Warning low disk space mystery

Hi

Don’t know if you can help me. I dual boot Windows Vista and XP. (Vista on main partition)

I used Easy BCD creator to create the partitions as per tutorials and everything has worked fine until now.

When I created the XP partition I only allocated 12 GB which was recommended for operating system drivers and folders. The reality is I only use XP for downloading files and burning etc but the files are extracted to another drive which has plenty of space. I now find that I’m unable to extract (WinRar) files in XP as I keep getting the disk warning, not sufficient space etc etc. The warning relates to the XP Partition which only has about 2 GB available.

I researched this and found that it could be due to the XP partition being FAT 32 rather than NTFS etc but I don’t think that’s the issue here. (PC cam with Vista preinstalled and I partitioned that drive).

Why would I get this message all of a sudden when?

1. The files are being extracted to another drive which has plenty of space.
2. I haven’t added anything to the XP partition for ages so it has always been about 10Gb used and 2Gb spare

Many thanks
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    DELL XPS420
Hi

Apologies I meant to say I used GParted to create the XP partition. I think I just need to increase the size of the XP partition and I can do this using the Vista disk management tool. I'm confused as I obviously need to shrink another partition before I can extend the XP one. Disk management shows:

Disk 0 Basic 232.83(4 partitions)
63Mb Healthy EISA config
Recovery E 15Gb Healthy Primary Partition
OS C 207.75Gb Healthy Primary Partition, System Boot etc
K 10Gb Healthy Logical Drive (this shows up as an extended partition and is the one with the XP OS)

Disk 1 Basic 232.83 Healthy Primary active partition

I tried to reduce C to then extend K but it only gave me about 40Mb when there is about 80Gb free. I know there's a simple fix for this but I just can't see it.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Simon
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    DELL XPS420
Hi,

Post a picture of the computer management, disk management screen in Vista.

We can then look to assist you. OK?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP-Pavilion m9280.uk-a
    CPU
    2.30 gigahertz AMD Phenom 9600 Quad-Core
    Motherboard
    ASUSTek Computer INC. NARRA3 3.02
    Memory
    3582 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory (4 Gig)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS NVIDIA Geforce GTS450
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition 7.1 Audio (HP drivers)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP w2408 24.0" (Dual monitor)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 * 1200, 1920 * 1200
    Hard Drives
    3*500 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
    Plus 2x USB (160Gig each) external HDD
    BluRay & DVD Weiters
    HL-DT-ST BD-RE GGW-H20L SCSI CdRom (Bluray RW) Device
    AlViDrv BDDVDROM SCSI CdRom (Blueray) Device
    TSSTcorp CDDVDW TS-H653N SCSI CdRom
    Internet Speed
    40 Meg
Before doing anything I would get 7-zip Portable. I has drag and drop UnRar built in. Esp. if the exe was not on the XP partition it shouldn't have any need to expand to temp files in the system partition.

I've done the super small system partition bit before. The need for more space always sneaks up on you. But I have a feeling that UnRar just has the temp folder location hard wired or maybe it uses the %temp% environment variable. You might just need to set Temp in your environment variables to use another drive.

In Advanced System Settings there should be a button Environment Variables.
I'm on Windows Seven right now. But in Vista if you type Advanced System Settings in the search and click the result you should get the dialog. Either that or right click on Computer then select Properties, then Advanced System Settings.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion m9515y
    CPU
    Phenom X4 9850
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Some Radeon Cheapie with 512 MB Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    CRT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    750 GB SATA 3G
    2 SIIG Superspeed docks w/WD Caviar Black Sata II or III
Many thanks for helpful replies.

Am going to post picture of disk management and try other workaround as suggested.

Watch this space.

Simon
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    DELL XPS420
Hi

Picture is attached as requested. Hope you can see it OK.

Had problems with advanced system settings in XP as the two options were greyed out. No problem accessing in Vista but I thought you wanted me to tweak in XP to divert the temp folder elsewhere.

Thanks again.
 

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My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    DELL XPS420
Within WinRar select options>settings. Click on the paths tab and you'll see the setting Folder for temporary files. Browse to change that to what you want.

