c and d drive questions

[rb]

I have an older pc that I recently put back in action. I have C: and D:
drives on my pc. Is this indicative that these may be the same physical
drive? I don't think I have two separate drives, but not sure.

I don't put anything into D: drive, but Windows seems to fill it up right
along.

D: drive is now getting full.

Will C: drive automatically take D: drive overflow? What do I need to do to
deal with the problem?

[Malke[_2_]]

rb wrote:

> I have an older pc that I recently put back in action. I have C: and D:
> drives on my pc. Is this indicative that these may be the same physical
> drive? I don't think I have two separate drives, but not sure.
>
> I don't put anything into D: drive, but Windows seems to fill it up right
> along.
>
> D: drive is now getting full.
>
> Will C: drive automatically take D: drive overflow? What do I need to do
> to deal with the problem?

Go to Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Disk
Management. This will show you whether you have two physical hard drives or
not. Or you could simply open the computer and look. If it is a laptop,
then for sure you only have one hard drive.

You will need to give some examples of with what the D: drive is "filling
up" since we can't see your computer. Without more definite details, any
answers I could give would be just guesses.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

[Olórin[_2_]]

"rb" > wrote in message
...
>I have an older pc that I recently put back in action. I have C: and D:
>drives on my pc. Is this indicative that these may be the same physical
>drive?

Not at all.

> I don't think I have two separate drives, but not sure.

To find out, click on Start > Run > type "diskmgmt.msc" (without the
inverted commas/speech marks) and press Enter. This brings up the Disk
Management tool; if you see (C:) and (D:) both alongside "Disk0" then you
only have one physical *disk* (not drive).
>
> I don't put anything into D: drive, but Windows seems to fill it up right
> along.

Check which is your Windows partition by clicking on Start > Run again, type
"cmd /k echo %windir%" and press Enter. It'll probably say "C:\WINDOWS".

What size is your D:\ partition, how much is free, and at what rate is free
space being consumed?

Try searching for files with recent "last modified" dates. What and where
these are may give you a clue as to what's creating/updating them. If you
want to use a search utility, rather than ploughing through D:\ manually,
you might want to use something decent like Agent Ransack
(http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/) rather than XP's built-in joke.

>
> D: drive is now getting full.
>
> Will C: drive automatically take D: drive overflow?

No. But even if it did, you'd need to establish what it is that's eating up
your diskspace, or you'd just run out on C:\, too, eventually.

> What do I need to do to deal with the problem?

Search for recent files, per the above. Or otherwise pin down and let us
know what these files are that are filling up D:\.

That's the primary thing. You might also want to check what programs and
processes you have running with Task Manager; check programs that start with
your machine with a program like Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel
(http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml) for anything that shouldn't be there.
(This may not directly help with the issue at hand, but is worth doing
anyway.)

Also, get the PC fully updated with Windows patches with and ensure AV and
malware protection is current. Have you run virus and malware checks?

[Ken Blake, MVP]

On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:18:56 -0500, "rb" > wrote:

> I have an older pc that I recently put back in action. I have C: and D:
> drives on my pc. Is this indicative that these may be the same physical
> drive?


No, it's indicative that you have two partitions. You could have two
partitions on one physical drive, or one partition on each of two
physical drives. There's no way to tell just by looking at the drive
letters.

See Malke's message to find out which is the case.


> I don't think I have two separate drives, but not sure.


Most people *don't* have two physical drives. You probably have two
partitions on a single drive.


> I don't put anything into D: drive, but Windows seems to fill it up right
> along.
>
> D: drive is now getting full.


How big is the D: partition? Is it "getting" full, or has it always
been full? Many computers these days come from the factory with a D:
partition used to restore the operating system if you ever need to.
They do this in lieu of giving you a CD. Check your documentation to
be sure. If that's the case (and if you say "I don't put anything into
D: drive," it probably is), do *nothing* to this partition, other than
following the manufacturer's instructions to burn its contents to a
CD.


> Will C: drive automatically take D: drive overflow?


No. Nor will D: automatically take the C: drive overflow. Think of it
as a two-drawer filing cabinet. If you fill up one drawer, that
doesn't make anything magically move to the other.


> What do I need to do to
> deal with the problem?


What problem? You've described what appears to be a normal situation,
and I don't see anything that sounds wrong. If I'm not correct, please
explain what you see as a problem.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

[Jim[_30_]]

"rb" > wrote in message
...
>I have an older pc that I recently put back in action. I have C: and D:
>drives on my pc. Is this indicative that these may be the same physical
>drive? I don't think I have two separate drives, but not sure.
>
> I don't put anything into D: drive, but Windows seems to fill it up right
> along.
>
> D: drive is now getting full.
>
> Will C: drive automatically take D: drive overflow? What do I need to do
> to deal with the problem?
>
Why don't you just open the case, and count the number of physical drives?
Jim

[JS]

I agree, even though Disk Management will provide the answer, since it's an
"older pc that I recently put back in action", it would be a good time to
open the case, clean out the dust bunnies and replace the CMOS battery which
could be near the end of it's life.

JS

"Jim" > wrote in message
...
>
> "rb" > wrote in message
> ...
>>I have an older pc that I recently put back in action. I have C: and D:
>>drives on my pc. Is this indicative that these may be the same physical
>>drive? I don't think I have two separate drives, but not sure.
>>
>> I don't put anything into D: drive, but Windows seems to fill it up right
>> along.
>>
>> D: drive is now getting full.
>>
>> Will C: drive automatically take D: drive overflow? What do I need to do
>> to deal with the problem?
>>
> Why don't you just open the case, and count the number of physical drives?
> Jim
>

[rb]

Thanks very much. I DO have two drives. 0 and 1 are separate. drives.

From this point on, I know what to do to manage things: just simply delete
anything in D that I find there.

[Ken Blake, MVP]

On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:09:09 -0500, "rb" > wrote:

> Thanks very much.


If it's me your thanking, you're welcome. But in the future, please
quote the message you're responding to, as I did here. I almost missed
that this was thread I had posted in.


> I DO have two drives. 0 and 1 are separate. drives.


OK, then my guess was wrong.


> From this point on, I know what to do to manage things: just simply delete
> anything in D that I find there.


Please do *not* do that. If you are finding files in D: and you don't
know what they are or how they got there, you should certainly find
out what. The assumption that you don't need them may be correct, but
also may not be. I wouldn't delete anything unless you know what it
is.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup