Oh dear. I've lost my memory.

[slowmotion]

I wonder if you can help me get it back.
I have a Compaq desktop running Windows XP. I'm reasonably sure it hasn't got any totally ghastly infections...it's just running out of space on the hard drive.
The hard drive comprises..
1) Compaq (C) 20GB total with less than 1% still free to use
2) HP Recovery (D) 10 GB with 50% still free to use
3) Local disk (E) 120GB with 99% still free to use

There are no external memory devices in use usually.

Nearly all the operating system, my programs and files, and all the internet stuff and emails live on Compaq (C) but the memory on that drive is so low that I'm grinding to a halt. Drive (D) is handy when I have to re-install the OS and drivers so I don't want to touch it. I would like to use some of the memory on drive (E) to bring drive(C) back to life. Can I do that? If so, how?

Thank you very much.

 

[Kies]

Go to control panel > performance and change the location of the page file to live on E:
Delete the page file from c:

Next go through all your data, and move as much as possible to E:\documents

Find your C:\temp folder and delete everything

Reboot and see the difference

Edit: you can configure your email so that the *.pst files can live on E: , this will save a lot of space on C:

 

[fossyant]

Wot Kies says.

 

[Kies]

I followed this blog when messing about with a netbook that had a 12gb C: drive

http://tompy666.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/windows-xp-tweaks-for-eee-900.html

Lots of crappy files lieing around from installation time. It worked really well in giving me some much needed space for the swap file to do it's thing.

 

[slowmotion]

Thank you. Being a bit of an idiot, I think it might be best to back up my stuff before I attempt Mission Impossible. Lacking a memory stick at present, I will hold off for the present and content myself with reading your links.

 

[Kies]

Anything moved to the E: drive would be safe even if you totally screwed up C: which is where windows lives, but always a good idea to do a backup of your data.

 

[slowmotion]

I dimly remember reading that moving my program files from (C) was not a good idea. Is that the case?

 

[Shut Up Legs]

Also clear your Internet Explorer temporary files (which can take up a lot of space if left long enough), explained here:
http://www.wikihow.com/Locate-Temporary-Internet-Files
because these files won't be stored in your system's default temporary files directory/folder.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

I dimly remember reading that moving my program files from (C) was not a good idea. Is that the case?

Yes, don't do that. You can uninstall programs from C: drive and reinstall them on another drive, but even with that, you'll still have the problem of copying your program's settings over to the new installation.