I recommend that you increase the disk space for XP and also that you change to NTFS the default for XP. I don't know why you would want to use fat32 except for compatibility with other operating systems. See NTFS.com Convert FAT32 to NTFS. Converting. Convertion. NTFS is better in just about every way. I suggest Free Partition Magic alternative & free Partition Manager Software for Windows PC, Workstation and Server - EaseUS. to resize but make sure that you back up the entire hard drive first just in case.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 8.1 Industry Pro x64
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion Elite HPE-250f
    CPU
    Intel i7 860 Quad core 2.8 ghz
    Memory
    8 gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 5770 1 gb ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Alienware 25 AW2521HF
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080 &1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    1 TB x2
    Other Info
    https://www.cnet.com/products/hp-pavilion-elite-hpe-250f/
  • Operating System
    Windows 2012 R2 Data center/Linux Mint
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Poweredge T140
    CPU
    i3 9100 3.6GHz, 8M cache, 4C/4T
    Memory
    8GB 2666MT/s DDR4 ECC UDIMM
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    1 TB & 360 GB x2
    Other Info
    https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/productdetailstxn/poweredge-t140?~ck=bt
Likewise you can set 7-zip working directory to Current using Menu Tools=>Options=>Folders. The temp files will be written in the same folder as the output.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion m9515y
    CPU
    Phenom X4 9850
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Some Radeon Cheapie with 512 MB Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    CRT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    750 GB SATA 3G
    2 SIIG Superspeed docks w/WD Caviar Black Sata II or III
Sorry still a bit confused. The XP partition is NTFS as shown on the screenshot.

I've also redirected the WinRar temp to another drive but can I just zap those in the temp folder? (currently 1.2Gb)

As per my original question I would dearly love to increase the size of the XP partition but need guidance on which partition to reduce first. This was the main reason for posting the Disk Management screenshot.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Simon
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    DELL XPS420
Hi,

I think the only way you are going to increase "K" is by moving disk drives about!

Shrink the space from the end of "C" (Next to "K") & then add the space to "K". Unfortunately you may need to mess about a bit to achieve your end game: -

  1. Back up "K" (Image)
  2. Shrink "C"
  3. Wipe & increase the size of the "K"
  4. Then recover "K" to the new sized drive.
Give it a go & come back to us. OK?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP-Pavilion m9280.uk-a
    CPU
    2.30 gigahertz AMD Phenom 9600 Quad-Core
    Motherboard
    ASUSTek Computer INC. NARRA3 3.02
    Memory
    3582 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory (4 Gig)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS NVIDIA Geforce GTS450
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition 7.1 Audio (HP drivers)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP w2408 24.0" (Dual monitor)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 * 1200, 1920 * 1200
    Hard Drives
    3*500 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
    Plus 2x USB (160Gig each) external HDD
    BluRay & DVD Weiters
    HL-DT-ST BD-RE GGW-H20L SCSI CdRom (Bluray RW) Device
    AlViDrv BDDVDROM SCSI CdRom (Blueray) Device
    TSSTcorp CDDVDW TS-H653N SCSI CdRom
    Internet Speed
    40 Meg
Actually Easus will do all that without wiping off anything. You can easily resize the paritions. But to increase K you'll have to decrease C. Of course there are risks so backup.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 8.1 Industry Pro x64
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion Elite HPE-250f
    CPU
    Intel i7 860 Quad core 2.8 ghz
    Memory
    8 gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 5770 1 gb ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Alienware 25 AW2521HF
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080 &1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    1 TB x2
    Other Info
    https://www.cnet.com/products/hp-pavilion-elite-hpe-250f/
  • Operating System
    Windows 2012 R2 Data center/Linux Mint
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Poweredge T140
    CPU
    i3 9100 3.6GHz, 8M cache, 4C/4T
    Memory
    8GB 2666MT/s DDR4 ECC UDIMM
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    1 TB & 360 GB x2
    Other Info
    https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/productdetailstxn/poweredge-t140?~ck=bt

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP-Pavilion m9280.uk-a
    CPU
    2.30 gigahertz AMD Phenom 9600 Quad-Core
    Motherboard
    ASUSTek Computer INC. NARRA3 3.02
    Memory
    3582 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory (4 Gig)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS NVIDIA Geforce GTS450
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition 7.1 Audio (HP drivers)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP w2408 24.0" (Dual monitor)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 * 1200, 1920 * 1200
    Hard Drives
    3*500 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
    Plus 2x USB (160Gig each) external HDD
    BluRay & DVD Weiters
    HL-DT-ST BD-RE GGW-H20L SCSI CdRom (Bluray RW) Device
    AlViDrv BDDVDROM SCSI CdRom (Blueray) Device
    TSSTcorp CDDVDW TS-H653N SCSI CdRom
    Internet Speed
    40 Meg
Many thanks

Will try. But do you know why disk management only allows me to reduce C by a few Mb when there's about 80Gb free?

