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#16
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Re-sizing my Hard Drive partitions.
On 24/09/2017 3:52 AM, Wolf K wrote:
On 2017-09-23 06:54, Daniel60 wrote: I currently have my Hard Drive partitioned like so .... C: 57.2GB used out of 60.1GB G: 19.5GB used out of 19.5GB (22.1MB actually showing as free) H: 14.5GB free out of 22.4GB You have a 128GB drive by the looks of it. Some of that is taken by rescue/repair/backup partitions without drive letters. (Drive D: is the DVD RW Drive, Drive E: is my Wireless Internet Dongle and Drive F: is a removable USB drive) Windows 7 keeps complaining about "Low Disk Space" so is it possible to reduce the size of H: (say 5GB) and add the extra space to G:?? Or should I just copy a whole directory from G: to H: and then delete the original directory from G:?? Any other suggestions?? TIA Daniel You may not like my advice: Eliminate all files you don't need on your system. As in data you don't use right now. Programs you've not used in months. Etc. Delete or Move to the external drive. This is a temporary fix, though, since data accumulates. So I would go a step further: Buy another external drives for data storage. Use F: for a working drive. Copy everything off H: and G: onto F: then trash them and extend C: into the free space. External G: will be your backup drive. If necessary, buy a USB hub so that you can keep the external drives attached as much as possible. Make sure the hub is one that takes power from a wall transformer, unpowered USB hubs can be unreliable. FWIW, the Source here has advertised 2TB drives for around $80CAD. Or $60US. You're right, Wolf! (Are you the same Wolf K that hangs about on the Mozilla NG's?? I always took him to be Scandinavian not Canadian.) I do not like your advice! I prefer separating things as I have done for many years (decades!!). And only having the one port for internal HD in this Laptop (well, o.k. two really, but the other port and physical space is used for the DVD drive), installing another internal HD is not possible and having to lug around an external is not something I look forward to!! I do have an external 3TB somewhere hereabouts which I use for backups. Daniel |
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#17
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Thank you, everybody Re-sizing my Hard Drive partitions.
On 23/09/2017 8:54 PM, Daniel60 wrote:
I currently have my Hard Drive partitioned like so .... C: 57.2GB used out of 60.1GB G: 19.5GB used out of 19.5GB (22.1MB actually showing as free) H: 14.5GB free out of 22.4GB (Drive D: is the DVD RW Drive, Drive E: is my Wireless Internet Dongle and Drive F: is a removable USB drive) Windows 7 keeps complaining about "Low Disk Space" so is it possible to reduce the size of H: (say 5GB) and add the extra space to G:?? Or should I just copy a whole directory from G: to H: and then delete the original directory from G:?? Any other suggestions?? TIA Daniel Thank you all for your advice, but I figured, as I'm not using any of the Linux stuff, at this time, I'll shrink my Linux Home partition (currently using about 60Gb of its 250Gb) and then expand the Windows partitions. After I locate my 3GB external drive and back everything up first, of course!! Thanks. Daniel |
#18
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Re-sizing my Hard Drive partitions.
Daniel60 wrote:
snip And only having the one port for internal HD in this Laptop (well, o.k. two really, but the other port and physical space is used for the DVD drive), installing another internal HD is not possible and having to lug around an external is not something I look forward to!! I do have an external 3TB somewhere hereabouts which I use for backups. Daniel Have you checked the machine carefully for other options ? Like, maybe an SD slot ? My digital camera here, has a 32GB SD in it, so SD cards do come in decent sizes. And dumping the DVD drive and using one of those adapter modules for a 2.5" storage device, is a worthwhile tradeoff. Only if you regularly watch movie content direct from DVD, would it be a non-starter. For program installation purposes, you can get a "slim" external USB optical drive for usage with software installer DVDs. You don't have to "go without" if removing the DVD drive. But if you spend a lot of time flipping media into the built-in drive, that's not going to be quite as convenient. It's only for people who seldom use the drive, that an external slim can take its place. Paul |
#19
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Re-sizing my Hard Drive partitions.
On 24/09/2017 10:24 PM, Paul wrote:
Daniel60 wrote: snip And only having the one port for internal HD in this Laptop (well, o.k. two really, but the other port and physical space is used for the DVD drive), installing another internal HD is not possible and having to lug around an external is not something I look forward to!! I do have an external 3TB somewhere hereabouts which I use for backups. Daniel Have you checked the machine carefully for other options ? Like, maybe an SD slot ? My digital camera here, has a 32GB SD in it, so SD cards do come in decent sizes. I have had an SD connected to laptop .... once, so I do have the appropriate plug/socket, so this is a possibility! And dumping the DVD drive and using one of those adapter modules for a 2.5" storage device, is a worthwhile tradeoff. Only if you regularly watch movie content direct from DVD, would it be a non-starter. For program installation purposes, you can get a "slim" external USB optical drive for usage with software installer DVDs. You don't have to "go without" if removing the DVD drive. But if you spend a lot of time flipping media into the built-in drive, that's not going to be quite as convenient. It's only for people who seldom use the drive, that an external slim can take its place. Paul Last night was the first time I had the DVD tray open in months, but still I like knowing it's there! And trust me, I'm really not trying to be difficult, .... ;-) Daniel |
#20
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Re-sizing my Hard Drive partitions.
In message , Mayayana
writes: [] Another good method is to image new installs and then reinstall once in awhile. One of the worst problems with Vista/7 is the winsxs folder, which can grow to dozens of GB. The install basically forces you to accept storing the whole DVD on disk, to make it look like Windows driver support is better than it used to be. You end up storing thousands of drivers that you'll never use. Then, every time Windows comes across drivers or libraries in versions it hasn't stored, those go into winsxs. Trying to clean it out can be time consuming and potentially destabilizing. Essentially, Windows Vista/7 has a compulsive hoarding disorder. It starts out at a ridiculously bloated 7-9 GB and then keeps growing. If you create a disk image after initial install and setup then you not only have a good backup -- you also a simple way to throw out all the hoarded junk periodically. By "throw out all the hoarded junk", do you mean just restore the entire system from your image, or can you just delete the winsxs folder and restore _that_ from the image? I wasn't sure from your above description. 3 -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Freedom of the press is limited to those who have one. |
#21
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Re-sizing my Hard Drive partitions.
In message , Daniel60
writes: On 24/09/2017 10:24 PM, Paul wrote: [] And dumping the DVD drive and using one of those adapter modules for a 2.5" storage device, is a worthwhile tradeoff. Only if you regularly watch movie content direct from [] Last night was the first time I had the DVD tray open in months, but still I like knowing it's there! And trust me, I'm really not trying to be difficult, .... ;-) Daniel When I bought this netbook, I too didn't want to be without optical drive capability (it didn't have one), so I bought an external one. I've subsequently found that I use it extremely rarely - mainly, these days, to boot the Macrium CD when I do an image (of C and a SyncToy of D). (External optical drives can be booted from.) So Paul's suggestion has merit ... .... but I too wouldn't like to do away with optical capability if I already had it built in - and just adding more storage only postpones the problem, anyway (though speed gains possible if you trust SSDs too). I'd, first, examine what's taking up all the space: I'd definitely agree with whoever recommended WinDirStat - the few minutes it takes to run are well worth it for the format in which it presents the results, IMO. I'm intrigued by your system - C: for system, G: for executables, and H: for data. I have C: for system-plus-software, and D: for data: I'm interested to know how you define G:, and keep it as just executables (I rather suspect, from the way it has filled, that they're storing a lot of their data with them - that's where WinDirStat will come into its own. Run it on just one partition - I'd start with G: (make sure only one is highlighted before clicking OK) - to get a bigger view). -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Freedom of the press is limited to those who have one. |
#22
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Re-sizing my Hard Drive partitions.
