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My Acer M1930 computer has a drive called DATA (D:), which has a capacity of 223 GB (the same as drive C:) and which is currently unused. What purpose does it have, i.e. what should I do with it?
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>> www.blurtit.com/q337728.html
>>
One reply says "Don't try to move Windows, Programs, Common Files or any other program from the C to D drive. That operation will make the program very unstable."
If I go to Control Panel>Backup your computer>Set up backup, I am given the choice of saving my backup on DATA (D:) or an external drive. In view of the above reply, am I safe backing up on drive D?
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>> One reply says "Don't try to move Windows, Programs, Common Files or any other program
>> from the C to D drive. That operation will make the program very unstable."
Programes are not data, they are completely different. Programes stay where they are put, but Data is what you create. Your new PC arrives without Data, stuff you save becomes data. And its the stuff that you can't recreate if you loose it.
>> If I go to Control Panel>Backup your computer>Set up backup, I am given the choice
>> of saving my backup on DATA (D:) or an external drive. In view of the
>> above reply, am I safe backing up on drive D?
>
Yes. A backup is a copy, of your data held somewhere else, for later recovery.
Last edited by: Zero on Sun 17 Jun 12 at 09:35
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>> My Acer M1930 computer has a drive called DATA (D:), which has a capacity of
>> 223 GB (the same as drive C:) and which is currently unused. What purpose does
>> it have, i.e. what should I do with it?
Funnily enough you should store your data there. Its there because if you ever need to rebuild windows from the recovery partition, it will wipe all your data on C: but leave your data untouched on D:
Stupidly they never move the :users/name/documents and settings path to D: when they build the image of windows, and as thats the default place for saving things, people ending up saving stuff on C: and getting it wiped if the machine is recovered.
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Just looked at my setup. It says
Local disk "C" 429GB free of 465GB
System reserved "E" 31.8MB free of 99.9MB
"D" is the external hard drive.
Can I/should I create another disk in which to store my data?
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not really, I assume that wants you use external D for. You would have to partition C:, the new drive would be D: and your external drive would then get labelled F:
you don't need that hassle.
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>> Just looked at my setup. It says
>>
>> Local disk "C" 429GB free of 465GB
>> System reserved "E" 31.8MB free of 99.9MB
>> "D" is the external hard drive.
>>
>> Can I/should I create another disk in which to store my data?
>>
Out of the box my Lenovo had a pretty much identical setup and I used Easeus Partition Master to split the C: into two and store my user data in the new drive (I labelled F:). As zero says probably not worth the hassle. Not sure if the recovery partition would work either now I've changed the drive partitioning.
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>> >> Just looked at my setup. It says......
>>
>> Out of the box my Lenovo had a pretty much identical setup and I used
>> Easeus Partition Master to split the C: into two and store my user data in
>> the new drive (I labelled F:). As zero says probably not worth the hassle. Not
>> sure if the recovery partition would work either now I've changed the drive partitioning.
>>
Look; if you promise not to tell anyone, I have also partitioned my my C: drive, so I now have an empty partition which has - for some reason - been labelled G.
Presumably my data would go quite nicely into G, but how?
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I've asked this question before in this thread but for some reason it was deleted. If I backed up C drive onto D drive, can I (if necessary) subsequently (and safely) delete some of my data that is on C drive in order to free up space on C drive?
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Duncan:
Assuming you are driving the world's most popular car, Corolla with 1.8litre engine have a PC with Win7
1. >> Local disk "C" 429GB free of 465GB >>
Wow - You are using only 36GB for your entire system, apps, and data!
You could put all of that on a flash drive.
2. >> I have also partitioned my my C: drive, so I now have an empty partition which has - for some reason - been labelled G. Presumably my data would go quite nicely into G, but how? >>
If you really want to move your Library storage location, try these tutorials:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKTNmoq2zXI
www.youtube.com/watch?v=X53z54NR3b0
www.howtogeek.com/howto/26559/change-the-default-save-folder-for-windows-7-libraries-to-something-else-like-your-dropbox/
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Les:
>> If I backed up C drive onto D drive, can I (if necessary) subsequently (and safely) delete some of my data that is on C drive in order to free up space on C drive? >>
No harm in having/keeping duplicate (i.e. backup) data on a drive/partition other than the system drive.
If you are desperately short of space on system drive C, then you might want/need to free up space.
But then, as stated before, take care not to confuse your personal generated data with the system and apps files.
Last edited by: John H on Tue 19 Jun 12 at 08:49
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You can move your personal files (i.e. the data) from the C drive to another drive. But you shouldn't attempt moving anything in the Windows folder or Program Files (and some of the other system files). Move any system/program files and you're going to break Windows.
But if say your default location for documents is: C:\Users\username\Documents then you can move these to another drive. You can also tell Windows to then use the other folder/drive as the default location for Documents.
You can of course move other data folders etc.
Whilst there is great benefit to having a separate data partition (better yet a drive), making sure the default location used for files is not on the C drive will need some technical knowledge. And if you don't know what you are doing I'd be tempted to say leave it alone before you break it.
If you're looking at moving your personal data files because the C drive is filling up then I can see why a non-techie would be keen to do this. But if you're thinking of repartitioning the C drive to make two drives then you're not really achieving much because the total space is the same.
Now if the other drive is a separate physical drive then of course moving your data files off C makes sense.
Also if you're moving files to prevent data loss if the C drive failed, if this was a hardware failure and the C and D drive were simply two partitions on the same drive you'd lose both anyway. And some system recovery software will put the drive back as it was when new - so if there was only one partition that is what it is likely to do... deleting your separate D drive.
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>> But if you're thinking of repartitioning the C drive to make two drives then you're not really achieving much because the total space is the same. >>
rtj: The OP says "My Acer M1930 computer has a drive called DATA (D:), which has a capacity of 223 GB (the same as drive C:)"
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>> I've asked this question before in this thread but for some reason it was deleted.
>> If I backed up C drive onto D drive, can I (if necessary) subsequently (and
>> safely) delete some of my data that is on C drive in order to free
>> up space on C drive?
>>
>>
Yes you can (assuming it's data not program or config files), however you might need to point your programs at it - no big deal for Office and such like where it's in the options/settings somewhere.
However, assuming this is a partition of the same physical hard drive (I assume it is) - then you are not protecting yourself against disk failure as all you've got is another 'logical' drive on the same 'physical' one.
My hard drives tend to have at least 3 partitions - one for Windows, one for Linux and one for data which I back-up to a separate physical hard drive.
**** I think my post was pre-empted by a more detailed one ****
Last edited by: idle_chatterer on Tue 19 Jun 12 at 08:55
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DATA (D:) - Clk Sec
