Whats the difference between the C-drive & the D-drive??

Question

just looked and my "c" drive is nearly full and the "d" drive seems to have nothing on it, so cud i use it to store movies and music..etc

Answer 1

As said by all, your C drive is your initial "boot" drive, and it's prolly just a single, large partition (i.e. space to put things on), and your D drive is likely your DVD-ROM.

So - while looking at the "My Computer" page in explorer, stick a CD/DVD of any kind in the drive and see if the title changes to the name of the disc (just slam a film in the drive, really).

If it doesn't and you now get to access your CD/DVD on a different letter (E:. F:, whatever) then you have the D drive to fill with stuff.

Answer 2

These days the C drive is the partition on your hard drive that contains your operating system, any software that came pre-installed and that you have installed and all documents.

The D drive is the 2nd partition on the Hard Drive where the manufacturer has provided a "Backup" of all the software and drivers that came on your computer when you first took it out of the box.  This is referred to as your "Recovery Partition".

Rather than sending out Recovery CD's or all that "Software" on seperate CD's they have instead created this partiton so that you can recover your computer if Windows ever crashes.

You can not copy anything to this drive.  Even if it looks like you can in Windows, if you ever try to access that information it will be gone.

If you are running out of space on your hard drive and since this is a notebook/laptop computer I would suggest either burning CD/DVD's of your data that you don't use or getting an external Hard Drive to do the same.

Answer 3

I'm going to guess that you have a typical store bought type of computer. This would be a single hard drive with either a cd or dvd drive. Most of the recent computers in the last few years, have either a cd/rw or a dvd/rw drive. These drives are for transferring whatever you want to save to either blank CD's or DVD's.

When windows boots up it assigns a drive letter to any drives you have. For instance if you have a 3.5 inch floppy drive it usually assigns it to A, B is for a second floppy if your puter has one. C is assigned to the first hard drive and normally your cd or dvd drive is D. If you have a second hard drive it would be most likely assigned E, etc.

So to answer your question I would say that you would want to copy your music, video, picture and other documents to a cd or dvd. then after checking that the files are on the cd/dvd then delete them from your C drive. This will free up some space on it.

Another option is to buy a larger hard drive and install it for storing your files. You can buy either an internal or an external drive, I might suggest the external one for ease of use and portability. The external one generally will plug into a USB port and your windows will assign it a drive letter just  like it does for your other drives. Likely it will be drive E if you only have one hard drive and one cd/dvd drive. You can then tell your puter to store your files there when you download them. usually a window will pop up asking where you want to store your download. just choose the new drive and that should do it.

This info is pretty general. You can also look on the website for the brand of comp that you own for more info on your system.

Answer 4

Your "c" drive will have all your progams, operating system and everything else on it. Yes you can move your music and movies onto your "d" drive but you will have to create a shortcut in your main music folder to get to your music on your "d" drive. I had to do this on my sisters laptop a while ago so i hope this helps.

Answer 5

C drive is the hard drive, where everything on the computer is stored. D drive is the CD drive, where you can see the contents of a CD when you insert one.

Answer 6

thee letter before the word drive

Answer 7

yes, its an extended partition you even use it as a backup.

Answer 8

Yeah sure go for it. C drive is just your primary one.  

Answer 9

We cant tell you dude, we dont have enough information.

C drive is always a hard drive.

D drive can be another partition of the same hard drive (basicially you take your hard drive and split it in two, making C drive and D drive)

D drive can be another hard drive (you have two hard drives in your computer, C is the first hard drive, D is the second)

D drive can be your DVD and or CD player.  (you put DVDs or CDs into D drive)

Soooooooo.....is D drive listed under hard drive or removable storage?  if its listed under hard drive, you can cut and paste files from c to d

If D is listed under removable media, its your dvd player, and no, you cant.  Get a bigger hard drive.

Answer 10

It depends on what D:\ drive is. C is your primary (default) partition of the hard drive, D may be a second partition of the same hard drive, or it could be another hardware device, such as DVD-RW drive.

A hard drive may be partitioned (split up) into many smaller drives and each will have their own drive letter. If this is the case on your system you may store whatever you wish on the drive.

Also, it may be a second hard drive, (secondary hard drive) and if so you may store whatever you wish there.

Answer 11

C: drive is your hard drive

D:drive id your CD/DVD drive

Answer 12

Your C Drive is your computers regular hard drive.  

Your D Drive is your CD R/DVD ROM and or DVD-R or +R if you have it.

If you are looking to store your movies and etc since your running out of room you are going to have to purchase an external hard drive.  This will become your E drive.

I ran into this same problem and was forced to purchase an Iomega Hard Drive. 160 GB of space and is USB and regular outlet powered. I bought this at Radioshack for $105.00 with my state tax.  

Either that or research virtual drives which will act like an external hard drive but taken from your RAM and most likely takes up only 25 MB of space on your regular C Drive.  Here are some links the pay alternative depending on the product you will only really have to pay anywhere form $22-$25.00. All in all your saving $75.00 from going to a store and paying around $100.00.  But again it's all your personal choice.

http://www.farstone.com/software/virtual...

http://www.download.com/Virtual-Hard-Dri...

My Iomega works flawlessly and I'd strongly recommend that to you since it has 160GB of space on it.  I've never used a Virtual Hard Drive before so I'd also recommend doing hard research and way the pro's and con's before you make a decision on what would suit you best.

I hope this helps you out!  

Answer 13

I depends. Your hard drive could have been split up into two different drives, and the E drive could then the the CD drive in it. However, you did not mention another drive, so then the D drive is probably your CD/DVD drive.

Answer 14

You will get gigs back, do this....

Disk clean-up > more options tab > delete system restore points WAIT untill the ok button returns cuz it takes a while

Answer 15

Lets try to clear this up a bit. :)

Drive letters are used to distinguish one drive / partition thereof from another on your computer examples:

Hard Drives in the machine or partitions of said

CD / DVD drives

Floppy Disk drive

USB Sticks

Flash card readers

Some other external devices or partitions of said

Generally, any storage media inside your machine and some non networked devices.

Assignment of letters is usually - but not always as follows:

A and B for floppy drives

C for your primary Hard Disk / partition - this most often contains your operating system - such as Wndows

D.......Z are for further devices

Networked devices can be addressed through network IP address or mapped to a letter. My network Hard Disk is mapped to N for example.

So, in short, yes you should have no problem using D so long as it is a hard drive / partition :)

Something to keep in mind though; double check that there is nothing on the drive / partition as some machines have back up data on such. This is so the manufacturer does not need to supply backup cd / dvd media.

You should seriously think about backing some stuff up to CD / DVD, running disk clean up and, if you feel that you really need to, buying some external storage such as a hard drive (usb or network) or one of the many types of external drives with removable media!

EDIT: for those still insisting D is always a DVD / CD drive, please read what I and other posters have written.