On 25/09/2017 8:56 PM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Daniel60 writes: On 24/09/2017 10:24 PM, Paul wrote: [] And dumping the DVD drive and using one of those adapter modules for a 2.5" storage device, is a worthwhile tradeoff. Only if you regularly watch movie content direct from [] Last night was the first time I had the DVD tray open in months, but still I like knowing it's there! And trust me, I'm really not trying to be difficult, .... ;-) Daniel When I bought this netbook, I too didn't want to be without optical drive capability (it didn't have one), so I bought an external one. I've subsequently found that I use it extremely rarely - mainly, these days, to boot the Macrium CD when I do an image (of C and a SyncToy of D). (External optical drives can be booted from.) So Paul's suggestion has merit ... ... but I too wouldn't like to do away with optical capability if I already had it built in - and just adding more storage only postpones the problem, anyway (though speed gains possible if you trust SSDs too). I'd, first, examine what's taking up all the space: I'd definitely agree with whoever recommended WinDirStat - the few minutes it takes to run are well worth it for the format in which it presents the results, IMO. I'm intrigued by your system - C: for system, G: for executables, and H: for data. I have C: for system-plus-software, and D: for data: I'm interested to know how you define G:, and keep it as just executables (I rather suspect, from the way it has filled, that they're storing a lot of their data with them - that's where WinDirStat will come into its own. Run it on just one partition - I'd start with G: (make sure only one is highlighted before clicking OK) - to get a bigger view). Thanks, John. When I brought this HP 6730b Laptop, it had a 250GB HD as its C:\, which had the Windows 7 stuff on it. I copied this to a 500GB HD, to allow for expansion, then used a Linux iso installation disk to reduce this to ... C: 57.2GB used out of 60.1GB, Win7, Anti-Virus, Users, Program files (not program installations), hopefully just OS type stuff! D: DVD RW Drive E: my Wireless Internet Dongle F: removable USB drive G: 19.5GB used out of 19.5GB (22.1MB actually showing as free) Adobe, LibreOffice, Family Tree Program, Internet Suite, etc. H: 14.5GB free out of 22.4GB Internet Suite User files, mp3's & 4's, stuff. (The rest of the 500GB is allocated to a (4GB) Linux Swap Drive, several Linux installations (each 10GB) and about 260GB for my Linux /home partition. The D:, E: and F: drives were there before I started re-shaping my HD, so the G: and H: drives, whilst next to the C: on the HD, got named later. I've often thought about re-naming thing .... C: 57.2GB used out of 60.1GB D: 19.5GB used out of 19.5GB (22.1MB actually showing as free) E: 14.5GB free out of 22.4GB O: DVD RW Drive (O for optical) U1: my USB Wireless Internet Dongle U2: removable USB drive but never get around to it! On my G: drive, I currently have "My Documents" (100MB), "My Music" (50MB), "My Pictures" (50MB), "My Podcasts" (where did that come from??) (65KB) and "My Videos" (1.25GB) (where did they come from??). So I can dump that 1.5GB'ish onto the H: and that should free things up on the G: drive a bit!! Thanks for making me look, John! Daniel |
#23
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Re-sizing my Hard Drive partitions.
