Help! OS partition filling up and Partition Magic can't resize it.

[idiosyncratic]

When I installed Windoze 2000 Pro about 15 months ago, I created separate partitions for the OS, Program Files, Data, Photos, etc.

I thought I made the C:\ drive large enough at 3 Gigabytes, because I was not going to install any programs on that partition. Programs were going to go on the D:\ partition. All my data goes on the E:\ partition.

When I ran defrag the other night, I found out the C:\ drive only has 9% free space. All these Windows Updates, that apparently download in the background, are filling up the partition. Since I rarely log on as Administrator, I'm not even sure how many of these I have actually installed . . .

So, I ran Partition Magic to resize the partition, but it returned an error. I'm not sure if the error was related to the lack of free space, or what, but I haven't had problems with resizing partitions before.

Can I delete some of these folders that all begin with, for example, $NtUninstallKB84 . . . ?

There are 25 of these . . . Then there is another one that starts with $MS131Uninstall_KB . . .

This old Pentium III 600 Mhz computer functions perfectly. I use Opera 8 as my browser, Zone Alarm as my Firewall, and my AVG Antivirus is very up-to-date. I have two 40 GB hard drives.

TIA for any help you can offer . . .

[hobbit709]

1. Clean out all the temp files but

3 gigs isn't really big enough. You really should have 10 gigs in your OS partition. I have 15gigs and using 5 on my C: partition even though I have a total of 290 gigs on my system. The problem with putting your programs on another partition is that Windoze still copies a lot of the files into C: because it wants it there.

[idiosyncratic]

4. Thanks. I learned that the hard way. I'll make it much bigger when

I can get Partition Magic to work.

I really haven't had a problem with my Programs on the D:\ drive. It is just those frequent, huge, usually unnecessary (since I don't use IE or Outlook Express) Windows Updates that caused this problem. :mad:

[FormerDittoHead]

2. My thoughts...

Yes, you should feel free to delete the update/uninstall directories, providing everything is otherwise working.

The other thing that I'd check would be the location of your swap file(s). You could simply relocate the swap file to another partition (or create multiple ones across partitions). That may save you 250 megs right there off C:.

Once you get some 'breathing room' you should be able to run partition magic, it's a pretty robust program...

The only real advantage I see to creating a small OS partition and keep it separated from program files is if you're using Ghost or some other drive(partition) backup / restore program, then by all means you should be doing this, but your limit should be increased to the size of a DVD, and so feel free to increase its size to 4.3 gigs once you can run Partition Magic.

[idiosyncratic]

3. Thanks. I moved some of those folders to my E:\ drive

I had forgotten I had created a sub-folder for earlier ones quite a while ago. I moved those and think I might have enough "breathing room" to run Partition Magic now.

My Swap File is in a separate partition.

I used Drive Image right after I did the clean install of this setup. That program saved me lots of time and work a few years ago when the OS got corrupted.

Thanks again for your help.

[Jersey Devil]

5. Get CCleaner (free) and clean up your partition

and then run Partition Magic.

http://www.ccleaner.com/