Bizarre Hard Drive Issue

[InfamousCake]

I'm using Windows XP

So, when I reinstalled windows into my 40 gig HD (C, some kind of bizarre glitch occured, causing the maxiumum hard drive space to be set at 2 gigs.

This would not fuss me particularly, except that the actual windows files take up about two gigs. Windows isn't smart enough to redirect all temp space to my bigger hard drive (D, even though I have gone into all the base settings and told it to do so. Some applications, especially microsoft applications, insist on using drive C: for temp space anyway.

So basically, this means that I cannot install the latest security update, and many programs have serious problems, not to mention the annoying, "drive C is low on disk space message", which is permanently affixed to the lower right hand corner of my screen.

I don't really want to reinstall windows, and that probably wouldn't fix my problem anyway.

So I have come up with a basic plan, hopefully you guys can help me put it into action.
What I want to do, is extend the drive space of C: using space on D:. I have magicpartitition. I was thinking, I could set a partition on drive D: which is about 2000 megs. After that, all I would have to do, would be trick my computer into thinking that that partition was part of drive C:. I don't know if this is possible, but I am simply looking for some way to use a small part of the huge amount of extra space I have on D: as an extension of drive C:.

If I could have even 200 megs more space on drive C, that would alleviate most of my problems.

Does anyone know of a program that will help me make this happen for myself. I would love to get this solved.

If you have a solution feel free to AIM me at YoshonX, I will be most grateful.

Thanks a lot for any help guys.

 

[Harvey]

Two possible solutions:

1. Format another drive, and use Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image to clone the 2 GB partion to it. It will copy all of your files, including your system files, to the new drive, and that drive will be fully bootable and functional.

When you've done that, blow off the partition on your original drive, and re-format ot to include the entire drive. You can use Delpart.Exe to delete the partition. It's a genuine Micro$oft utility that came with NT 3 that is used from a bootable floppy disk. BE CAREFUL. It works, and it will remove any partition on your drive.

If you don't have another drive, borrow or buy one. 80 - 160 GB ATA drives are cheap.

2. Partion Magic can reallocate the space on your drive without losing any data. Start by making sure Windows "knows" the whole drive is there:

Control Panel > Storage > Disk Management.

Good luck.

 

[InfamousCake]

Sorry but... can you go over how to do that with Partition magic? I have the program but I cannot find the function for accomplishing this. the first option isn't available to me, I don't have a floppy drive.

 

[Harvey]

I have an older version, but when I boot to DOS, I see a button that looks like this:

[ <==> ]

When I mouse over it, at the bottom, it's identified as Resize / Move Partition. If yours looks like that, click it, and you'll find the rest of what you need. If not, search the help menu for resize.

 

[InfamousCake]

Oh well, thanks for the help Harvey, but neither of these solutions are going to work for me. I don't have a floppy drive and the extra space on drive C has been completely lost according to PartitionMagic

If anyone knows a way to make my computer think that space from drive D: is actually on C:, whether through PartitionMagic or any other means, please let me know.

 

[coupland]

I'll essentially recommend something similar to or the same to Harvey. I would backup all data on D:, delete the partition, then use a program like PQMagic to grow the system partition to use all available disk space. Then restore the files from D: to your newly-resized C: drive.

Your problem is a system dpartition that's too small, not that you need to "make [your] computer think that space from drive D: is actually on C:" It's like if your muffler fell off and you asked if anyone knows of some good ear plugs cause the noise is driving you crazy. Your time would be better spent fixing the actual problem.

 

[sutahz]

I would check the jumpers. Installing XP, XP SP1 or XP SP2? Tried writting zero's to the drive and reformatting?
Could be your 40GB hdd has bit the bullet finally and needs to be replaced (the firmware got messed up somehow and now only 2GB is the reported size. So maybe you could flash the firmware..)

(the xp sp1 fix would be if he could only access like 8.5GB right? I forget the number)

 

[InfamousCake]

I already formatted C:, my C: drive isn't even very old to be honest. I think there really is something wrong with it though, and I really do not think there is any way to fix it. PartitionMagic reported that the maxiumum partition drive on D: is 2016 megabytes, so I set that to be the partition size and that's really all I can do.

I know in an ideal world it would be much better to fix drive C:, but I really don't think this is possible, and I simply can't afford a new drive (I am already behind on rent.)

From what you guys are telling me though, my idea really isn't possible. If there's no way to make my computer think space from D: is on C: (I did some research and windows cannot reside on a striped partition so RAID is not an option either) then I really am screwed. I guess what i'm saying is... I could really use those earplugs.

 

[InfamousCake]

I just had an idea, but I don't want to try it unless you guys think it's "safe."

I could simply backup all my dada on C: to D:, and then PartitionMagic has a function that redirects all registry references that point to one drive to another drive. Could I simply set all registry references which point to C: to D:?

