Hard Drive

[westerneagle]

I have a new (used) laptop from ACER that says it has a 120 HDD.

When I look in Explorer I am seeing 2 drives (I am sure partitions) listed

The first one is the ACER (C) drive with 51 GB total capacity
The next one is called the Data (D) drive with another 50 GB or so.

The only thing in this D drive is a folder called MSOcache.

After loading everything my C drive is down to 13 GB

I would like to load a load of mp3 book files.

Can I use this D drive for storage as I would the C drive.

Should I look into repartitioning the D smaller?

????

Thanks in advance for your thoughts

Mike

[viking33]

I have a new (used) laptop from ACER that says it has a 120 HDD.

When I look in Explorer I am seeing 2 drives (I am sure partitions) listed

The first one is the ACER (C) drive with 51 GB total capacity
The next one is called the Data (D) drive with another 50 GB or so.

The only thing in this D drive is a folder called MSOcache.

After loading everything my C drive is down to 13 GB

I would like to load a load of mp3 book files.

Can I use this D drive for storage as I would the C drive.

Should I look into repartitioning the D smaller?

????

Thanks in advance for your thoughts

Mike

Mike,
I can't see why you can't use the D drive for storage or anything else, if you wish.
If you would feel more comfortable with more than 13 gigs free on the system drive, you could use a partitioning utility to move some over for you.
I use Acronis Disc Director to do these things for me. It is a paid program but there are ones out there like EASEUS, free for home use.
Check it out at : http://www.easeus.com/download.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[westerneagle]

Thank you,
Let me ask, Is the computer going to use the d partition automatically?

Since my last laptop (also running vista) did not have a DATA drive, is this a ACER thing?
Or do other systems use a DATA drive also?

If I decide to use or swap some room over, how do I know how much the computer is going to need or require for its DATA??

Thanks again

[viking33]

Thank you,
Let me ask, Is the computer going to use the d partition automatically?

Since my last laptop (also running vista) did not have a DATA drive, is this a ACER thing?
Or do other systems use a DATA drive also?

If I decide to use or swap some room over, how do I know how much the computer is going to need or require for its DATA??

Thanks again

I don't think the computer will use the D drive automatically, you have to tell it to store OR use it. I would think that Acers Data name is the same as my F drive ( which I created ) and I just call it "Programs". I also have another partition called "Storage". so for example, if you install a program and you get to the part where it asks you WHERE to install it, instead of the default C:, you can tell it to use the D drive.
If you Do move some space over, I'd probably go for another 10 or 12 gigs and you should be fine.

[westerneagle]

Thank you,
I move some over to make my C a little bigger and then 'store' the mp3 files and etc. in the other.

Thanks again

Mike

[JoeP]

The Microsoft installer used when you apply hotfixes & service packs will by default automatically use the drive or partition with the largest amount of free space to extract files to perform the installations.

Joe

[westerneagle]

Ah. . .very interesting. . .that is why there is the one folder on the DATA drive which looks like a bunch of Office installation files. .

Mike

[JoeP]

The MSOCache folder is automatically stored on your system with newer versions of Office. It is used to help determine current versions when you install patches and service packs. It is meant to be left permanently on your system so you don't have to supply the Office installation media as you had to with older versions.

The Microsoft installer creates folders that are a long series of letters and numbers. These folders are supposed to be temporary only on your system until the installation process (inlcuding any reboots) is complete.

Joe

[John Gray]

Acer tends to split their hard drives into two, the second partition for 'user data' or backups.
In my experience, the only downside to the removal of the MSOCache folder is that you have to insert the Office DVD if you want to add a new Office 'feature' or program that wasn't chosen at installation time.

[stuck]

I have a new (used) laptop from ACER that says it has a 120 HDD.

When I look in Explorer I am seeing 2 drives (I am sure partitions) listed

John is right when he says Acer tend to split their HDDs into two. I discovered this a while ago when I was shopping for a laptop and an Acer looked like a good deal. It didn't stop me, I bought an Acer.

It came with a 160Gb HDD partitioned as 2x80Gb drives. The C drive had Vista on it, the D drive was empty. The backup software that came with the machine was configured to use the D drive for it's backups but it did NOT run automatically.

Initially the machine was used 'as is' so all data etc. was stored in the default user folder on C drive. After about a year, when C began to run short on space the user data was moved over to the D drive. It's still running happily, though now it's getting a bit short on space on the D drive as well. (solution: going to buy a NAS / WHS but need to save up some pennies first )

Hope my experience helps you Mike.

Ken