2 Hard Drives In My Laptop.

[joko]

my new laptop is 500gb - and that is split into 2 drives, labelled OS and Data.

I assume this is this as simple as it seems - one is to contain the OS and the other for all my personal stuff ... but I just wondered, because the OS one is quite a bit larger than seems necessary (at least so far) to run the OS and the programs (200gb)

and it also is the drive where documents, video, pictures, music and downloads and desktop are automatically saved to, where the libraries are etc ... which makes it a bit awkward to keep all my stuff together in order etc.

DATA is more or less like an external HD that is permanently attached!
It doesn't seem to integrate much with the OS one in normal usage...

so I wondered, is there a simpler way to manage these two drives? any tips?

Can i alter the defaults etc? move the libraries etc...? or do i have to just move things manually as and when?

what other stuff am I best storing in the OS drive?

(its an asus x54c. win 7, intel pentium B960, 2.2ghz)

Thanks

[Buenchico]

To be pedantic, your laptop hasn't got two hard drives. It's got one hard drive which appears to be split into two partitions (or one partition with a virtual drive on it).

Usually you can treat the two 'drives' as if they're just very big folders (each of which is, of course, full of sub-folders). All you need to do is set the relevant programs to use your required default settings. For example, if your browser is located on 'Drive C' it will save all images, videos, programs and other downloaded files to a default folder on 'Drive C' unless you tell it otherwise by going into 'Options' (in Internet Explorer or Firefox) or 'Settings' (in Chrome). You can either specify a default folder on 'Drive D' or, as I would do, select the 'ask me where to store files every time' option.

Similarly your word processing program will probably have an option allowing you to specify the default location for saving files (or it will simply offer the last-used location as the 'first choice' when saving files).

It might be a bit fiddly at first but, once you've set up the defaults for each program (or they've memorised the last-used locations as being on Drive D) you'll have no further problems.

My own choice would be to keep data which is regularly called upon by programs (such as fonts) on the OS drive (which I've referred to as 'C', above) and to keep files created just for use (such as documents, images, videos, etc) on the other drive ('D' in my example).

Chris

[Wak]

Joko, a little word of warning!
My grandson has a laptop set up the same as yours and it was so full that it only left him with 1GB of operating space on the C: drive.
Being helpful, I moved his personal stuff on to the D: drive but unfortunately he didn't tell me about his paid-for songs from I-Tunes which, apparently, once moved or copied cannot be played again and have to be re-bought if you still want them.
So, if you do move your personal files on to the D: drive, DON'T MOVE YOUR I-TUNE STUFF.
I understand that there is a file on APPLE which may help you in this direction but I haven't seen it as I don't have or need I-Tunes on my comp.