your files on. To be honest I'd also move your files, not the programs, from the C: to the D: too to free up some space on C:.

Windows likes having free disk space to use as extra memory and I'm not too sure how well it works if there's free stuff on D: but not on C:.

So try and get all your documents, photos, music etc. onto that D: drive and leave the applications and programs behind on C:

Until you can clarify if the C: and the D: really are separate disk drives then I would rely on it for backups.

That does make sense....

C: and D: are the same disk drive so don't use one to back up the other.

How big is the empty box? By where it says Disk 0 it should say something like XXgb. And in the boxes for C: and D: it'll say something like 32gb for each.

Does XX = 64gb?

If not you might actually have some space left over and you could make another "drive" out of it...

Badgers- Its about 15months! I never used to download

Mutt- I was hoping to move itunes, wont bother then!

Photos are the only other thing but there isnt a lot of them on there. Its all iTunes stuff. Which is what made me think about this as my ohone has all the same data on!

Disc 0
no name C D
9.77 32.38 32.38

Does that make sense?

Oh and C & D both say NTFS after the 32.38GB if that means anything?

iTunes on a PC can handle the library being in a place other than the expected C: drive.

There are instructions on how to do it here:
support.apple.com/kb/HT1364

With such a small disk drive you also should think about whether or not you want to keep all of your music on your computer and on your phone.

The default settings have iTunes store the music in both places and if you delete a music file from iTunes it will automatically be deleted from your phone/iPod.

However it's pretty easy to change that and then you can delete music from your PC without loosing it from your phone.

That said if you've bought the music, rather than copied it from a CD, then I'd back up the files first before deleting them from the computer.

Just tried saving word files to D drive & it accepted them and opened so that would save some space?

I think that means you've got 9.77GB of space left on the disk that isn't in use and could be assigned to make a new disk.

I'm not too sure I'd be confident enough to describe over this how to do it though as I'm none to fond or familiar with Vista.

If you right click on the empty box in the "Drive 0" line that is next to the C: and D: boxes what options appear?

"Just tried saving word files to D drive & it accepted them and opened so that would save some space?"

Yup.

It sounds like the biggest change you could make would be to move your music onto the D: drive.

So have a look at the instructions linked to above and go for it.

At the same time also consider if you really do want all your music on your PC and your (i?)Phone.

Once you've moved the music you can see how much space it takes up and then make a decision.

Yes. Put all your docs and music and pics on D: and save C: for Windows and additional programs that you might install.

If I take the music off my computer when I sync my phone I lose the music. Not sure how to get round this.

I would guess the 10GB is either a recovery partition or where Vista stores it's restore points.

Personally I'd find a reliable partition manager and either delete the D: drive completely or, if I wasn't sure I could safely remove it, I would shrink it down to about 2GB and increase the size of the C: drive to 62GB. (You do have current backups don't you?)

Ooh missed Badgers earlier post on Itunes