If the drive is partitioned into maybe drives C: and D: then I dont understand why you cant just move "My Documents" as a whole  to drive D: if there is enough space

Sounds like your cueewbt drive C: is clogged up, this could be freed off in a few ways, 1st being clearing the temp internet cache, then backing up photo's , music and pictures.  or even buy an external USB hard drive backing all your work and private files up to it.

I think the 1720 does allow fitting a second hard drive, cant see the point myself, just fit a bigger drive and reinstall, but had an extra partition regardless.

Mr Skrunts wrote on 04. Apr 2011 at 17:31:


http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1720/en/om_en/pdf/DT5494MR.pdf

Looking at this manual I agree, it certainly looks like it has two bays.  However, based on the OP description it would probably be cheaper to clean up the current drive / repartion it and make better use of the existing space.

If C: is only 30gb used, then your best and easiest bet would be as Mr Skunts says, and move all your personal / work files onto the non-used partition.  This is generally how they are designed to be used, C: for programs other drive for file storage etc.  However Windows being helpful as it is, defaults to putting everything on the C: drive!

With your C: drive being that full it will also likely be impacting on your overall system performance.

According to the specs I can find it comes with Windows Vista, is this correct?  Worth asking as if its a company machine they may have stuck something else on it.  With a confirmed operating system I am sure I (or someone) can come up with a step by step process to move the documents.

By default, Dell do not partition their drives (they keep small hidden partitions for system restores and diags), so I'd suggest some idiot has buggered about with that one.

160 gb is not a small disk imo(check your partition sizes from my computer - right click - manage- disk management)..there are many ways to solve your problem..

first, as said above clean temporary files and internet cache.. write your mp3 ,video files,documents to a dvd or cd..

from control panel > add remove programs check for your unused programs and uninstall them..

if all those dont help, repartition and format ..

amba wrote on 04. Apr 2011 at 18:38:


moving capacity isnt possible unless you re-partition and format.. try cleaning and uninstalls first imo..

cem wrote on 04. Apr 2011 at 19:11:


You can, but it can only be done from an extended partition back to the primary, it can't be done from a logical partition, so it will all depend on how the drive partitioning has been done.  Unfortunately, I would expect any partitions to be logical which would need a format and reinstall to reallocate the space 

@amba: According to the Dell Service Tag that machine should have a 250gb hard drive in it.  If you go into Disk Management as described in the guide below or just click Start then type disk management into the run box it should give you one option which says create and format hard disk partitions.  Click that, a new window will open, give it a moment to gather system information.

When open, it should list all the disk and/or partitions, something a bit like this:

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.theeldergeek.com/images/Disk%25...

but hopefully less complex haha.  Anything listed next to Disk 0 are partitions of your primary hard disk, I would expect it to only have a disk 0 (if there is only 1 physical hard drive), if it has a disk 1 aswell then you already have 2 hard drives in it.

The bit that is listed as Hard Drive C: and shaded, is your primary boot drive.  You might have a Dell Recovery partition on there aswell.  Anything else that is listed as a 'Logical Drive' is effectively storage area partitioned off from the main drive.  Would be useful to see what you have listed there.