I have a feeling this would end up screwing up my computer, because Windows probably has its' own hidden references outside the registry., Will this work? I am perfectly willing to abandon drive C:,

Or I could backup C to D, and remove my C drive, and switch all references from D: to C:.

Windows can only boot from drive C:, right?

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: InfamousCake
I just had an idea, but I don't want to try it unless you guys think it's "safe."

I could simply backup all my dada on C: to D:, and then PartitionMagic has a function that redirects all registry references that point to one drive to another drive. Could I simply set all registry references which point to C: to D:?

I have a feeling this would end up screwing up my computer, because Windows probably has its' own hidden references outside the registry., Will this work? I am perfectly willing to abandon drive C:,

If Partition Magic shows two partitions, it sounds like you accidentally created the second, smaller partition during setup.

You're working too hard. If possible, borrow a drive from a friend. You can format it and return it when you're done. Then, Ghost your active partition to the other drive. From your posts, I'm not clear what you have on the larger partition, but if you have any data you ned to save, you can copy those files to the Ghost drive.

Then, you can use Partition Magic (same as PQ Magic) to wipe your original drive, set a single, active partition and format it. Then, just Ghost back from the backup drive, and it should boot.

You can avoid such problems in the future, AND as you're re-installing any other programs, by buying a second drive and Ghosting to it regularly. How big is your drive? We can help you find a bargain on one the same size, probably for around or even under $60.

Or I could backup C to D, and remove my C drive, and switch all references from D: to C:.

Windows can only boot from drive C:, right?

No, Windows can boot to other drives if your CMOS provides that option. I don't recommend what you're suggesting, just because it's too convoluted. A clean installation is always best. A non-standard installation with manual registry edits could cause other problems, later, especially since it sounds like you don't have a lot of experience with these issues.

Again, good luck, especially if you do anything but a direct, clean setup.

 

[thegisguy]

I have to ask. Are you sure you don't have the drive jumped for cylinder restriction?

 

[QuixoticOne]

Ok well I didn't follow all the details, just a quick $0.02:

1) Could your drive have been PARTITIONED so it has a big C, but the FORMAT wasn't extended to actually take up all the size of the physical partition? Maybe an accident with a resizing / partitioning type setup?

2) You have to use control panel and go into the advanced system settings option tab where you see
SYSTEM ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
and USER ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES.
First make yourself a new temp dir D:\TMP.
Then in the SYSTEM ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
you CHANGE/EDIT or ADD:
TMP=D:\TMP
TEMP=D:\TMP
and change any other strictly temporary directory related variable you may already have set,
%WINTMP% or whatever if that even exists.

Save that, go down to USER environment variables and make sure there's nothing that conflicts / overrides the ones you just set.

When you restart it should use those directories for many of its temporary files.

3) You can change the location of Temporary Internet Files within IE's menus as a different thing.

4) You can change the location of your USER PROFILE directory if you really want to, which will include all the basic DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS, MY DOCUMENTS, MY PICTURES, etc. but then you'll have to manually move all that stuff when you're booted into a rescue disk/os, it'll screw stuff up if you make a mistake, etc.

5) You can right click on a folder and look for a dialog with an advanced option button that should let you COMPRESS FILES TO SAVE DISC SPACE which you might choose to do for certain folders. Pick "Apply to this folder, all subfolders, and files", etc.

6) Empty your recycle bin, pick the option to not move files to the recycle bin but delete immediately for C:.

7) Control panel, advanced system settings, virtual memory and paging, set the size of the paging file on C: and the MAXIMUM size of the paging file on C: to 0.
Set the size of the paging file on D: to auto/suggested settings unless you have reason to do otherwise.

8) Right click an empty spot on the desktop, properties, screen saver, power options, disable hibernate support. That'll get rid of a big hidden hiberfile.sys file that is bigger than your RAM size if you had hibernate enabled.

9) Check out the "system rescue cd"
http://www.sysresccd.org/Download
maybe it can do stuff with its gparted tool or other tools you need done that your other tools won't do...
there's also a gparted CD just for that one tool at another web site.

10) maybe you have a rootkit or malware or something hiding a lot of pr0n or something on your disc? If it isn't a screwed up partitioning setup it's probably something pretty bad.....

11) You can boot your XP disc and tell it to REPAIR your existing installation, then install your SP2/SP3 again or whatever you might have installed that your install disc doesn't include, then reinstall all the windows updates and reset a lot of the sytem settings etc... It isn't completely reinstalling XP, but it is close... save / note your saved settings / passwords / whatever first, backup, etc.

 

[InfamousCake]

Thanks for the help QuixoticOne. This seems to have helped a bit.

I'm unfamiliar with cylinder restriction, as far as I know my C: drive is jumped for master right now. could it be master cylinder restricted? If so, could I simply move the jumpers to full master and fix the problem like that?