In message , Daniel60
writes: On 25/09/2017 8:56 PM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: [] I'd, first, examine what's taking up all the space: I'd definitely agree with whoever recommended WinDirStat - the few minutes it takes to run are well worth it for the format in which it presents the results, IMO. I'm intrigued by your system - C: for system, G: for executables, and H: for data. I have C: for system-plus-software, and D: for data: I'm interested to know how you define G:, and keep it as just executables (I rather suspect, from the way it has filled, that they're storing a lot of their data with them - that's where WinDirStat will come into its own. Run it on just one partition - I'd start with G: (make sure only one is highlighted before clicking OK) - to get a bigger view). Thanks, John. [] C: 57.2GB used out of 60.1GB, Win7, Anti-Virus, Users, Program files (not program installations), hopefully just OS type stuff! D: DVD RW Drive E: my Wireless Internet Dongle F: removable USB drive G: 19.5GB used out of 19.5GB (22.1MB actually showing as free) Adobe, LibreOffice, Family Tree Program, Internet Suite, etc. H: 14.5GB free out of 22.4GB Internet Suite User files, mp3's & 4's, stuff. [] later. I've often thought about re-naming thing .... [] but never get around to it! (I have tuit shortages too.) I wouldn't bother - if it's working, leave well alone ... (-: On my G: drive, I currently have "My Documents" (100MB), "My Music" (50MB), "My Pictures" (50MB), "My Podcasts" (where did that come from??) (65KB) and "My Videos" (1.25GB) (where did they come from??). So I can dump that 1.5GB'ish onto the H: and that should free things up on the G: drive a bit!! So not just executables. (Where are your genealogy images [I'm a genealogist too] stored - photos, scans of documents?) Thanks for making me look, John! Daniel But moving that lot (make sure you move the "My"s properly, so the system knows they've moved) will only reduce G:'s fill by 7½%. I think you need to look more into why it's so full. I can't imagine that's _just_ software - I think there must be a lot of data there too. Have you tried WinDirStat on G:? (And C: - that's nearly full too.) Once you _have_ figured out why G: is silting up, *and have fixed it* to stop it continuing to happen, I'd consider merging C: and G:; I can't personally see a good reason for keeping Microsoft software (the OS) separate from other software (OK, including some Microsoft). Though if you _have_ managed to keep them separate, there'd probably be no great advantage in merging them. I keep my OS-and-software on C: so I can image it against catastrophe, so I could restore not just the OS, but also all my softwares with all their settings - though I guess I could just as well if they were on two partitions. (I _backup_ my D: - data - just by copying, though I use SyncToy to make that a lot quicker.) -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Practicall every British actor with a bus pass is in there ... Barry Norman (on "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" [2011]), RT 2015/12/12-18 |
#24
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Re-sizing my Hard Drive partitions.
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote
| Essentially, Windows Vista/7 has a compulsive | hoarding disorder. It starts out at a ridiculously | bloated 7-9 GB and then keeps growing. If you create | a disk image after initial install and setup then you not | only have a good backup -- you also a simple way to | throw out all the hoarded junk periodically. | | By "throw out all the hoarded junk", do you mean just restore the entire | system from your image, or can you just delete the winsxs folder and | restore _that_ from the image? I wasn't sure from your above | description. I meant throw out the junk by reinstalling with a fresh image. In my admittedly limited testing I've found Win7 to be very brittle. There's massive bloat and it's not easy to know which thing you can touch without bringing down the whole thing. I've found calamity if I delete winsxs. I found it seemed to work OK if I moved it to another partition, but that offers no benefit. Some of the added bloat might be support files for later- installed software, so I'd be hesitant to swap in the original winsxs. As far as I can tell that's just a forced copying of all the drivers on the install DVD. So probably you'd be better off deleting all of that and keeping newly-added stuff. But it's so vast that any weeding seems unrealistic. I tried that at one point. Tens of thousands of files that I had to assess by name. I quickly gave up. I'm not clear about exactly what Microsoft have done on Vista+. It seems to be a combination of backward compatibility hacks and engineered bloat designed to make the system appear more slick, by seamlessly installing drivers for as much hardware as possible and not needing to ask for a disk. Of course, a year after they stick you with 4 GB of drivers, most of them are outdated! And why do OEM machines need all that slop when the hardware is known starting out? What's the sense of hundreds of AMD drivers on a machine with an Intel CPU, for instance? It's not clear that even the Microsofties' "left hand knows what the right hand is doing". In researching winsxs I came across these blatantly conflicting statements: Microsoft President Steven Sinofsky (now former President) and his assistant said: ...nearly every file in the WinSxS directory is a "hard link" to the physical files elsewhere on the system-meaning that the files are not actually in this directory. ...The actual amount of storage consumed varies, but on a typical system it is about 400MB. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2...isk-space.aspx The "Windows Server Core Team" said: All of the components in the operating system are found in the WinSxS folder - in fact we call this location the component store. ...The WinSxS folder is the only location that the component is found on the system, all other instances of the files that you see on the system are "projected" by hard linking from the component store. http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/a...-so-large.aspx So one bigwig says winsxs is the whole shebang. The other bigwig says it's merely a mirage and that you are thus only imagining that it's eaten your hard disk. Both are saying most of the bloat is merely a mirage. Maybe you can't access the mirage space, but it's still there and that's what matters.... Actually, Windows takes up almost no space at all. It would all fit into a thimble. Your disk is full, you say? Well, that's not a problem, but the explanation is too technical for you to understand. You might want to buy a new disk, just to humor the mirage, don'tcha know. |
#25
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Re-sizing my Hard Drive partitions.
