Anyone Use an Acer Computer?

[TorontoCarol]

I bought a new Acer desktop with Windows Vista and was dismayed when after only a few weeks I was getting messages that there was no more room. Yet my hard drive is 160 GB. How come?

It never occurred to me to check the "my computer" icon. When I did I realized that the hard drive is petitioned into two drives. All the programs and everything I was saving automatically went unto the C drive, which is very small. The D drive, where all the room is, had nothing there. That is the dumbest thing I ever heard of, especially since the computer is set up so that C is the default drive.

I feel sorry for the people who have an acer and have no techie knowledge at all (even less than I do). Having two drives is something they would have no clue about, and having to change drives to save content is not a newbie friendly thing either.

If anyone can tell me how to make it all one, I would love to know.

[robert adams]

it is not hard to make it all into one drive. however , it does take a little techie knowledge and a good partitioning program to do it.

the trick is not to lose everything on your drive while you are doing it.

this is actually a very good way to have your system setup.

having just windows on the c drive and putting everything else on the other drive is very smart.
IF Windows decides to choke ( not that it could ever happen you understand! )then you can reinstall or wipe out the C: drive without touching all of your programs and most importantly , all of your files.

at the very least, saving all your files to the other drive is a good idea.

I always set up all my computers this way.

once you tell windows to install the first program or save the first file to D: then it should automatically go there from then on.

If not, then you can tell it to do so.

[TorontoCarol]

Thank you Robert! You've restored my faith in Acer! And also saved me from a serious rant on my blog

So if I install new programs, it's okay to install on D? I always thought they had to be in the windows program files.

[robert adams]

It is absolutely OK.

the only thing I have on my C: drive is windows.
"partitioning" is what this is called.
You can have up to 26 partitions on a single hard disk ( 26 letters in the alphabet ).

Actually, you can have more but that is way to complicated to discuss here.

Anyway, usually this is something you do when setting up a blank hard disk. However,to be able to partition a drive you are currently using, you need a program like "Partition Magic" or something.

You may be able to do it with XP, I am not sure.

Here is my current setup:

20 GIG hard drive:

C: Windows
MS Office
and assorted files in MyDocuments: 7 GIGS

D: (everything else) 12 GIGs

I created a folder on D: named Programs

that is where I install all other programs.
I then keep all my files, images, work in progress, etc, etc. everything, in separate folders on D:


by the way , unless you have the right program , partitioning a drive wipes it out.

so be careful if you decide to do any of this kind of thing.

roberrt








robert

[TorontoCarol]

Thanks Robert, I will be leaving well enough alone. I'm just glad to have all that extra room on my computer.