Picture Storage on Computer

I have gone from a 3 meg point and shoot to a 6.1 meg DSLR. I am

having so much fun that I have almost filled the C partition of the

hard drive. I use Picasa to edit my pictures. I would like to

increase the size of the C partition but can not figure out how. I

already have some of my old pictures plus geneology moved to the D

partition. First is it possible to resize the C partition? If I do,

Does it mess up what I already have on the D partition? Please be

detailed about any instructions since I am far from being a computer

expert. I am using XP home edition on my computer.

Thank you ahead of time for your help on this issue.

 

Tim Knight

There are ways (Partition Magic), but that is actually already giving you too much information

as this is not something for someone who doesn't fully understand what they are doing! Plus

it is also not the best solution anyway.

 

A better idea is to move all the images to another drive (like D, or a new one). Then, in

Picasa, go to Options > Tools > General and set a new directory (on you D drive) to save

images on.

 

You should also consider deleting obvious bad images! :)

Add another actual drive (or two)? Shuffling the partition sizes on one drive gains you nothing.

 

You can get someone to add for you, but it is not too difficult. It is not dead-easy either, and there will likely be a point (or two) where you will regret doing it yourself. If it gets overwhelming, just bring it in to the pros and let them take over.

 

It will require some research. The place where you "see" your computer's drives, and introduce it to new drives, is "Administrative Tools" in "Control "Panel". I'm not 100% sure A.T.'s there by default: seems to me I might have had to add it, through the "Add or Remome Programs" and then "Add/Remove Windows Component".

 

When hard drive manufacturers advertise size, they use some creative math on the actual capacity. Also, it's good to leave atleast 20% free space. And whatever your current needs, they're likely to increase.

 

Another tact: clean up what you already have on c drive. It's suprising what accumulates, it's a *lot* like a garage.

 

Anyway, some tips if you do it yourself:

 

1. Always touch the computer's frame before touching a drive, to avoid static. There are better ways, but this is better than nothing.

 

2. Have some fine-tip tweezers. At the backs of hard drives are tiny "jumpers", that you'll like have to shift, depending on the drive's status.

 

3. Have on hand a bag of assorted drive mounting screws. Your hard drive supplier should have these. Know ahead of time where your drive is going, to save trips back and forth to your supplier. In other words, open it up in advance, and get familiar with it.

 

4. You may need to install an extra hard drive controller card, depending on your motherboard.

 

5. Discuss extra fan/cooling with your hard drive supplier. Likely one extra drive is no big deal.

 

6. There will likely be a spare hard drive bay ready to accept at least one extra 3 1/2" size (usual) hard drive, with spare power supply and the ribbon cable plug-in ready to go. If you put in more, tread a little more cautiously. The need for extra cooling goes up, and you may need cradles in spare 5 1/4" bays, which usually house optical drives.

How about organizing them in some way and transferring them to CD's, DVD's or some other external stotage? This will also give you backup if your computer crashes.

How is your drive currently partitioned between C, D and any other partitions?

I found it the easiest to purchase an external hard drive. Plug and play (usually).

Thank you all for your help. Right now I need to correct the problem and plan to do as Bas Scheffers suggested. This will give me time to checkout another hard drive plus backing up the pictures I have on the computer. Sounds like the external hard drive would be the simplest, but have a question about working speed being slower than an internal hard drive. Any input on this question would be appreciated. I take after my mother concerning getting rid of anything and might need sometime later, example being pictures I have taken and liked. Am I the only one with this problem??

 

Tim Knight

Well, I am a part-time systems engineer and certified by Microsoft and a part-time wedding photographer. I agree that you should NEVER mess with partitions. It takes about 20 minutes to set up an external hard drive. You won't see much of a speed difference. Another tip to try is to go to a local computer repair place and "GHOST," your old hard drive over to a big 300gb new hard drive. Everything will look the same and no info will be lost. If you live in the LA area I can do this for you.