after doing a restore a new D drive was created and a folder called old windows appears in it. the D drive is now very large and the C drive is reaching it's max capacity. if I go to COMPUTER management and shrink the D drive, will that increase the size of the C drive proportionatly?You're referring Windows Vista's drive shrink feature, right? I believe the answer in no. Once you've shrunk drive D, you'll need extend drive C. This reference should be helpful: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial133.htmlThe D drive shrink part went well. But it did not MAKE the free space available for use on the C drive. The extend option is not available on the c drive. Will formatting or deleting the D drive revert the space back to C drive. I don't need a D drive. Should have paid more attention to the restore directions. I may have had the option to not create a D drive. Windows old folder is there is because in the new install you chose the option to save your old data...
If everything is running properly and you have all the data you need from the old install you should just backup what you need...re-install XP and remove all existing partitions and create one partition to regain the space.
The Windows method of managing partitions is quite messy.
The other option is to get a larger HDD...use the drive manuf. utilities to "clone" the old drive to the newer larger drive and then use the older drive for storage.
If this is an option post back for instructions.Option B is doable. I assume this means that just by deleting the D drive partition I will not acquire that space from the deleted D driveto extend the C drive using Vista computer management extend option?I cannot comment on this as i have not experimented with Vista's drive management enough to make a broad statement...
All i know is i wasn't impressed with it and went back to using my old standby partitioning tools to get the job done.
That being said it may work perfectly fine for you.
If you do not need anything off of D: then delete the partition.

Then re-boot and see if Vista will merge the free space for you.
I'm old school. I like to do all my partitioning/formatting outside of the OS itself which is why i suggested the alternatives.

There's ALSO a FREE tool called Paragon Partition Manager Express Here that may suit your needs...I read the reviews and they stated what I want to do. Will give it a try. This is a great web site and so are the people who help us rank amateurs. Thsnks for the assist all.
hondo Best of Luck...
Stop by Anytime !

P.S. Let us know how that Paragon works ...