In message , Mayayana
writes: "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote | Essentially, Windows Vista/7 has a compulsive | hoarding disorder. It starts out at a ridiculously | bloated 7-9 GB and then keeps growing. If you create | a disk image after initial install and setup then you not | only have a good backup -- you also a simple way to | throw out all the hoarded junk periodically. | | By "throw out all the hoarded junk", do you mean just restore the entire | system from your image, or can you just delete the winsxs folder and | restore _that_ from the image? I wasn't sure from your above | description. I meant throw out the junk by reinstalling with a fresh image. In my admittedly limited testing I've found Win7 to be very brittle. There's massive bloat and it's not easy to know which thing you can touch without bringing down the whole thing. I've found calamity if I delete Ah, so basically you're just restoring an image of the whole system - in which case it isn't really relevant that some of it is winsxs. I haven't used 7 much (at home - I did a lot at work, but that was more under someone else's control). With XP, I image against catastrophe, but so far have only had to use it once (HD failure); if I were to go back to images, I'd be going quite a long way back, as I don't make them often enough. How often do you image your system? winsxs. I found it seemed to work OK if I moved it to another partition, but that offers no benefit. Some of the added bloat might be support files for later- installed software, so I'd be hesitant to swap in the original winsxs. As far as I can tell that's just a forced copying of all the drivers on the install DVD. So probably you'd be better off deleting all of that and keeping newly-added stuff. But it's so vast that any weeding seems unrealistic. I tried that at one point. Tens of thousands of files that I had to assess by name. I quickly gave up. Sounds like there's an opening for an "sxs manager" utility (-; I'm not clear about exactly what Microsoft have done on Vista+. It seems to be a combination of backward compatibility hacks and engineered bloat designed to make the system appear more slick, by seamlessly installing drivers for as much hardware as possible and not needing to ask for a disk. Of That doesn't seem "slick" to me; such drivers would only be required once, at the installation of new hardware (which almost certainly would come with any required drivers on a CD anyway); in comparison, the bloat you describe is there continuously. course, a year after they stick you with 4 GB of drivers, most of them are outdated! And why do Indeed! OEM machines need all that slop when the hardware is known starting out? What's the sense of hundreds of AMD drivers on a machine with an Intel CPU, for instance? None, other than it makes life easier for the OEM programmers who don't have to do the cleaning. Which doesn't benefit _us_ at all. It's not clear that even the Microsofties' "left hand knows what the right hand is doing". In researching (That's been the case for a _long_ time.) winsxs I came across these blatantly conflicting statements: Microsoft President Steven Sinofsky (now former President) and his assistant said: ...nearly every file in the WinSxS directory is a "hard link" to the physical files elsewhere on the system-meaning that the files are not actually in this directory. ...The actual amount of storage consumed varies, but on a typical system it is about 400MB. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2...isk-space.aspx The "Windows Server Core Team" said: All of the components in the operating system are found in the WinSxS folder - in fact we call this location the component store. ...The WinSxS folder is the only location that the component is found on the system, all other instances of the files that you see on the system are "projected" by hard linking from the component store. http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/a...-is-the-winsxs -directory-in-windows-2008-and-windows-vista-and-why-is-it-so-large.aspx So the first is saying that winsxs isn't "real", just "hard links" to the files on the system (though if it contains drivers for hardware that isn't present, that blatantly isn't true), the other's saying that the files on the rest of the system aren't there, they're just "hard links" to files in winsxs. I presume "Hard Linking" "fools" usage utilities like WinDirStat, TreeSize, and so on, so we can't easily tell which (if either - probably neither) are correct. So one bigwig says winsxs is the whole shebang. The other bigwig says it's merely a mirage and that you are thus only imagining that it's eaten your hard disk. Both are saying most of the bloat is merely a mirage. Maybe you can't access the mirage space, but it's still there and that's what matters.... Actually, Windows takes up almost no space at all. It would all fit into a thimble. Your disk is full, you say? Well, that's not a problem, but the explanation is too technical for you to understand. You might want to buy a new disk, just to humor the mirage, don'tcha know. (-: -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Practicall every British actor with a bus pass is in there ... Barry Norman (on "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" [2011]), RT 2015/12/12-18 |
#26
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Re-sizing my Hard Drive partitions.
