Question about partition and how the operating system manages it

Hello,

I have XP SP2 on a 120gb harddrive separated into 90gb (C) and 30gb (D) partitions (sent from Dell this way).

Currently, I have not saved anything to the D drive. I would like to move the data that is saved in "My Documents" on C over to D. What happens if I move the "My Documents" folder? Will the operating system be able to find it in its new location? For example, once it is moved, and I go to "Start" and click on "My Documents", will it open the folder that I moved to the D drive or will it still try to open the original path to the C drive?

Here is a different example of my question/concern. If I rip a music CD using Windows Media Player (11), it places it in "My Music" within "My Documents" on the C drive. If I move "My Music" to the D drive, will WMP know to look for the music files on D or will it still think to look for a "My Music" folder within "My Documents" on the C drive?

I guess I am basically asking what the process is to migrate my data over onto the other partition without confusing the operating system as to where to find the transplanted data.

Thanks for your help!

Drew

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310147/EN-US/
Change the path by browsing to the new location.
Bug

 

why do you want to do that? D partition is "read only" for recovery (if it is set that way) so that you cant mess it up. what about an external hdd? are we on same wavelength??!!

 

ok my bad. im thinkin way inside the box!

 

Thanks Bugballou, that was quick and answers my question perfectly!

So WMP will also know to look to D instead of C as well? And if I use the My Pictures Slideshow for a screensaver, it will also look to D?

Thanks again,

Drew

 

You're better off NOT using drive/partition D:... it is a system recovery partition created by Dell for 'rebuilding' your PC in the case of a major crash. Even if I'm wrong, it was ceated by Dell, and contains something important, and it's best to not f*** with it. Get yourself a 2nd hard drive, internal or external, and use that....

 

More to the point
Since you have this partition, you probably don't have the Dell recovery cds.

The pc came with a program to create them from this partition, in case the hard drive ever fails.

Did you do this?

 

The only discs that came with my Dell are the Reinstall of the operating system disc and the drivers and utilities disc. I'm assuming these aren't the recovery cds about which you are speaking.

I have never done anything on this other partition. It sounds like I should do some sort of recovery prep work (studiot's program to create recovery cd)?

If I am better off not using the D drive for anything, I am a little disappointed that Dell decided to use up 30 gb of my 120 gb harddrive for this partition. Does it need to take up that much harddrive real estate?

Let me know how to best take advantage of the D drive. If you can provide a link to instructions as to how to use the D drive for recovery, then at least I can use it for its intended purpose if not for data storage.

Thanks all.

 

I am not entirely convinced that the 30Gb D:\ partition is a recovery partition. If it were a recovery partition, it would be hidden and not visible and in any event would not need to be 30Gb in size as this would be way to big.

Most likely is that Dell have set your hdd with a primary active ie bootable partition, C:\ [90Gb] for the o/s and your progs and an extended partition D:\ [30Gb] for your data.

In the first instance, I would suggest that you confirm the actual size of your hdd which will be shown at post, or failing that go into the bios and check. Once you have this info at hand it will be easy to find out whether the sums of the 2 visible partitions ie 120Gb is the whole disk or whether there is indeed a hidden recovery partition.

I guess that you are not familiar with disk management progs such as Partition Magic or Acronis as using one of those would reveal all the info. These programs can also allow users to change the geometry of the disk by that I mean change the current C:\ from 90Gb and increase D:\ from 30Gb.

The advantage of having your data on a seperate partition to the o/s + progs is that if for some reason the primary active partition ie C:\ becomes corrupted and will no longer boot then all your data is safe and can easily be accessed on the extended D:\ partition.

Good Luck

 

Guard these well. You will need both if You ever have to reinstall Windows.

Dell normally also include disks of 'extras already loaded on your pc'. You need these like dust in the power supply.

I've never known Dell to be that far sighted although it is a rattlin good idea.


Ras, can you not simply read the directory of what is on the 30G partition and let us know (in outline only please)

 

As Studiot says, right click My Computer, manage, disc management,click D drive- right click - choose explore.

 

Ok, by doing what you have told me here, this is what I know:

Within disk management, there appear to be 4 partitions.

Partition Basic FAT Healthy (EISA configuration) 47Mb
Partition Basic FAT32 Healthy (Unknown partition) 3.83Gb
Partition Basic NTFS Healthy (System) 81Gb -- C drive
Partition Basic NTFS Healthy 26Gb -- D drive

Here is what is shown. If I "explore" the D drive nothing appears in the drive, not even if I choose to show hidden files and folders.

So, is the 3.83Gb unknown partition, which I was unaware of before, the recovery partition? And, if so, can I use my D drive for whatever I want?

And, if all of that is okay, and I do move My Documents over to D, will WMP and the My Pictures slideshow screensaver know where to look for their files that have moved from C to D?

I appreciate all of your help.

Drew

 

Certainly different from your original report or anything I've seen from Dell.

Perhaps Dell_CA will enlighten us if it truly came from Dell that way?

Do a test save/readback to the 47 and 26 partitions. The 3 partition is the recovery one. these are usually FAT so that they can be accessed from a win98 boot floppy.

 

As Bugballou said

Good Luck

 

It seems you have a very nice and well thought out computer. We partitioned ours to have a small primary partition as a backup for emergencies, one with its own operating system, that would allow us to get to the net when the computer broke down. It additionally had a firewall, antivirus and e-mail program of its own. Then, the big portion of the computer, we did secondary partitions where we save all the my docs and my music and my photos on a partition which doesn't house the operating system. This has also been useful several times when problems have come up, because you don't lose your data when the operating system has to be replaced. Also, it's allowed me to keep old versions of software that might otherwise get written over.
abri

 

Thanks all for your help; it appears we are under control now. I will move over to D per Bugballou's linked instructions.

Studiot, I am not sure what a test save/readback is. I await futher instructions if you feel it's necessary.

Drew

 

Copy any large file or folder to the D drive and make sure that your pc will read it before you trust your data to it.

 

Thanks Studiot. All on D appears to be working normally.