Question:
In very simple layman's terms, what is the difference between C drive and D drive?
Benji
2017-10-07 07:14:38 UTC
I'm very dumb and I don't understand why one drive (C drive) on my computer is nearly full while the other (D drive is almost empty). I keep most of my downloaded content on my desktop. If I move it to somewhere else on my computer will it fill up D drive instead of C drive or do those locations have nothing to do with each other?

Sorry if none of this makes any sense. I have the technological prowess of a 70-year-old.
Nine answers:
omar
2017-10-10 09:53:25 UTC
J
?
2017-10-09 14:05:15 UTC
C drive of the drive that Windows is installed on, D drive is any other drive installed, if their are 3 drives, there will be C, D, and E drives etc.
The_Doc_Man
2017-10-08 20:26:37 UTC
In the simplest terms, C and D are arbitrary names assigned to either physically separate or logically separate disk areas where things can be written.



All local drives in Windows use drive letters. By tradition, A and B are reserved for things like floppy disks even if your system no longer uses them. The first hard drive traditionally was usually called C because A and B were already in use. The next drive slot would be D, and so on.



When disks got bigger and started to be partitioned, Windows had advanced enough to allow for recognizing the partition as though it were a separate physical drive. It doesn't matter that a disk partition is merely a way of subdividing disk addresses into multiple ranges that act like different disks even if they aren't different disks. So now, C and D can be either two physically separate hard drives or two partitions on a single hard drive. To everything except the disk device driver, it makes no difference in the way you use them.



Be VERY careful of what you move from your C drive to your D drive, and it probably would not hurt to do a disk cleanup to remove old download content. I worked with the U.S. Government as a mainframe administrator and I can tell you, the biggest problem I ever had was users who would not erase old, useless files to make room for newer files. Learn cleanliness and make your resources last a lot longer.



When cleaning, files in any directory path that includes either /SYSTEM or /SYSTEM32 or /PROGRAM FILES are not good choices for cleanup.
Crim Liar
2017-10-07 09:55:29 UTC
Think of your C Drive and D Drive as if they were physical filing cabinets. If you want to make space in the one filing cabinet then you have to physically move things to the other filing cabinet - in the case of a computer that means opening File Explorer making relevent subfolders and then dragging and dropping!



Keeping everything on the windows desktop is not a good idea, it very soon becomes messy.



Another thing to look at, is that it may be possible to "extend" your C Drive onto the D Drive (though not it the D Drive is USB).
DC
2017-10-07 09:22:26 UTC
C: drive is usually your main drive, D: drive can be either a partition on the main drive ( the drive is divided into two parts) or a completely different drive.



to help you understand. If you have 2 separate physical drives with 500 gig each it is like having two ware houses to store your stuff in, you have 1000 gigs total space.



If you have one 500 gig drive divided into two partitions it's like having two rooms in one warehouse to store your stuff in. You still only have 500 gigs of space.



if you move something from warehouse C to warehouse D it no longer occupies space in warehouse C,correct? If you want to keep warehouse C emptied out, you put stuff in D. If C is full then you start putting stuff in D. if you do not clean it out once in a while C and D will be overflowing with junk and you can't find anything..
Chris Ancor
2017-10-07 07:43:55 UTC
There is no difference at all. The drives are just labelled differently for convenience. You should be installing to your D drive to fill it up if C is getting full.
?
2017-10-07 07:29:00 UTC
Yes, you can move folders to the D drive for storage. In fact, that's what a lot of people do, leaving the operating system and programs on the C drive but shift the stuff that you create such as documents, music, pictures, videos etc. over. The system will still find them.
?
2017-10-07 07:28:17 UTC
C commonly refers to your hard drive that is the main storage device. adding other storage media adds letters generally D is the CD Drie, add thumb drives and watch the letters increase
Tigran
2017-10-07 07:18:32 UTC
C drive is where your windows installed. And everything you download goes to c drive.(desktop is c drive too) If you want to fill up d drive you got to move them manually



Difference is one of them a system drive and te other is for media


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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