Quote Originally Posted by tulip View Post
Catrin, the C: drive is 20GB, with 19.9 used. The D: drive is 54GB with only 6.41 used.

My neighbor, who knows more than me but not enough to do the work, also said that reformatting wipes everything clean. I have my docs and stuff backed up, but I have no idea if my software is backed up. I do have CDs that came with my computer. Other software has been downloaded, and I would hate to lose that (a nifty budgeting tool, for example). I use Thunderbird for email, and I don't even know if that's in the cloud or on the computer. But now that I mention it, I'll try cleaning out my email and see if that helps. If that's a complete "Duh!" moment, please be easy on me!

Thanks for your help, Catrin.
Thunderbird stores your email locally, so if you have a large amount of email -especially with attachments - then that could slow things down. I am sure that you have have done this, but it is important to defragment your computer on a regular basis - I do it about once every 5-6 weeks depending on what I've been doing. It sounds like you've already checked your cache, cookies, and so forth via your disk clean-up tool - though that tool doesn't get everything.

As to whether it is best to have your drive partitioned or not - this is a matter of opinion. Personally I prefer not to have separate partitions for the very reason that you have found - however there are certainly valid arguments for doing it. I can see why your computer is complaining about the C drive being overly full, it is