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From: Curby on 15 Mar 2010 09:08
I recently did a system restore and now my C drive has only 2Gb memory and my
D drive has 40G, but the system won't utilize the D drive and therefore I
keep running low on memory and can not run any programs (I only have 60MB of
memory)) ???
From: Paul on 15 Mar 2010 10:06
Curby wrote:
> I recently did a system restore and now my C drive has only 2Gb memory and my
> D drive has 40G, but the system won't utilize the D drive and therefore I
> keep running low on memory and can not run any programs (I only have 60MB of
> memory)) ???

There are free tools for resizing disk partitions. No matter whether you use
a free tool, or a commercial tool like Partition Magic, make sure your disk data
is *backed up* first. The operation you attempt with tools like this, can fail,
and if this is your only copy of some data, you might have nothing left. I've
heard of this tool ruining at least one partition, so it happens.

http://www.partition-tool.com/easeus-partition-manager/help/resizing-and-moving-partition.htm

*******

A good question would be, how did this happen in the first place ?

If these are all primary partitions (i.e. the partition entries are in the
MBR sector), this tool will be able to list the sizes of the partitions,
their starting location and so on. It could be, that some tool you used
in the past, has put the entries in the partition table in the wrong order,
and the automated restoration ended up writing to the wrong partition as
a result.

PTEDIT32 for Windows
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip

In this example, there are three primary partitions, and they're in order. The
first entry is at the beginning of the disk. The third is near the end of the disk.
If two of these entries got swapped, nothing bad happens. It is just that some
tools don't handle such a situation properly. Some tools might assume that the
first partition is always their "C:" for example. And that could result in
a mixup and your situation, with the restore going into the small partition.

PTEDIT32 screenshot
http://www.vistax64.com/attachments/vista-installation-setup/7308d1224108918-hidden-partiton-recovery-dell-xps-420-dell-tbl.gif

I've never used PTEDIT32 to make changes. I only use it for verifying what is
going on. I make actual changes to the table with a Linux LiveCD (because at
that point in time, Windows is not running, and no file systems are "live").
I've never bothered to test whether PTEDIT32 can edit the MBR and make changes
or not. In any case, don't change anything in the PTEDIT32 window, as you
could easily lose data that way. I use the tool as a convenient way to
observe the four primary partitions listed in the MBR sector, and that is
all I do with it.

You don't need to use PTEDIT32 at all, and you can just use a partition
resizing tool to fix the problem. But it could be, that if you go to
restore the system a year from now, the same thing could happen, for
the same reasons.

HTH,
Paul
From: Ken Blake, MVP on 15 Mar 2010 16:24
On Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:08:01 -0700, Curby
<Curby(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> I recently did a system restore and now my C drive has only 2Gb memory and my
> D drive has 40G, but the system won't utilize the D drive and therefore I
> keep running low on memory and can not run any programs (I only have 60MB of
> memory)) ???


Several points and questions for you:

1. The word "memory" refers to the thing that you probably have
somewhere between 256-MB and 1GB of--RAM (Random Access Memory). You
are undoubtedly talking about Disk Space, not memory. Please don't
call it by the wrong name, because if you do, you run the risk of
confusing those of us who are trying to help you, and therefore
getting wrong answers from us.

2. Are your C and D drives physically separate drives or two
partitions on your only physical drive? If partitions, did you create
the partitions, or did the drive come that way when you bought the
computer.

3. You say that C only has 2GB, but I assume that by that you mean
that it only has 2GB *available*. How big is it in total? You say that
D has 40GB. Is that its total size or its free size (or both).

4. You say the system won't utilize the D drive. It *will* utilize it,
but it does so only when you direct it to do so. Whenever you save a
file, it saves it where you tell it to put it.

5. You say you "recently did a system restore." Please clarify exactly
how you did it. Also tell us why you did it.

6. How much free space did C have before doing the system restore? How
much free space did it have immediately after doing the system
restore? How long did it take to go from that amount of free space to
what you have free now?

7. One of the very likely situations that resulted in filling up much
of the drive is a malware infection. So please tell us what anti-virus
program you run, and what anti-spyware programs you run. Are they kept
up to date?

Please answer all the questions above, and it will then be much easier
to help you.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
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From: Ben Myers on 16 Mar 2010 11:27
"Curby" <Curby(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:A89E56F4-D5D5-46C5-A54A-89D35732250B(a)microsoft.com...
> I recently did a system restore and now my C drive has only 2Gb memory and my
> D drive has 40G, but the system won't utilize the D drive and therefore I
> keep running low on memory and can not run any programs (I only have 60MB of
> memory)) ???

Please describe the system restore you performed, including whether or not
a reformat was involved. Also, you may need to upgrade your memory.
Windows XP requires 64 megabytes of memory.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314865

Ben
From: Ken Blake, MVP on 16 Mar 2010 14:33
On Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:27:49 -0400, "Ben Myers"
<benjmyers(a)REMOVEmindspring.com> wrote:

> "Curby" <Curby(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:A89E56F4-D5D5-46C5-A54A-89D35732250B(a)microsoft.com...
> > I recently did a system restore and now my C drive has only 2Gb memory and my
> > D drive has 40G, but the system won't utilize the D drive and therefore I
> > keep running low on memory and can not run any programs (I only have 60MB of
> > memory)) ???
>
> Please describe the system restore you performed, including whether or not
> a reformat was involved. Also, you may need to upgrade your memory.
> Windows XP requires 64 megabytes of memory.


How much memory you need for Windows XP depends on what apps you run.
But despite Microsoft's stated minimums, 64MB is *way* too little for
anyone who does any more than play solitaire. The amount needed is
256MB or more.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
Please Reply to the Newsgroup
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