Section 9.2. Hard Drives: An Introduction

9.2. Hard Drives: An Introduction

Windows XP insists on a hard drive for living quarters , as do most large programs. Every PC sold today comes with one hard drive, and sometimes two, three, or even a stack about a mile high if it's being shipped to Google.

The majority of consumer PCs come with only one hard drive, dubbed "Local Disk (C:)" when you view it in My Computer. For most people, one drive is plentyuntil it starts filling up with information.

After you've owned your PC for awhile, that once huge drive starts feeling a little crowded, what with all those digital photos and new programs. Windows XP starts complaining; it sends "Insufficient Disk Space" messages as you work, and large programs take longer to load. The following sections describe Windows XP's built-in data pruning shears, which can help you clear away the brush.