Sharing Files.

[Otterkins2]

I really do want to share files and I have quite a few of considerable interest.  The problem is that these files get stored on C drive which does not have much room left on it.  I've cleaned out as much as possible, but it still means that I have to watch the download/share folder like a hawk and I'm constantly pulling the larger files off so that I have enough room.  This of course has put me on the shit list for a few torrent providers.  Is there any way I can use D drive for this?  If so, how do I go about setting it up?   

Otterkins2

[texasboy]

  How about getting an external HD, say 250-500mb. They have become very cheap lately.
cheers

[Otterkins2]

Why can't I use my existing D drive?   

[texasboy]

Hi again.
To be honest, your D drive is usually one of three things:

1. Its either another Hard Drive installed on your computer
2. Its another partition of your c drive
3. Its your CD rom drive.

To explain:

1. Your computer could have two hard drives installed hence you would have C drive and a D drive.

Or

2. Did you know you can partition or split up your single hard drive into smaller hard drives. For example, if you have a 20 Gigabyte hard drive, you can split the hard drive into two 10 Gigabyte hard drives. Therefore you would have a C and a D drive.

Or

3. The D drive could also be your CD rom drive.

My question to you is why do you want to cripple your PC by using up all the available HD space in C and D. when a simple ext HD would enable your PC to perform normal duties when asked.
cheers

[Otterkins2]

You are indeed correct.  My hard drive is partitioned.  However, D drive is used for storing files while C drive is the actual operational programs.  This is heavily loaded with things like Adobe CS3 (full suite), MS Office (full suite) and other very heavy graphics programs.  It doesn't leave a lot of headroom to work.  I don't think I have much more than 20 Gigs left there, and some of the stuff I'm downloading can pretty quickly plug this up.  D drive however has close to 80 Gigs open.  That seems to be the obvious solution.  Buying an external hard drive is pretty much out of the question until I can get some kind of disability income.  I'm badly arthritic and can't work, so what little I do get goes for foolish things like food and gas.  Can we work with what I've got?   

[texasboy]

  Unless you are totally dedicated to sharing every single file on you hard drives, why not burn some to CD/DVD
and save in you library. I am only running a 40 GB  on this family PC. I download and burn and still have over 50% free space to play with.. If I get where your coming from it wont be long before you fill up all the space on your PC. And again I ask why. Select what you want to share,and select what you want in your personal collection. Hope this helps.
cheers 

[Otterkins2]

Not the answer I'm looking for, but thanks for trying.  There has to be a way to have a single shared folder on D drive without allowing access to the rest of my files.

[texasboy]

Not the answer I'm looking for, but thanks for trying.  There has to be a way to have a single shared folder on D drive without allowing access to the rest of my files.

Of course there is. Most P2P sites specifically ask you which folder you want to share. You set one up on your D drive and that is the only file that will be shared. Dont do what I once did and allowed Limewire to choose the folders to be shared. Personal photos/music and anything to do with entertainment was suddenly available to anyone on the site including programmes such as photoshop etc. I had to go in and untick everything but the one folder I intended to use for sharing.
There are many dangers of file sharing including giving out all your personal/bank details.
here is a quote from a web page which the link will follow.
"I have to agree with everyone here that makes the statement that you'd have to be pretty ignorant to share your personal documents. All file sharing software allows you to select where shareable files are and where to drop files you are downloading. Smart people create a folder specifically for their "traffic" and that's it."

Here is the link.http://redtape.msnbc.com/2007/11/id-thieves-new-.html Yes its long but worth the read.
There is no excuse for anyone to be sharing their whole drive to the world. If you set up a folder specially for file sharing and have this folder as your only folder to share, nothing else.

cheers

[Otterkins2]

Thanks Texasboy, I got it now.  You can specify ANY folder on D drive that you want to share.  That will not compromise all your other folders.  In fact I found out that you can load executeable programs there too.  Good thing, because Poser and Bryce 3-D were really hogging memory on C drive....especially Poser.  I stay away from Limewire and Frostwire.  For the most part I find files there are riddled with viruses.  I'll stick with Azureus and uTorrent from now on.  Next step:  how to upload what I've got as torrents so guys like you can D/L stuff you might really want but don't have.  Just trying to do my part for the community.   

