Media Center PC_Lopsided Volume Config (???) (MCE)

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OK…

Here’s a brain burner for the XP men out there:

A friend of mine purchased an HP PC last year…w/ Windows XP Media Center. Lately he tells me he gets a message when he fires it up that says he’s running out of disc space. I took at look at it for him last night…& he has a 300 GB Hard Drive on board…but w/ only 20 GB volumed (partitioned) as Local ©; & the remaining 280 GB partitioned as HP_RECOVERY (D.) Everything he has (My Documents, My Pictures, important Files, Folders, etc., etc.) is mapped to the Local Disk. The recovery volume is virtually empty. The local disk is now starting to bog down.

So…without asking why the drive would be configured w/ numbers that seem to be opposite of what I feel would be normal…at first I was thinking I could help him by using the Disk Management console to reverse the size of the volumes (decrease D & then increase C.) But if the entire disk is utilized, I would need 3rd party partition software (& I’m not sure volume capacity can be reduced in Disk Management, anyway.)

Then an MVP suggested that I simply rename the HP_RECOVERY volume to ‘Data’ or something similar; & move all his files & folders over to that volume.

So…is this a plausible solution?

And if so…how then does data remapping occur? I know for most apps, when they’re reopened (& the data is missing), they throw up a browse dialog; & if all is found all is well, no problem. But last night…for the hack of it…we moved his ‘My Pictures’ Folder over to the recovery partition & then fired up Media Center…& Media Center didn’t seem all that interested in finding ‘My Pictures’. Is there a setting in Media Center I’m missing? Or

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It is true, you need need 3rd party partition software to resize your partititons.

Suggestion to rename D: drive is optional: you can move data files without renaming.

The easiest way to manage data files is to point personal (special) folders to a new location using TweakUI :
1. Download TweakUI from Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP (use the link to 147 KB download in the right column). 2. Create folders for documents, music, pictures, etc. on D: drive.
3. Copy all data files from c:Documents and SettingsMy Documents to the corresponding folders on D: drive. Remember: special folders “My Music”, ‘My Pictures” and so on (except “My Documents” itself) are in “My Documents” folder.
4. Open TweakUI, on the left pane click on + sign just left of My Computer and select Special Folders, from Folder drop-down list select a folder you want to move, click Change Location button and point it to a new location. Confirm your choice, click Apply and repeat the procedure for the next folder.

Whatever you do, I would strongly recommend to clean your C: drive:

1. Open Internet Explorer, from Tools menu select Internet Options and click Delete Files button, then check “Delete all offline content” and click OK (for IE6) or click Delete button and delete Temporary Internet Files (for IE7).
2. Open Windows Explorer, navigate to C:Documents and SettingsLocal SettingsTemp and delete all files and folders inside Temp folder. If you do not see Local Settings folder (it is hidden), from Tools menu select Folder Options, click View tab and select “Show hidden files and folders”, and uncheck “Hide extensions for known file types” and “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)”. Confirm your choice. I would also recommend to uncheck “Automatically search for network folders and printers”.
3. In Windows Explorer, navigate to c:WindowsTemp and delete all temporary files.
4. If you did not install new programs recently and your computer is working fine, you can delete old Restore points. From Control Panel open System (Performance and Maintenance > System), click System Restore tab, check “Turn off System Restore on all drives” and click Apply. Confirm your choice. When the task will finish, uncheck “Turn off..” checkbox and click Apply, OK. Then click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore, choose “Create a restore piont” option and create a new point.
5. Defragment your drive. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter, select drive C: and defragment it.

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kap…

Thanks…I’ve been thinking about doing all that…plus performing a boot-time defrag w/ Diskeeper afterward (to defrag his system files.) [&…I’ve already showed him how to clean the cache.]

2 questions:

1) How does TweakUI remap…each app individually, or does it reconnect data via some functionality at the heart of the OS. Wait…never mind…I just read #4. So…I thought the OS configured the location of a user’s personal folders…& I thought that individual apps tap into whatever those commands are to route their data correctly. You’re saying that TweakUI has to select every single folder to be remapped?

2) On that note…will I be able to remap his Media Center settings (so that it recognizes D to be the data drive) w/ TweakUI?

Thanks,

mark4man

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The “RECOVERY” drive should have been hidden. I have seen several machines after people have tweaked them and removed the “Hidden” settings, which made it the default boot drive. If people would leave the hidden partitions alone, their systems would run much better.

By the way it takes a third party software to remove the hidden settings, so some one did it for your friend.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Dave…he got this from Best Buy or some similar retailer…& no one’s ever been on it except for him, his kids & me. It was f_c_ed up from jump street.

MF

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If it is a new machine, then I would take it back, so they can provide a machine with “Proper” hidden recovery partition.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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kap…

1) Finally got back to my friend’s house (he’s been working 50+ hour weeks)…& moved his default ‘My Documents’ folder location via Properties > Target…which worked fine. But in attempting to use TweakUI, ran into a dead end. On the interface, there is an instruction that recommends dragging a folder to a new location as the more precise way of moving ‘Special Folders’…but…there was then no response to any folder dragging in the interface’s file tree. Does Microsoft provide any type of support for power toys? Or are there power toys discussion forums around to your knowledge? I couldn’t find any help files in the app itself (TweakUI)…& I’m either doing something terribly wrong or something’s not working correctly.

[as a recap…I’m trying to move most of his data over to the larger partition (via TweakUI.)]

2) The dumb-ass (my friend)

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1) Powertoys are not supported by Microsoft, and there is no help file.

The idea of the suggestion is to right-click-and-drag a special folder to its new location in Windows Explorer, not in TweakUI itself.

2) If there are no problems involving the moved folders, I’d ignore them for the moment, and throw them away after a while.

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The idea of the suggestion is to right-click-and-drag a special folder to its new location in Windows Explorer, not in TweakUI itself.

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[/indent]So…then…why do we need TweakUI for this task?

Thanks Hans,

mark4man

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> why do we need TweakUI for this task?

It’s just another possibility. Most of the things that TweakUI does can be done another way too, but TweakUI provides a convenient interface.

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So then I can just right click / hold / drag in Explorer…& the registry will be updated…& the OS will recognize the new location…& TweakUI doesn’t play a role?

That’s even better.

Thanks much,

mark4man

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TweakUI can change the pointer without actually moving the files.

This could be useful if, for example, you have an existing disk drive with your data that you add to a PC, and you want to ignore anything in the existing My Documents folders and simply point My Documents to the new disk.

StuartR

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