On 3 Sep 99, at 9:56, David Landau wrote:

> My hard drive is divided (partitioned?) into C, D, and E. C & D each have
> 1.99GB, and E has 31.2 MB. The 'My Documents', 'Program Files', 'Windows',
> etc. files are all located, by default, in C. C is, after almost 2 years
> of use, filling up. Also, every now and then I've been getting the warning
> 'system resources low', which I assume is because C is getting full. How
> do I use the other parts of my hard disk? When I install new software, the
> default location is always in C, and I'm afraid of changing that because I
> don't know what the consequences will be. I'm also afraid of transferring
> stuff from C to D -- how will programs 'know' to look in D instead of in
> C? (I once tried to copy 'My Documents' to D, but I noticed there were a
> number of 'hidden files', so I canceled what I was doing because I didn't
> know what those hidden files were.) Do I need to download/buy special
> software to do this -- if so, what would be recommended? Or is it just a
> simple copying or transferring of files?
>
> I have Windows95 (Hebrew Enabled) on a Pentium 166 MMX with 32MB RAM.

[1]
> Also, every now and then I've been getting the warning 'system resources
> low', which I assume is because C is getting full.

  This is not correct.  System resources are used to hold information about
windows, fonts, cursors and so on, information on behalf of applications that
is held in memory that belongs to the OS.
  Backward compatibility with 16-bit applications forces two constraints on
Windows 9x:
  (1) The resource area is limited to three or four 64KB segments, no matter
how much RAM is installed.
  (2) Resources are not owned by specific processes; the OS cannot identify
and remove resources no longer needed.
  The consequence of (1) is that you can get the warning about running low on
resources if you are trying to run too many programs at one time.
  The consequence of (2) is that one form of application bug is that
resources may be created and continue to take up space until you reboot.  You
can get this warning if you have been running one or more applications with
this kind of bug.
  Neither cause for this warning has anything to do with the amount of space
on your hard drive.


[2]
> When I install new software, the default location is always in C, and I'm
> afraid of changing that because I don't know what the consequences will be.

  If the install procedure will *let* you put the program somewhere other
than C: (unfortunately, there are still a few that don't...), odds are very
good that it will properly handle the case if you do.

[3]
> I'm also afraid of transferring stuff from C to D -- how will programs
> 'know' to look in D instead of in C?

  Generally, they will look where the install told them to look.  There are
utilities that claim to facilitate moving programs after they've been
installed -- I think the one from PC magazine was called "Change Of Address",
by analogy to the card you give the Post Office when you move.
  I've never actually used one of these utilities, and I suspect that some
may fall a little short of 100% effective.  Simply moving folders "by hand"
is definitely not going to work.


[General]

  Your hard drive is formatted using "FAT16", and so any single volume (drive
letter) is limited to 2GB in size.  At that size, clusters (file allocation
units) are 32KB; even your tiniest files are taking up at least this much,
and on average every file you have is wasting 16KB.
  You *could* eliminate the waste and hold more data on your C: partition by
using DriveSpace to compress it, but (a) that's less effective on program
files, and (b) it will likely slow down your machine a bit.

  A better option to consider is an upgrade to Win98.  It, like the OSR2
version of Win95, supports a new "FAT32" format that can allow your entire
drive to be a single C: partition/volume *and* greatly reduce the waste of
space per file.  [Win98 comes with a utiltity to convert C: from FAT16 to
FAT32 (the eliminated waste will get you a bunch of extra space right away),
but if you want to expand C: to the full size of the drive, you need a third-
party utility.  I like "Partition Magic" for this; you can find
shareware/freeware alternatives.]

  Nevertheless, you should learn how to work with D: -- you might add a
second hard drive to your system someday.
  In "Windows Explorer", volumes appear in the tree on the left underneath
"My Computer".  You'll probably find that there's already a "Recycling Bin"
folder on each of D: and E:, and you can use File|New to create other folders
and files.
  In most applications, if you go to File|Open or File|Save As, you'll see a
dialog with a large box that lists files that already exist, and a couple of
small boxes for file name and type.  If you look to the *top* of the dialog,
there's a box which shows a folder name -- probably usually "My Documents" or
some such.  If you click the drop arrow next to that box, you'll fine it
lists not only folders but other volumes as well.  Click on another volume to
open/save files from/to that drive.
  Many of the other system tools -- Find, ScanDisk, and so on -- will offer
C: as a default, but you can select other/additional drives.


David G

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