If you want to try to non-destructively resize K: then don't use Disk Management. Use a 3rd party partition program such as Partition Wizard. Windows disk management cannot move the start of a system partition without hosing it. In other words, if you have free space to the right(in their diagrams) of a partition, you can expand it. But if you have free space to the left, it won't move a system partition.

If you don't have that much invested in the XP partition and are willing to reinstall, then just delete it. If you want to try to avoid reinstall, try Partition Wizard. Any time you play with partitions it's a good idea to back up the entire drive to an external.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion m9515y
    CPU
    Phenom X4 9850
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Some Radeon Cheapie with 512 MB Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    CRT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    750 GB SATA 3G
    2 SIIG Superspeed docks w/WD Caviar Black Sata II or III
Many thanks

Will try. But do you know why disk management only allows me to reduce C by a few Mb when there's about 80Gb free?

There are files in the way that windows won't move. It isn't all that useful compared to programs like Easus that will move the files before resizing the partition.
 
Last edited:

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 8.1 Industry Pro x64
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion Elite HPE-250f
    CPU
    Intel i7 860 Quad core 2.8 ghz
    Memory
    8 gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 5770 1 gb ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Alienware 25 AW2521HF
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080 &1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    1 TB x2
    Other Info
    https://www.cnet.com/products/hp-pavilion-elite-hpe-250f/
  • Operating System
    Windows 2012 R2 Data center/Linux Mint
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Poweredge T140
    CPU
    i3 9100 3.6GHz, 8M cache, 4C/4T
    Memory
    8GB 2666MT/s DDR4 ECC UDIMM
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    1 TB & 360 GB x2
    Other Info
    https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/productdetailstxn/poweredge-t140?~ck=bt
Hi

Used Easeus to reduce C by 10Gb and increase XP partition by 10Gb. All worked well except I now can't get into XP. (keeps freezing on the blue Windows XP screen.

Is this something to do with the drive letter? The XP partition was K but now it shos up as F in Windows Vista. Do I just need to reassign K to get it working again?

Vista works fine but that's no consolation as it took me ages to get XP up and running on my DELL XPS 420.

Thanks for your time.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    DELL XPS420
Just used Easeus to reassign drive letter back to K but still freezes when you select XP from the boot screen.

Beginning to panic now as I only increased the size of the XP partition, didn't delete anything.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    DELL XPS420
Hi,

Put the XP drive into safe mode & complete a boot cycle.

That should help the XP system become stable? that is now you have set the drive letters back to the correct ones.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP-Pavilion m9280.uk-a
    CPU
    2.30 gigahertz AMD Phenom 9600 Quad-Core
    Motherboard
    ASUSTek Computer INC. NARRA3 3.02
    Memory
    3582 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory (4 Gig)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS NVIDIA Geforce GTS450
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition 7.1 Audio (HP drivers)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP w2408 24.0" (Dual monitor)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 * 1200, 1920 * 1200
    Hard Drives
    3*500 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
    Plus 2x USB (160Gig each) external HDD
    BluRay & DVD Weiters
    HL-DT-ST BD-RE GGW-H20L SCSI CdRom (Bluray RW) Device
    AlViDrv BDDVDROM SCSI CdRom (Blueray) Device
    TSSTcorp CDDVDW TS-H653N SCSI CdRom
    Internet Speed
    40 Meg
Hi

Think there may be a problem here. The boot menu only gives me an F8 menu option if I choose Vista not XP. Is there another way of getting to the safe mode in XP in these circumstances.

I bloody annoyed now, only at myself. I hate Vista and used XP for 99% of my needs and now I can't access it. I just don't see how the hell increasing the size of an existing partition could cause this glitch.

Dire straits.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    DELL XPS420
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