When one drive is FULL---how to switch to the other.

Making a shortcut on the desktop for your D partition is easy...just hit start...computer (where it shows both drives and their respective names) and just drag the D drive icon to your desktop. You also might consider contacting the manufacturer of your comp and asking them how to extend the c partition to the d. You can rename the drives ...but you'll still have the same storage limitations on both partitions.

Hard drives are pretty cheap right now. I recently bought a 3 gig HD for less than $100 (I think about 75). Originally Posted by Omahan

A whole 3 gig?

The problem with a new drive is getting your data and programs on to it, especially in a laptop.

Reinstalling your computer and all the programs is one way to do it. Then you end up with a clean install. However, you need to figure out a way to save all your old data, figure out what to save, find all the install media, activation codes, etc.

There are some disk cloning programs that will copy the programs and data to a new disk and, hopefully, it will boot and work off the new disk. Some disk drives come with a cloning program when you buy them. These programs have varying degrees of success. One of the best is Acronis True Image. Some disks come with this, or you can buy the program online. You may even be able to get a free trial version that will work long enough to clone the disk and replace it.

On a laptop, another problem is to get both the old disk and the new disk attached at the same time. You may need to get an external USB enclosure. Then you have to find out if that enclosure will work with your cloning software. Then you have to figure out how to remove and replace your old hard disk. Newer laptops tend to make this a little easier, but it's not easy or well documented on some of them.

What ever happens, be sure you have a copy of the windows restore disk for your computer. Sometimes the computer comes with a copy of this disk, sometimes you have to make it yourself. Be sure you know where this is, you'll need it if your computer ever crashes severely enough that you have to reload it.

Sorry for your troubles.

In such configurations (and I guess this is an old system) the C drive is reserved for software and the D for data.

It sounds like you have everything going to the C drive.

If you can (actually you must) make a back up and then move your data files (pictures, documents PDFs etc. etc. to the D drive. Next time you open an application that is looking for a file you will have to point it to the D drive

Once you are CERTAIN that yo have this straight delete those files from the C drive.

Hope this helps

Like most have said here:
Backup Backup Backup !

You might want to point your browser files to D:. You can Google how to for what ever browser you have.

Are there really two drives in the system? If not, there are tools that can be used to modify the partitioning between the two drives. Not reformat, not clean, but able to combine the two partitions into a single drive. Why? Because the intent may have been to to have windows and programs on C and data on D, but because of the way windows allocates space for user files in "Documents and Settings" most data ends up on C anyway. All that stuff you put in Documents, Download, etc all ends up on C.

My advice is to adjust the partitions, want help, PM me.

Other possibilities thought more temporary: do a disk cleanup. Yes, delete old temporary files, compress unused files, lots of other stuff. You can safely delete some of those old update files, but 150MB out of 35 GB is still a very small % of the total.

Before you do anything, create a restore point. Backup your files. And start housecleaning.

Timid about this stuff? find someone to help who knows what they are doing.

OldGeekDude.

Be sure to put all the activation keys for your software in one file. Copy that file every so often to other computers, other disks, and to a CD/DVD that you put somewhere safe.

I think you can copy your windows reinstall disk and take the copy with you. (not 100% sure about this.)

I use Norton Ghost. You can clone it to bigger drive. I had to make backup by myself for 250 desktops to terabyte server, and I use Bart CDs and Norton Ghost for making the backups.
You don't need encolsure; you need to get Harddrive to usb adapter.

A whole 3 gig?

The problem with a new drive is getting your data and programs on to it, especially in a laptop.

Reinstalling your computer and all the programs is one way to do it. Then you end up with a clean install. However, you need to figure out a way to save all your old data, figure out what to save, find all the install media, activation codes, etc.

There are some disk cloning programs that will copy the programs and data to a new disk and, hopefully, it will boot and work off the new disk. Some disk drives come with a cloning program when you buy them. These programs have varying degrees of success. One of the best is Acronis True Image. Some disks come with this, or you can buy the program online. You may even be able to get a free trial version that will work long enough to clone the disk and replace it.

On a laptop, another problem is to get both the old disk and the new disk attached at the same time. You may need to get an external USB enclosure. Then you have to find out if that enclosure will work with your cloning software. Then you have to figure out how to remove and replace your old hard disk. Newer laptops tend to make this a little easier, but it's not easy or well documented on some of them.

What ever happens, be sure you have a copy of the windows restore disk for your computer. Sometimes the computer comes with a copy of this disk, sometimes you have to make it yourself. Be sure you know where this is, you'll need it if your computer ever crashes severely enough that you have to reload it. Originally Posted by GneissGuy

You don't need encolsure; you need to get Harddrive to usb adapter. Originally Posted by Tex9401

That's what I'm calling an "enclosure." That's usually the easiest way to get a USB to SATA/PATA adapter.