I need to swap my hard dr.I have c: dr. & e: dr. c: dr. has 18 gb space an e: has 80 gb space. how do I swap?

Answer 1

you need to set your programs to be able to save to E drive you cant just swap them

Answer 2

There is no such thing as connecting a hard drive to a letter designate. On all computers when a hard drive is connected it is always designated as the "C" drive. The C is the letter designated for the hard drive. The "E" drive is the CD or DVD drive or both if you have a CD/DVD drive combo. Also, on computers that have a Floppy disk drive, that drive is the A drive. The hard drive can only be connected one way in the PC. When it is installed and connected properly it becomes the C drive.

Answer 3

What do you mean by "swap"...are you saying you actually want to physically change their location? And why?

** Swapping Drives **

If you really want to physically switch them, it's not hard. Go to the website of the manufacturer of each drive and get their proper instructions on setting the jumpers (this tells the OS which is master and which is slave..."master" is where Windows needs to go). The Western Digital site had 3 conflicting sets of diagrams, and I thought they were all wrong. If you have problems, call the manufacturer. Sometimes, even when everything is right, you have to restart a half-dozen or more times (that happened to me).

You need a flat place to work, like a table. Ideally, you will not stand on a carpet. Once you have your computer case open, commit to frequently "ground" yourself by touching a metal part of the chassis (frame). Even better, get one of these wristbands you can wear -- you clip one end to the chassis, keeping yourself grounded. Even a small static charge can zap a CPU or a chip, destroying it. I always wash my hands first -- no matter what you try not to touch, you will, and you probably will not harm anything if you have washed the oil off your skin.

You will need to unhook the ribbon cables and power cables from your drives (you might as well leave the other ends connected to the motherboard) and swap your drives and re-plug them. Depending on your chassis and how much space you have inside your case, you may need to ** NOT ** screw those drives back in until you are sure things are hooked up properly.

I would even only use one, easy-to-reach screw (if any) and be sure you get the drives working, then open the case back up and screw them in the way they should be. It is a ROYAL PAIN-IN-THE-BUT to redo them 12 times, TRUST ME!

** Or, Instead of Swapping Drives **

Right now, your "master" drive is the smaller one. (So I assume, because you say it is drive "c".) As long as you do Disk Cleanup every 1-2 weeks and Defragment every month or so, you should be fine with Windows on the small drive (more often if you constantly add and delete big files).

Right now, I have a 30G and a 120G. I was using almost all my 30G before, and I must have cleaned a lot of junk out when I added the 2nd hard drive, because now my total usage of both is only about 13-14G.

I have Windows installed on my c: drive (the 30G, which is the "Master"). Windows and installed software and associated settings, Registry, all data on this drive still only totals 6.something G. This is even with Apache webserver, MySQL database engine (though the database itself I moved elsewhere), PHP programming language, and many editors for webpages, graphics, and word processing installed.

All my "data" is on my 120G drive, which I partitioned into 1 for all my personal files, 1 for my newer websites I am building or any pages that require PHP and/or MySQL, and 1 for my Slackware Linux installation. I have a lot of graphics, too, in the personal files drive, though they are not large. My actual databases are here, too.

What you probably want is Windows and all installed software on drive c, and any games, documents, videos, pictures, database files, etc on drive e.

By seperating your software from your data, you actually gain performance, because your system can read/write both drives at the same time. So the operating system can respond to software actions more quickly because the file operations are happening on the opposite drive.

Back up all your data.

Back up the installation programs for your software or write down the websites where you can re-download them (unless you have them on CD and they won't need to be updated all over again).

Reformat the large drive.

Make a new folder on the large drive for your documents.

Tell Windows to use that folder as your "home" folder, so to speak.

*** You need to be logged in as administrator to do most of that ***

I can access "Computer Managment" through the "Start" menu, "Administrative Tools", "Computer Management"...I forget if I actually created the shortcut there, let me see my textbook...

Ok, actually, the default Console will give you access to what you need. Click "Start", "Run", and enter "mmc" (and hit Enter).

Click "Local Users and Groups", then "Users". Right-click your regular user account (hopefully you have set yourself a regular account, that is safer for everyday use, less full-system access to crackers if someone gets into your system). Click "Properties". Click the "Profile" tab.

Make sure "Local Path" is selected, and type the full path to the folder you want to be your "home" folder, including the drive letter. This is easier if you AVOID SPACES IN FOLDERNAMES. Example:

e:\MyStuff

Put something in that folder, like a picture.

Restart your computer. Log on as that user. Go to it and verify you can access it. Also, try the "My Documents" shortcut, it should re-direct you to that folder. If not, you can always delete it and create a shortcut on your desktop.

Once it works fine, you can delete the old folder.

I also delete all those Windows wallpapers that are space-hogs. If you have pictures you particularly like (including your own), you can store them anywhere, including your home folder. I actually changed where the "My Pictures" shortut pointed to (a folder called "Pics" in my home folder), and deleted the original "My Pictures" folder...now the "My Pictures" folder shortcut redirects me to e:\myname\Pics

------------ CORRECTING ERROR IN ANOTHER ANSWER ----------
"There is no such thing as connecting a hard drive to a letter designate..."

That is incorrect. Computers can have multiple drives. The only drive letter you cannot change is C:, and sometimes A: or B:...but ususally just C:

The C: letter-designation is a shorcut to ** whichever drive is connected to the master drive interface and proper jumper settings **....it has nothing to do with a particular actual drive.

Yes, whichever is the "master" (will show up as C:) must be the one where Windows resides. Linux is not so picky.

*** In the "Disk Management" console, the same place you partition your drives, you can rename them. I have my CD-ROM drive as "W", for example. (Why? I don't know...but I like my hard drives to be lettered in order...so I left "room to grow".)

Answer 4

You can't really swap them - your C drive most likely is your boot drive and has Windows installed on it. Save your files and music and videos and whatnot to your larger E drive and keep your C for Windows and programs.

Answer 5

what do you want to swap them for you will be back in the same position with just the letters change I can see no sense in doing it why would you want to change smething in to some thing you all ready have

Answer 6

you mean you want to swap size you can use partition magic software to resize the partition