Hard disk upgrade-what to do

[99WhiteBeast]

It is time to upgrade the storage capacity of my old Dell desktop- the 6 GB are full. I can't even send emails or print anymore-only have about 2MB free on my "C" drive:eek2:

Questions:
1. What kind to buy and how much to expect to shell out? I think 20GB would hold me for awhile (Are they are created equal Maxtor,Western Digital....)
2. How hard is the actual install? I've done PC cards (Ethernet,Video) before so is it more difficult or about the same?
3. If there is no OS on the new drive how does it boot up- does it boot up enought to install Windows or do you have to do something else?
4.When I do my backup are there critical system files to get or should I just worry about my personal folders and such? I plan on doing a full new install of Windows and then reinstall all my programs and games

Sorry for all the Q's but I'm a little clueless on this type of stuff:confused:

[Logan]

You can use Norton Ghost to create an image of your existing drive, store it on a network or burn it to roms, replace the drive, and boot using norton ghost and restore the image.

Physical install is usually pretty painless, most notebook drives are created equal. Equally slow that is...

There won't be an O/S on the new drive so you can either use Norton Ghost or install a decent O/S like XP Home or 2000 Pro, both of which ship on bootable CD's and install brainlessly...

[99WhiteBeast]

freakin eh- sounds easy enough
Thanks Logan!

[Silver_2000]

I dont think you can buy 20 gig desktop drives anymore...

I bet you dont have 6 gig of stuff on that drive.

do a search for *.tmp and delete them all

Then search for hiberfil.sys or something similar and delete it.

Then open C:\temp, C:\tmp, C:\windows\temp and empty them. Then empty the recycle bin.

Then search for files over 10 mb Us ethe size feature in the search and find files at least 10000 k

See if any of them are trash candidates

By far the easiest and quickest and cheapest thing to do is buy a drive and add it as D then move any data you can to it to give windows room to grow. Take it from me installing a new big drive and gettingit to boot as your primary and getting an OS on it can be easy or it can be a *****...
My $0.01
Doug

[dboat]

where I probably dont belong...

but for the price of some hard drives, and if your old machine came with a 6G drive.. I say spend $400 on a new Emachine and be done with it.. then you can laplink or something of that sort your old files over and have a new hot rod machine to use.. I realize its more money than just a hard drive but not that much more...

http://www.emachines.com/products/products.html?prod=eMachines_T2341

Now I will get flamed by some of the IT guys here but they arent that bad for the non hard core folks..
or look at an HP or Compaq, they sell about the same thing for about the same price..
if you get the emachine, it comes in the fastest color.. black:evil

just something to think about..

ok, I have said my peace..
Dana

[dboat]

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=2292473&cat=86797&type=19&dept=41937&path=0%3A41937%3A86796%3A86797

[Logan]

Why did I think he said notebook?

Follow Doug's advice... He's right, clear out your temp space and add a D: drive... Much easier.

To get around O/S limitations on small drives. You could physically hook up your D drive, Ghost your C drive to your D drive and physically move your new drive to your primary, thus getting rid of the cruddy ol, slow ass 6gb drive...

[aliekitn99]

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=2292473&cat=86797&type=19&dept=41937&path=0%3A41937%3A86796%3A86797

e-machines...great bang for the buck, available at your local Best Buy :banana:

[99WhiteBeast]

Thanks to all:tu:- I've managed to free up 50MB or so so at least I can print and email without issues. I'll also move over some non essential stuff to my D and E drives. (6GB hardrive partitioned 2GB each)

The largest single file on C is WIN386.swp (128MB)- what type of file is this and is it needed?

I've decided against the harddrive since the min size you can get is like 80GB and would rather hold out a little longer until I decide to upgrade.

[microsuck]

The largest single file on C is WIN386.swp (128MB)- what type of file is this and is it needed?


:rll:
Thats funny. the swap file is what windows uses for extra "RAM" when it runs out of physical memory. Its normal. Dont worry. It wont let you delete it. Steve if you want a 20gb drive let me know and I will hook you up with one for $20. Just cause you are my homie and I owe you. And I have the GHOST drive imaging software floppy if you need it to mirror the old drive onto the new one.
Andrew