Disk Space

[Helen]

I was wondering on which drive it is more important to have the most free disk space, "C" drive or the drive that your video files are on? Do you need more space on the video drive while you are editting and then do you need more space on "C" drive while you are "exporting or burning"?

I think I have confused myself a bit by reading a few different articles.

Thanks
Helen

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Hi Helen.

Rough guide for your info. If you need more specific info post back with your actual disc sizes and usage.

In an ideal situation you would have two or more discs in your PC. The way that you have phrased your question implies that this is so in your case. so I'll focus my general response on the C: drive.

It is important that your C: drive has sufficient space for system paging files and various other application work files, video/DVD temp files etc.

If your C: drive is consistently more than (say) 75% full then it may be wise to consider moving some of the data files to the second drive. Of course, that 75% figure depends on the starting capacity of the drive - 75% of 150Gb is a lot less than 75% of 500Gb.

[Helen]

Thanks John
I gather that "C" drive needs to have more space.
I am asking because my sister is having a few problems with Windows Movie maker and I have been reading a few help forums trying to solve her problem. She is trying to drag a 4gb mpeg file onto the timeline and WMM crashes each time. I mentioned to her that she would need quite a bit of space. She currently has 62 gb free on "C" and only 13 gb on "D" where her video files are. I don't think she has enough free space on "D" and I think that may be the cause of her problem. I am not sure of her disk sizes or her computer specs.

I think she may need to invest in a external hard drive and move some of her video files over.
Helen

[Bobby]

Unfortunately Helen, it all depends on what software you are running, and what internal or temporary files that software produces. What PRE does is potentially very different from what WMM does. If you run both (or others too), then there is no simple solution.

The good news is that disk storage is quite cheap these days - the only problem would be copying or cloning your old drive if you upgrade it. Can be done easily, but not trivial.

I would also recommend disk defragmentation frequently; I use the Diskeeper software, which does a great job of defrag in the background.