Partitioning

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Hi everybody
just upgraded to win xp Pro and now finding, low on memory space keeps popping up. my HDD is partitioned into 2 partitions C and D, one with 6 gig and the other with 31. is there a way to increase one and take off the other or combine the 2. Otherwise its a complete format again and starting from scratch.
 
of course, try and get hold of a piece of software called "Partition Magic"...its pretty much the consumer standard in doing stuff like you want to do
 
Got myself partition magic 8 and tried to increase it to 10gig, after restarting, nothing. So now going to try something called HD Tach, its a benchmarking ultilitie. Been reading other treads along the way. Also now getting 368mb, blink and there's 11mb, its up and down like a yo yo. I can see the format getting closer..
 
Is your error "low disk space" or Low memory"? There is a big difference. 10GB should be more than enough for an XP partition, especially if you have most of your apps and data on other partitions.
If this is a low memory error, you might want to check the PageFile settings and possibly the amount of RAM you have in the system.
 
Hi everybody, have re-installed Partition Magic again, it worked, did as you said, upped it to 10gig and what a differance it has made. Now somebody has said, it's best to merge the two Partitions together. Perhaps another day when it dies again... Thanks again everybody. now for another problem.
 
That would be a serious mistake to merge those partitions.
If you setup your PC correctly, you should have one partition with your OS on it, including whatever basic utilities you always use. Have this fully updated, then make a copy of it using e.g. Drive Image. If Windows goes belly-up you have it restored in no time. Don't bother with Restore Points.
Your second partition should have all your programs, and a third partition should have all the user-data on it.
For W2K or XP, a 5-10GB partition is enough. Give your programs 20GB and userdata whatever else you can spare.
The userdata should preferably be on a separate harddisk, together with the paging file.
 
Rethink partitions

I don't see the point of partitioning a single drive with the same OS. I've been down that road, and had problems with installations and apps not working. It just seems like an exercise in Geekdom. I understand having partitions for different OSs - that makes sense.

A reliable backup method is just to use Ghost with a backup drive. Put the current (hopefully good) image onto the backup. If the primary drive gets corrupted (as with an installation, virus, etc), just switch the backup to primary and the corrupted drive to backup. Drives are cheap!
 
The point is that you can format your system partition and keep your data on the other one. Or that when the filesystem decides to croak then you have some data left. Or that not everyone can afford to buy harddrives for fun. Or that you get much better performance from a small partition than a big one.
 
I don't know if I've ever heard of a file system croaking on any OS unless it's the result of a drive biting the dust. If that happens, your partitions won't help you. If you really want your data safe, store it on CDs/DVDs.

Regardless, a full disk backup just works better and is a lot faster. Disks do cost, but time is money too.
 
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