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Winrar says not enough space, but I see 200 gigs.

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Zewt

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Joined
Sep 8, 2005
Location
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First off, I hope I'm not committing a sin, seeing as how this might be better discussed in the OS forum. I'll take a chance, though.

Okay. FIrst off, I'll list my partitions and the space each of them have.

C:\ - 17mb free
D:\ - 200gigs free

Here's the dilemma. I have a flash drive that has a 1gb file stored on it. I want to take that file and transfer it to D:\ (200 gigs free). Half way through the extraction process, Winrar gives me an error saying that there is not enough disk space to complete the operation.

I'm dumbfounded at this point, because even though I'm transferring to a drive with ample free space, I get this is dumb error. The only partition on my hard drive that doesn't have enough space is C. This leads me to believe that for some reason the file is temporarily stored in the C drive. Am I an idiot, or is windows just overly complicated sometimes?

Atm, there is no way for me to delete anything of a big enough size from C. I am using XP 32bit while there's a fully loaded Vista folder on C as well. For some reason, even though I'm not using it, Windows won't let me delete the Vista crap.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
Uhmm..with windows you definetly need more than 17mb of free space. At least 2 gigs with win 2k/XP. This is for, swap files, temporary folders and just windows in general.

Move some stuff from your C drive to your D drive. Or resize your C & D drive and make your C drive bigger. Defrag both and then try again.
 
Shelnutt2: Alright sir, that sounds easy enough. How might I go about augmenting my C: drive? I have plenty of free space to do it.
 
Have you ran Disk Cleanup(under System Tools) recently? Could be a couple hundred MB available after running it.
 
Canyone here recommend a good, as well as free, partion resizer?

Every one I have tried does not work, for one reason or another.

Partition Manager
Partition Magic
Partition Resizer

I only ask this because all of the suggestions, thus far, have yielded no results.
 
You can change the temp folder location in WinRAR's settings.

I've used the livecd for GParted on NTFS partitions successfully. However, it may be difficult to resize yours if you have two partitions on one big disk with a lot of data in both. You can try this tool, but as always, nobody will give you any guarantees about the safety of your data.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/gparted/
 
You can change the temp folder location in WinRAR's settings.

that can, and will work....for a short time.

It will allow you to do this with Winrar files, But if you try to copy/paste any other file larger than 17 megs, or try to extract something, and if the target location is somewhere in the C: Drive, then you will run into the exact same problem.

1st, I'd clean out the C: Drive. Delete stuff that you arn't using anymore.

2nd, Organize. If you have alot of video's..etc.. slap them all into one folder, with an appropriate name, and then move that folder somewhere on the D: Drive. Do this with the majority of your media.

Then uninstall any old games/programs you arn't using anymore.

Then do a Defrag on both the C: and D: Drives.

By freeing up space on the C: Drive, it will allow the HDD's to find the windows data faster, and easier. As it won't have to scan through gig after gig of non-windows based files.

Also, if for some reason your C: Drive dies on you, or you get a crap load of Spyware, or a virus and need to do a clean install, all your files will be on the D: Drive, and thus you won't have to worry about backing up. The great thing about moving stuff NOW, is that when you need to re-do windows...generally you are in a hurry, and tend to miss some files. And then you want to kick yourself later, realizing that you just deleted those files during the format.

Personally, i NEVER install anything onto my C drive if it doesn't have to go there.

I created a /program files folder within my D: drive. EVERYTHING gets installed on the D: Drive. If it gives me an option as to where to install it...D: Drive it goes. Only system critical stuff goes onto the C: Drive. Can't think of what...but my line of thinking is this.... If it gives you the option, then its not *NEEDED* on the C: Drive. If it doesn't give you the option, then most likely it *NEEDS* to be on the C: Drive.

This way, i never lose ANYTHING during a Clean install, And windows stays fast for a MUCH MUCH longer time. And the C: drive stays very quick as well. Also, if its a slightly older HDD, then having as little on it will also help prolong its life, due to less seek times, and less activity to find what it needs.

Yes, I am anal-retentive about my C: Drive...but it keeps windows running Quick for a much longer period of time, and keeps the chances of corrupting windows to a minimum, and helps prolong the life span of the Hard Drive.
 
I know it's an old post, but just thought I'd help clear this one up..

Sorry if it's sounding patronising, but for other peoples' sakes, I'll run through it..

1 - dos prompt
Start-Run- and type 'cmd' hit okay

2 type 'set' and check stuff..
you'll have a listing for TEMP= and TMP= pointing to the documents & settings folder..
we gotta change this, since winrar seems to ignore the temp setting it was given..

3- lets say there's plenty space on your D drive...
type the following:
set TEMP=d:\temp\
set TMP=d:\temp\
md d:\temp\

The first two will change the temp for *this console and anything opened by it only, and only untill you open it next time!*

K that done, we wanna find winrar and launch it from this console...
lets say it was in a folder d:\inst\winrar\
type
d:
cd inst
cd winrar
winrar.exe

winrar should open up, with the new envrionment variables for this session only
go File->Open, and open your archive..

Extract at your leisure :)

Of course, you could actually change your windows temp folder completely....
Right click on your My computer Icon, and hit Properties..
goto 'Advanced' tab
hit the Environment Variables button at the bottom
change the values for TEMP and TMP under user variables, and system if you want.
dont change anything else, please :)
(you may only have one of the two tmp/temp)

Anyway, apply the changes, and windows will store its junk elsewhere :)

Goodluck :)
 
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