Is There Some Easy Method For Swapping Drive Designations?

I gather C is the operating system partition and D is a data partition of the same drive. If that's the case you could increase C a bit using Partition Wizard but I wouldn't go over ~100GB because you really should get the hang of creating a system image of this partition and you don't want it to be too large.
Your friend needs to be storing more data in folders on D. You can transfer the User folders (eg documents) to D but I wouldn't bother. Just save thing large data files like photos and videos on D.

If you still want to change the default location of user folders then this tutorial explains how
User Folders - Change Default Location

I believe HP normally only gives the user one partition for the OS and data so a disk management screenshot might be worth sending.
Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

LMiller7 said:

Are there any methods (short of reformatting and reinstalling) whereby we can get her programs (Windows as well as other applications), music, pictures, documents, et al, on drive D? We would, of course need all her Start Menu items and her All Programs to be pointing to the correct drive.

This is far more complex than you imagine. There is no utility, free or otherwise, that I would trust to do this safely. Better to do as as been suggested.

In fact there's a built-in Windows tool that can achieve part of that. You can use Sysprep (Windows System Preparation Tool) to move the Users main profile folder to another drive. This moves all user profile folders including all their subfolders like Documents, Pictures and so on as well as the Temp, AppData and all other folders. The procedure can also be done for an existing Windows installation although it would be better to do it already when installing Windows. Tutorial: User Profiles - Create and Move During Windows 7 Installation

After the move absolutely everything stored to any folder in user profiles will be stored to this new location. Also all future user profiles will automatically be created in the new location X:\Users instead of C:\Users.

However, in this case I would follow Ignatzatsonic's advice and simply remove the D: partition and add that space to C:, assuming both partitions are located on a single disk:

ignatzatsonic said:

If there is almost nothing on D, why not make it smaller and give that space to C?

Should be pretty easy, maybe with Windows Disk Management, maybe with a tool such as Partition Wizard.

Or eliminate D entirely. What is its purpose?

Tutorials for this procedure:

• Partition or Volume - Delete
• Partition or Volume - Extend

Kari

boweasel said:

When in WDM should I first right click on the D partition and select shrink volume, followed by right clicking C and selecting extend volume? I assume that once I get everything of importance off D I can simply delete the volume. I don't believe it was listed as a Recovery volume.

You don't need to get everything off D if you use the more powerful (free) Partition Wizard. Many people here use PW. See Option 3 of this tutorial:
Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD

Read my response above. You should not eliminate D.
Also, Sysprep is not applicable to your issue.

mjf said:

Also, Sysprep is not applicable to your issue.

Could you please enlighten me and tell why?

Kari said:

mjf said:

Also, Sysprep is not applicable to your issue.

Could you please enlighten me and tell why?

The OP states:
"when she bought it has a partitioned drive - one is C: and the other D:"
Assuming that is correct all he needs to do is resize C and move data to D.
What are suggesting sysprep can do in this situation?
I did ask the OP for clarification and a disk management screenshot.
If the OP is talking about physical drives then that's a different matter. Even then I'd lean towards a clean install but that's just a personal view.

mjf said:

Kari said:

mjf said:

Also, Sysprep is not applicable to your issue.

Could you please enlighten me and tell why?

Read what the OP wants to do. All he needs to do is resize C and move data to D.

And that's exactly what the sysprep in this case does, moves the Users folder and everything in it (all user profiles with each and every folder and file) to D:, then creates all future user profiles on D:, and in the future stores absolutely everything stored in any user folder, including temp files and appdata to D:, freeing absolutely all space needed for any user data on C:.

I repeat my question, why do you think this is not applicable to OP's issue?

Kari