UKC

I've got an external expansion drive on my PC(which is nearly full(mainly backups) and, in addition to the normal hard drive (C) there is also a "D:"(Data) drive which I've never been sure as to what its function is. It's virtually empty.
Can this drive(D) be used as normal "storage"?

In reply to mypyrex:

Yes, you can use it as storage. D: is probably internal to the computer rather than anything to do with the external drive. The most likely explanation is that your computer has a single internal drive but the manufacturer of your computer set it up to be split into two sections, "C:" and "D:". It's likely that D: has more storage space than C: so you should have plenty of space once you start using it.

In reply to Luke90:


Thanks. Just wondered why it was labelled "Data"

In reply to mypyrex:

possibly because the manufacturers expected you to store your data there

My office PC is set up like that with the hard disk 'partitioned' into C (with the operating system & other programs) and D for 'data' - documents, spreadsheets, databases, photos, GIS files, music, etc. Presumably there is some advantage to splitting the hard disk in this way as it seems quite common.

In reply to mypyrex:

All the stuff you're thinking about storing on it would probably be considered "data". It's not an uncommon label and exactly the kind of term a geek might use to describe that part of the drive.

In reply to Doug:

One advantage can be that that it makes backups and restores easier to manage. For example, I use one backup solution for my files, which does that job particularly well and a separate program for backups of my OS and programs. If you want to transfer just your data to a new PC, you know exactly where to find it without having to fiddle around with which folders are needed and which are just OS files. If there's a problem with your OS or programs, you can easily wipe just that section of the drive and restore from backup without having to worry about losing your personal documents etc.

In reply to mypyrex:
PC storage space?

That would be a police station.

In reply to Timmd:



Quite arresting!

In reply to mypyrex:


I always set any PC I won like this, in fact I usually partition the drive to three partitions, C: = Operating system, D= Data and E:= Installed programs

Partitioning this way means I can do daily back ups of my data, very easily, by simply imaging the whole of D drive, other drives can be imaged / backed up much less frequently.

The only problem with this is some programs insist on storing program data in the C:Userxxx folders.