Windows File Size - Lots Of Questions

[developer]

Hello guys,

My fairly old but reasonably specced desktop (3.00Ghz/4Gb RAM) has Vista as it's OS.

The C drive is 70Gb and the Windows file within it is using 28Gb alone.

Add that to our user files and a couple of Programme Files and Prorgamme Data files within the C: tree and we're at c60Gb.

I've actually only got 1.17Gb free on the C drive .

A few questions:

Can/should I get rid of Vista and replace it with Windows 7 (I don't like 8)?

Can you still buy or upgrade/download Win7?

If so, do I save all "our stuff" onto a separate hard drive, which I've got and then reload it onto C when it's running Windows 7 - will there be any compatability issues?

What's the purpose of the additional D: drive (called Data) which has almost 60Gb from 70Gb free?

How does stuff get onto D: when the default appears to be C:?

Of primary importance is not losing any data.

Thanks,

 

[Sp!ke]

Why not change the path to your documents library to your D drive and move the data to it? This should free up enough space on C:\ for you to be getting on with.

I suggest waiting before you upgrade your computer for a little while longer and hold out for Windows 10 which is starting to look rather promising and head and shoulders above 8.x.

 

[developer]

Why not change the path to your documents library to your D drive and move the data to it? This should free up enough space on C:\ for you to be getting on with.

I suggest waiting before you upgrade your computer for a little while longer and hold out for Windows 10 which is starting to look rather promising and head and shoulders above 8.x.

That sounds ideal, thanks - I think it will give me the required headroom as the PC is very slow.
How do I reassign the existing data from C: to D:?

What do I actually do when 10 arrives?

 

[grober]

Your other option is to buy a business machine. The big manufacturers still offer Windows 7 professional installed. OptiPlex 3020 Micro PC Desktop | Dell UK
take your old hard drive out of the old computer and stick it in a usb caddy and you will be able to access /transfer all your old data as and when.

Even cheaper is to buy a refurbed machine again with Windows 7 with a product key.
Cheaper still buy a Windows 7 professional disc together with product key [ must have this to register the software with microsoft to receive updates etc] These normally originate from computers that have been scrapped. Microsoft challenged this [ second hand software ] at one point but lost the case - ruling was that the total no of computers running that particular licence had no net increase.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/seven-perfectly-legal-ways-to-get-windows-7-cheap-or-even-free/


lots of examples on ebay
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Microsoft...ting_Software_Software_SR&hash=item1e8d44b504

GERMAN EBAY IS A GOOD SOURCE ALSO

 

[bob6600]

Do you have 1 physical hard drive or 2 inside your machine?

i think you my just have the one which is partitioned into 2. Either way, move your data from drive C:\ to D:\

If/when upgrading to win 7, I personally would save anything you want on an external drive (if you only have one internally) or onto the D:\ drive if it is a physical hard drive/ Then format and install a fresh copy.

 

[Sp!ke]

The quick and dirty (but safe) way would be to cut and paste My documents to D:\.

I would advise creating a My Documents, My Pictures and a My Video's folder in D and then Copy the contents of My Documents (excluding pictures and Videos) from C to the folder you created on D and then do the same for your Pictures and Videos.

Once you are 100% confident everything has copied across correctly then you can delete the copies on C and you will have freed up all that space on the drive. (remembering to empty recycle bin)

It is possible to point your user location to the D drive either with some jiggery pokery in the registry or by using junction points but frankly I would simply remember to go to D when saving or opening a document in future.

When you do upgrade, you can pretty much do the same copy paste task from old computer to new either over your home network or by using a USB hard drive as the means of moving stuff from one computer to another. I would avoid using the windows inbuilt migration tool as that has a habit of copying settings that you don't want along with the files that you do.

 

[Chrishazle]

140 Gig these days is not a lot, especially when you can buy 1TB internal for not a lot of money. Even more so if you're saving photos, with the high megapixel counts these days even a jpg can easily get to 10MB, I don't know how big they get if you're saving RAW.

I think the first thing I'd be tempted to do is get a big USB drive - Ebuyer do a 1TB Intenso for about £40 - and copy all the important and personal stuff to there. Then think about upgrading the machine and OS - a while back I upgrades from Vista to Win7, it's loads better. I've seen a lot of bad comments about 8 so would not go there, no idea wether it's worth waiting for 10!

For a machine upgrade, look at Aria, Ebuyer, Overclockers amongst others.