[texasboy]

   LOL. One thing you got to remember is that I am an old timer learning as I go along. I`m sure there are others reading this that might be able to help better..
Hope you get sorted.
cheers

[Otterkins2]

Hey Texas....I ain't no spring chicken either at 60 years old.  That doesn't mean I can't learn or share.  Just keep on keepin' on and you'll be fine.  Hope you had a great Christmas and New Year's.

[ZootCadillac]

Hi otterkins2.

I'll run through the way I dio things and explain why.

I have a wireless network of 3 PCs a Laptop and a Windows mobile HTC XDA

the basic setup on any will be
C: drive ( partition on HDD 0 of aproximately 100GB ) This contains the OS and system specific security such as Norton 360 and Spybot anti-spyware and very little else. I cannot stress the importance of allowin as much free space as possible on the partition that contains the OS, XP or Vista will benefit greatly from this space.
D: drive (partition of HDD 0 remaining space ) This will contain my program files ( This is where my CS3 suite, 3ds Max, Poser 7 etc live )
E: drive ( Partition of HDD 1 size varies ) this will contain my gaming software installations.
F: drive ( partition of HDD 1 remaining space ) this will contain my backups and usually the rest is empty for moving large files and temporary extraction of huge archives.
G: H: I: drives , these are 3 external 320GB HHD and this is where all my downloaded files go including torrent hash files and the resulting downloads. Also one of these contains my scratch disks for my CS3 applications. This is VERY important.

Now, I don't use p2p clients of the Gnutella variety but I'll not get into why it is a personal choice but should you choose to there is no reason why you can't put them all onto your D: partition in a shared folder location, in fact this is preferable, just instruct your client as to where the shared folder is located. If you do use Gnutella based p2p clients then you should not share your default music, pictures and document folders. This gives you greater security of the files you wish to share and more importantly those personal files you do NOT wish to shareI Use Usenet and downloads go to my external drives.
I use UTorrent and specify 3 download folders ( games, apps, other ) on my external drives. It does not matter where your downloaded files live as long as your client is aware of the location there. You should specify a folder on your D drive and use that, but with bit torrent it does not matter where you download your files to ( they can be on many different drives and partitions ) as long as the client knows where it is and it remains there it can continue to share it.

Now a bit of advice if I may? I am a graphic artist and use CS3 a lot. Photoshop and the like require a scratch disk ( this is where it moves data to as you work ) The default settings are to the C: drive. This is a very bad idea as it can seriously limit system performance if you work with many layered image files ( some of my paintings will easily contain over 150 layers and they eat memory and HDD space as you work ). All professional users of Photoshop know that on installation you should specify that it uses a scratch disk that is on a separate hard drive ( not another partition on the same drive ) for vast increases in performance. Sadly your configuration as yet does not allow for this but with the advent of cheap large HDD these days you should consider adding a second drive to your system. Either internally or if you are not confident to perform such an installation yourself it is becoming cheaper to simply add an external drive. I added 1TB of space for around £160 from ebuyer.com ( Iomega_HDD 320GB £52+ delivery )

I hope that some of this information has been usefull to you and please do not hesitate to ask further questions and I shall endeavour to impart my meager knowledge to you.

[Otterkins2]

Zoot, I'm a graphic designer too...or at least was until this damn affliction hit me.  I have to learn all over again.  I'll gladly speak to you on MSN (use my email address to add me) or Yahoo IM  (I'm Otterkins2 there).  I'm sure we have a lot to share and although you claim to be a newbie I think you know a lot more than you are letting on.  Bouncing back and forth with emails and and messages I find rather annoying because of the delay.  Your call pardner!  You cover an awful lot of ground here....enough to get my head spinning.  One step at a time, OK?

[ZootCadillac]

Sure Otterskins2, I'm happy to cover things as quickly or as slowly as you like. I must stress that I'm not a professional graphic artist or designer, it's more of a hobby I have taken up since I went into semi-retirement ( I too have health issues related to arthritis and as a joiner/builder it's not so easy any more ) but I have taken commissions and been published in a number of UK based magazines.
Regarding Instant messaging. I'm not a fan of it and try to avoid it ( I used to be admin of a huge internet forum and still find that turning on MSN can result in me losing hours in a day just responding to the messages I always get at logon. ) Having said that I'll be happy for you to add me and try to keep it on when I'm working nearer your time zone.
zootcadillac[AT]hotmail[DOT]co[DOT]uk

[Otterkins2]

Gotcha Zoot!!!  Pretty late at night for you though.  I look forward to some interesting convos.