Computer Geeks please help

[CTAClone]

I'm sorry if I offended anyone with my thread title especially since you all are probably making way more money than I ever will.

Anyways, I'm helping a friend clean up his computer because it has run out of memory. He has two versions of Microsoft on there, XP Proffesional and 2003 Office. Can I delete one of them? And which one can I delete? And is there anyway to free up space on his hard drive that aren't the typical ways to do it?

Thanks Geeks. I'll owe you one.

 

[2Xclone]

You actually probably only have ONE operating system. The XP is the operating system and the 2003 Office is probably Microsoft Office software. The office software is the word processing, spread sheet, etc. So keep BOTH of those!

 

[CTAClone]

You actually probably only have ONE operating system. The XP is the operating system and the 2003 Office is probably Microsoft Office software. The office software is the word processing, spread sheet, etc. So keep BOTH of those!

That's what I was worried about. The XP Professional had those office products also, but I'm pretty sure it was upgraded to Office 2003 a few years ago.

 

[TykeClone]

You actually probably only have ONE operating system. The XP is the operating system and the 2003 Office is probably Microsoft Office software. The office software is the word processing, spread sheet, etc. So keep BOTH of those!

ABSOLUTELY.

Unless of course the guy wants to wipe everything out and go with linux :wink:

Another question - is he low on memory of disk space? Sometimes people confuse the two and it's best to clarify that before deleting things willy nilly.

 

[CTAClone]

ABSOLUTELY.

Unless of course the guy wants to wipe everything out and go with linux :wink:

Another question - is he low on memory of disk space? Sometimes people confuse the two and it's best to clarify that before deleting things willy nilly.

Low on Disk Space. His stupid computer has a 13gb hard drive and then another hard drive that is 80gb. All the operating systems are run from the 13gb drive and when stuff is loaded on the other hard drive it doesn't read the stuff on it when you are working on the C: drive.

 

[dmclone]

Is it another hard drive or just another partition?

 

[CTAClone]

Is it another hard drive or just another partition?

I don't understand partition but I think the answer is yes it is.

When looking at the my computer page he has two hard drives, a C: drive and a D: drive. It is loaded on his desktop computer and isn't a portable hard drive.

 

[Angie]

You can check in the registry to see if there are multiple versions of Office installed. Let me know if you need any help with that - you'll want to check under HKey_LM and HKey_CurrentUser.

 

[TykeClone]

I don't understand partition but I think the answer is yes it is.

When looking at the my computer page he has two hard drives, a C: drive and a D: drive. It is loaded on his desktop computer and isn't a portable hard drive.

It might be just as cheap and easy to throw a new 80GB drive in and use it to replace the C: drive. Maxtor, Western Digital, and Seagate all have software that makes it rather painless to do.

 

[jumbopackage]

He likely does have two versions of Office installed. XP Professional was also the name of a version of Microsoft Office, in addition to a version of Windows, which can be quite confusing.

 

[CTAClone]

It might be just as cheap and easy to throw a new 80GB drive in and use it to replace the C: drive. Maxtor, Western Digital, and Seagate all have software that makes it rather painless to do.

What about transfering everything over to his D: drive? He's worried about losing files, but can the operating system be moved over there and then he can transfer all the files he needs?

And Angie what's that HKey stuff you are talking about?

 

[Angie]

What about transfering everything over to his D: drive? He's worried about losing files, but can the operating system be moved over there and then he can transfer all the files he needs?

And Angie what's that HKey stuff you are talking about?

I'll PM you.

 

[TykeClone]

What about transfering everything over to his D: drive? He's worried about losing files, but can the operating system be moved over there and then he can transfer all the files he needs?

And Angie what's that HKey stuff you are talking about?

If you don't know about the HKey stuff, don't mess with it -it can be dangerous.

Windows doesn't like to be moved and can hassle you if it's not done right. If the D: drive is a separate physical disk, and if you've got a spare drive to store its contents for now, you can download the file transfer program from the appropriate drive company and move the C: drive to the d: drive, and then move the backed up stuff to wherever he needs it.

If it's not a separate physical disk, then getting a separate physical disk might be the best answer.

 

[Angie]

If you don't know about the HKey stuff, don't mess with it -it can be dangerous.

