My laptop hardrive is full. What to do?
 

Is there a way for me to buy a new harddrive and transfer all my programs and files from the old to the new one? I have a lot of programs on this one (obviously because the drive is full :D ) and don't even have access to the install disks of some any more. I would hate to have to start from scratch with a blank drive.

Any advice is most welcomed :-:

Is it programs or files that are filling it up, if it is files I could get a USB connected external hard drive and archive some stuff off

Yes, you can purchase a bigger hard drive and purchase a 2.5" usb enclosure. Put the bigger drive in the enclosure, plug it in the usb port and copy everything to the new drive. When you are done, swap them and you will have a spare usb backup drive.

:) thats what I would do.

You can buy a USB connected external hard drive. Move your data (not programs) to the new drive.
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13F

Thanks all.

I actually have an external USB drive, but there is a lot of data that I need to sit on the PC. Furthermore, about 30 of my 40 gigs is taken up by software.

So, is it really that simple as to transfer the entire contents of the old drive to a new drive, and then plug the new drive in? and discard the old one? I won't have to reinstall anything? This seems too good to be true.

You'll want to buy the enclosure and a put the bigger drive in it, then mirror your old drive onto the new one. There are programs to do it for you, I think one is called ghost or something. I'm about to do the same thing as soon as I find a good deal on a drive.

You're right ... it's too good to be true cos it ain't. Norton Ghost (for example) can do what you need, that is, make a bit-for-bit copy of the old drive onto a new drive.

I suggest you buy a large (in GB, still 2.5" physical size) external USB drive, and use Ghost to copy your existing drive entirely to the new drive. Then pull the new drive out of its enclosure, and install it into the PC. Boot up and you should be good to go.

Benefit: you can put the old drive in the external enclosure and you've got a new external 40GB drive.

Thanks to all. You guys are great :-:

This still seems pretty straight forward though. So, 2 more questions if you don't mind.

1) will any 2.5" drive work? or will I have to be more careful and look for more detailed specifications (sorry if this is an ignorant question)

2) are there any free programs that will do what I need Norton ghost to do?

:-: :-: :-:

There is software / enclosure bundles like this out there

http://www.bixnet.com/ezdattrankit.html

$50 or so gets you the enclosure and the software to do the copy, all you need is the drive.

Enclosures all by themselves can be had for $10 to 20 or so.

Make sure it's at least 5400rpm. 7200rpm drives will provide better performance but will also use more power. 4200 rpm drives are pretty slow.

You might like to consider the Hitachi Notebook Upgrade Kit. The upgrade kit consists of a 5400 RPM 40, 60, 80 or 100 GB capacity hard drive, instructions, Drive Cloning and Upgrade software, a hard drive enclosure, and cables. Everything you need, really.

I have seen them at Fry's but don't recall the price.

There was actually just another thread on this as well, with pros and cons of some of the drive options out there. You might want to look that one up, too.

As others have recommended, get a larger hard drive and an external enclosure. I like Acronis True Image as a software package to clone your old hard drive onto the new disk. You can subsequently use Acronis to back up your disk.

If you want to do a clean install of windoze, and then reinstall all your software, you won't need software like Acronis True Image.

For some quick space clearing, you may want to clean out your Temp directory(ies), delete internet pages, and empty recycle bins (apologies if those are so obvious they didn't need to be mentioned).

Earlier, I was trying to figure out why I had such a big gap between the gigs shown as used on the drive and the gigs used by each directory. I finally figured out that a fairly large chunk of the drive (>10%) was taken up by System Restore files. While those are there for a reason, if you don't need all of them, you may want selectively delete some of these.

Along the lines of trying to make the most of existing space:

You can adjust the settings of system restore to use a lot less space (e.g., 2%) than what it uses by default and that should free up some space;

and to delete temp files and many other unnecessary files, there is a freeware program called CCleaner that does it for you and, depending on your situation, running it might free up a fair amount of space.

For purchasing new laptop drives, check out ZipZoomFly.com http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...oryCode=110905 and
Newegg.com http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/Su...op-Hard-Drives