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote
| I haven't used 7 much (at home - I did a lot at work, but that was more | under someone else's control). With XP, I image against catastrophe, but | so far have only had to use it once (HD failure); if I were to go back | to images, I'd be going quite a long way back, as I don't make them | often enough. How often do you image your system? | When I build a new computer, or buy one. I keep a barebones disk image for that. Then I install all software, set up configuration, and image that. I back up data separately and keep a copy of all data on other partitions/drives/DVDs/sticks. Once in awhile I might make an ISO of the current setup, but mostly I just use the fresh image of the system after software is set up and it's ready to go. That way I can do a total refresh every once in awhile and it only takes about an hour. (To add later updates, set up email programs that may have changed passwords since imaging, etc.) |
#27
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Re-sizing my Hard Drive partitions.
In message , Mayayana
writes: "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote | I haven't used 7 much (at home - I did a lot at work, but that was more | under someone else's control). With XP, I image against catastrophe, but | so far have only had to use it once (HD failure); if I were to go back | to images, I'd be going quite a long way back, as I don't make them | often enough. How often do you image your system? | When I build a new computer, or buy one. I keep a barebones disk image for that. Then I install all software, set up configuration, and image that. I back up data separately and keep a copy of all data on other partitions/drives/DVDs/sticks. Once in awhile I might make an ISO of the current setup, but mostly I just use the fresh image of the system after software is set up and it's ready to go. That way I can do a total refresh every once in awhile and it only takes about an hour. (To add later updates, set up email programs that may have changed passwords since imaging, etc.) So you restore your fresh image (the one you made after initial setup and a blast of installations). My system contains years of use - I think I'd take significantly more than an hour to get it back to how it is now, if I did as you do. Not saying better or worse - just that we clearly use it in very different ways. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Just because you're old it doesn't mean you go beige. Quite the reverse. - Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, RT 2015/7/11-17 |
#28
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Re-sizing my Hard Drive partitions.
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote
| So you restore your fresh image (the one you made after initial setup | and a blast of installations). My system contains years of use - I think | I'd take significantly more than an hour to get it back to how it is | now, if I did as you do. Not saying better or worse - just that we | clearly use it in very different ways. Different systems. I use two redundant disks. Both have a graphics/media partition. Both have backup of software installers, docs, articles, etc. Periodically I copy a partition to DVD that has email backup, taxes, code collection, business docs.... pretty much all relevant data.... It also has copies of my Firefox/ Pale moon bookmarks, HOSTS, config files for various programs, my current desktop, etc. So if I need to reinstall I just put back my Desktop, put back the browser backups to App Data, put back config files (like Acrtlic's HOSTS file) to program folders, and I'm ready to roll. My approach is to look at it like a tractor trailer. Mixing function and data really doesn't make sense. So for me the OS and software are the tractor. I image that. If it blows a gasket I'm not stuck on the highway with a perishable cargo. I just have to swap in a new tractor. Since I have a copy I don't have to build a new tractor. there's an extra all ready to go. It's even got the radio buttons pre-configured and the shag carpet on the ceiling, just like the old one. |
#29
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Re-sizing my Hard Drive partitions.