Windows doesn't like to be moved and can hassle you if it's not done right. If the D: drive is a separate physical disk, and if you've got a spare drive to store its contents for now, you can download the file transfer program from the appropriate drive company and move the C: drive to the d: drive, and then move the backed up stuff to wherever he needs it.

If it's not a separate physical disk, then getting a separate physical disk might be the best answer.

Definitely listen to him. If you want me to get connected with you at some point, I can. I'm sure there are others who would be happy to, too.

 

[CTAClone]

If you don't know about the HKey stuff, don't mess with it -it can be dangerous.

Windows doesn't like to be moved and can hassle you if it's not done right. If the D: drive is a separate physical disk, and if you've got a spare drive to store its contents for now, you can download the file transfer program from the appropriate drive company and move the C: drive to the d: drive, and then move the backed up stuff to wherever he needs it.

If it's not a separate physical disk, then getting a separate physical disk might be the best answer.

How would that work with the operating system? Let me see if I got this right. It may be his best answer since he has no space on his C: drive to move everything to D:.

1. Back up everything onto a portable hard drive.
2. Uninstall Windows on the C: Drive
3. Reinstall Windows/Programs on the D: Drive

Would doing this allow you to run the computer on the D: Drive and not have to deal with that little 13gb C: Drive?

 

[TykeClone]

How would that work with the operating system? Let me see if I got this right. It may be his best answer since he has no space on his C: drive to move everything to D:.

1. Back up everything onto a portable hard drive.
2. Uninstall Windows on the C: Drive
3. Reinstall Windows/Programs on the D: Drive

Would doing this allow you to run the computer on the D: Drive and not have to deal with that little 13gb C: Drive?

The answer depends upon whether or not D: is a separate physical drive (you'll need to look inside the box!) If it is, then

1 - Backup D: to something portable
2 - Download the file transfer program from the maker of that hard drive (western digital, maxtor, or seagate are the most likely candidates) this avoids reinstalling the operating system.
3 - run the file transfer software - tell it that you "want to replace the primary drive" - this will reformat d: and copy all files to it from c: (thus wiping out d:!)
4 - remove the old C: drive from the system. Depending upon how old the machine is, you might need to mess with jumpers on the hard drive to tell the machine that the "old d:" drive is now the c: drive
5 - boot it up - you should have the machine up & running.
6 - decide what to do - either move data from the backup onto the new c: drive (if it's just data), or put in a replacement drive for d: (if there are programs on it) - what you do depends upon what is easiest. If the data is not huge and will fit on to the old c: drive, just reset the jumpers on that drive and pop it in - it should now show up as the d: drive (double check this before formatting it!) -
7 - copy the backup data to the appropriate place.

 

[Aldude505]

CTAClone you have that right, at least thats what I would do in your situation. I would back everything up on the 80GB hard drive and then yank the smaller one out of there. But here's where things get tricky. An OS, (like XP) need to be saved on whats called a partition of the drive. Which means formatting the drive first, there is another way to do this but it is a lot harder. So technically you find a portable drive to store everything on, then reformat the D: drive and yank out the C: drive. Once you upload XP onto the D: drive then boot up the computer and go into the BIOS and tell it to boot off the only drive you have. If you don't want this, you could just leave the OS on the smaller drive and move everything else over to the 80 GB. This is what a lot of computer companies are doing today. It makes the comptuer load faster. If you need help with this, let me know.

 

[TykeClone]

This is what a lot of computer companies are doing today. It makes the comptuer load faster. If you need help with this, let me know.

Just don't be too stingy on the C:\ partition. I've got an old W2K server that I was a bit stingy with the C:\ drive on because of this logic and it's been a pain for a few years.

Just about ready to retire it though :wink:

 

[CTAClone]

Thanks for all the help guys.

 

[Aldude505]

TykeClone brings up a good point, the partition you set for your OS should not skimp on size. I believe mine is a dedicated 10GB drive. This holds the OS and all system files. It can only be accessed by the admin and works very well as a backup drive. Any files you put in there cannot be touched by any outside source. I have mine password protected so even if someone gets on my computer somehow they cant change the system files. It also protects against viruses, worms, and the like your can wipe your regular drive and act like it never happened.