 

[Giantvanman]

You could open the window, buy Apple and let some fresh air blow through Most or all MS files are readable by OSX and documents can still be saved as .doc ……….just saying

 

[SLK32AMG]

You could delete the partition and the capacity that is currently on D will be back to C Hence 140gb. Just make sure that there is not a image of your computer settings eg recovery disc as some laptops have them put on a partition instead of providing you with hard copys so you put back to factory settings.

Also if you put windows 7 on you will have a full copy of windows copied onto the C drive called windows.old. From this you can then copy any files like documents etc from that to your new windows. Once that is done you can then delete the windows.old file and that will free up quite a lot of space. Its easier and quicker to do it that way as copying to a usb can be slow.

 

[markjay]

1. Officially, it is no longer possible to buy a new Windows 7 License. Only 8.1. You might be able to purchase a new Windows 7 disk and license online from old stock though, or second-hand from eBay.

2. If you buy a new PC with Windows 8.1 Professional (as opposed to just 'Windows 8.1' - the latter recently replaced what was known before as 'Windows Home'), you get with it Downgrade Rights, which means that you can legally install Windows 7 Professional on that PC. Some manufacturers will supply such PCs with Windows 8.1 Professional license, but with Windows 7 Professional actually installed. But if you buy a new PC with 'Windows 8.1' i.e. (not 'Professional') then you do not get Downgrade Rights with it, and you can not legally use Windows 7 with this license.

 

[moonloops]

Buy windows 8 and install "shell for windows 8" and it modifies the OS to look and operate like windows 7 for free. Wait until Q4 2015 and get the free upgrade to windows 10.

You do still need to sort out your hard dive storage though.

 

[markjay]

Also - new drives are dirt cheap.... if you had new (bigger) drive, would you know how to install it and copy the data across from the old disk, etc? Or will you need to get someone to do this?

 

[developer]

Also - new drives are dirt cheap.... if you had new (bigger) drive, would you know how to install it and copy the data across from the old disk, etc? Or will you need to get someone to do this?

I'm not as daft as I look you know .

 

[sjmaxwell]

I'm not sure the spec of your old machine would take Windows 10 so I would go with a new/second hand machine with a windows 7 licence so when the Windows 10 upgrade is available later this year you can get it for free if it meets your requirements. Do as others suggest and back up your data on an external hard drive so you will be ready!

 

[markjay]

I'm not as daft as I look you know .

So why not just get a larger drive...? I may have a couple of second-hand ones lying around if you want something to practice on.

 

[Red C220]

Your other option is to buy a business machine. The big manufacturers still offer Windows 7 professional installed. OptiPlex 3020 Micro PC Desktop | Dell UK
take your old hard drive out of the old computer and stick it in a usb caddy and you will be able to access /transfer all your old data as and when.

Just before Christmas we bought a pair of Optiplex desktops with Win 7 for my home office. We're delighted with them.

 

[daveenty]

Only just seen this John, but if I was in your position I'd be looking at a small(ish) SSD and cloning your original drive to that firstly, using something like Macrium Reflect.

Once done, you can then use your old drive as a data drive, for docs, photos etc. If, as mentioned above, it's in two partitions, then just merge them to give you a bit more space for storage.

My main machine has a ~250GB SSD for the O/S and stuff I use regularly, the rest goes onto a 1TB drive which is now my D Drive. This was the only drive in the machine originally but it took an age to boot. With the SSD it's now up and running in under a minute.

 

[sjmaxwell]

Only just seen this John, but if I was in your position I'd be looking at a small(ish) SSD and cloning your original drive to that firstly, using something like Macrium Reflect. Once done, you can then use your old drive as a data drive, for docs, photos etc. If, as mentioned above, it's in two partitions, then just merge them to give you a bit more space for storage. My main machine has a ~250GB SSD for the O/S and stuff I use regularly, the rest goes onto a 1TB drive which is now my D Drive. This was the only drive in the machine originally but it took an age to boot. With the SSD it's now up and running in under a minute.

Hi Dave. Unfortunately Johns machine isn't that high a spec to spend money on a SSD IMHO and I think the partition was part of Vistas back up/restore spec with a hidden recovery partition to enable this process

 

[daveenty]

Cheers Steve,

Never really noticed the spec.. must read before replying.

 

[John]

Chances are with that specification that your PC is from 2006 > 2009.

I wouldn't spend any more on it and just move your data to D: (not copy!).

Windows 10 is supposed to be out this year so buy a new machine then.

You could buy a PC with Windows 8.1 as I understand Windows 10 will be a free upgrade to those with it - but that means suffering Windows 8.1 until then!

I buy OptiPlex 3020s for the company and they are great little machines - had no issues at all in a year touch wood.