In message , Mayayana
writes: "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote | So you restore your fresh image (the one you made after initial setup | and a blast of installations). My system contains years of use - I think | I'd take significantly more than an hour to get it back to how it is | now, if I did as you do. Not saying better or worse - just that we | clearly use it in very different ways. Different systems. I use two redundant disks. Both have a graphics/media partition. Both have backup of software installers, docs, articles, etc. Periodically I copy a partition to DVD that has email backup, taxes, code collection, business docs.... pretty much all relevant data.... It also has copies of my Firefox/ As a private user, I don't have business-critical data - but I do keep data separate. (Some decades' worth in genealogy, for example.) Pale moon bookmarks, HOSTS, config files for various programs, my current desktop, etc. So if I need to reinstall I just put back my Desktop, put back the browser backups to App Data, put back config files (like Acrtlic's HOSTS file) to program folders, and I'm ready to roll. My approach is to look at it like a tractor trailer. Mixing function and data really doesn't make sense. I definitely agree there - C: for OS and software, D: for data. I very rarely look at anything on C: (other than the desktop). So for me the OS and software are the tractor. I image that. If it blows a gasket I'm not stuck on the highway with a perishable cargo. I just have to swap in a new tractor. Since I have a copy I don't have to build a new tractor. there's an extra all ready to go. It's even got the radio buttons pre-configured and the shag carpet on the ceiling, just like the old one. (-:. My tractor just has a lot more customisation than yours. I can't think how to put that into the analogy - I just wouldn't want to put in an ex-works one. [I might think differently if I used it for my livelihood - I suspect I might keep a separate computer for work.] -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Of course, this show - like every other cop show on earth - massively overstates the prevalence of violent crime: last year, in the whole of the UK, police fired their weapons just three times. And there were precisely zero fatalities. - Vincent Graff in RT, 2014/11/8-14 |
#30
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Re-sizing my Hard Drive partitions.
On 26/09/2017 12:09 AM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Daniel60 writes: On 25/09/2017 8:56 PM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: Snip On my G: drive, I currently have "My Documents" (100MB), "My Music" (50MB), "My Pictures" (50MB), "My Podcasts" (where did that come from??) (65KB) and "My Videos" (1.25GB) (where did they come from??). So I can dump that 1.5GB'ish onto the H: and that should free things up on the G: drive a bit!! So not just executables. (Where are your genealogy images [I'm a genealogist too] stored - photos, scans of documents?) I'm not a genealogist, really, John, just a storage facility for my sister's research ... and our father's before that. The tree is online at tribalpages.com so other family member (6,000-odd so far) can access it, and, hopefully, send me any updates/corrections needed. Thanks for making me look, John! Daniel But moving that lot (make sure you move the "My"s properly, so the system knows they've moved) will only reduce G:'s fill by 7½%. I think you need to look more into why it's so full. I can't imagine that's _just_ software - I think there must be a lot of data there too. Have you tried WinDirStat on G:? (And C: - that's nearly full too.) Windows has only been popping up a "Low Disk Space" pop-up for the last week or so. Been fine for the preceding eight years. That's why I figured it was just something I've done recently, maybe even the cache of my browser (which I've since emptied!) finally filling the disk to much or something else simple! Once you _have_ figured out why G: is silting up, *and have fixed it* to stop it continuing to happen, I'd consider merging C: and G:; I can't personally see a good reason for keeping Microsoft software (the OS) separate from other software (OK, including some Microsoft). Though if you _have_ managed to keep them separate, there'd probably be no great advantage in merging them. I keep my OS-and-software on C: so I can image it against catastrophe, so I could restore not just the OS, but also all my softwares with all their settings - though I guess I could just as well if they were on two partitions. (I _backup_ my D: - data - just by copying, though I use SyncToy to make that a lot quicker.) "silting" ... yeah, that probably just about sums the situation up!! As for "keeping Microsoft software (the OS) separate from other software", it just seemed like a logical thing ... back in the MS-DOS days. It meant that I could back-up the OS only (or not worry about it as I had the physical, Read-Only floppies any way!), or my programs only (which I may or may not have had the physical disks for! :-P ), or my Documents only. But who ever bothers to back-up their Game High Scores files?? What a waste of space! ;-) Thanks, again. Daniel |
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