Home » Forums » AskWoody support » Windows » Windows 10 » Questions: Win10 » What can I safely delete to open space on C:?
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AskWoody Lounger
March 4, 2024 at 5:32 pm #2645182
I am hoping the answer to this is going to be a simple link. I suddenly have no space on my SSD C:. Where are the hidden space hogs? What can I safely delete?
I have used Glary’s space cleaner (with conservative settings) .
My Windows folder is 32Gig — if I could free up 10G, I would be happy.
Pat in CT
@sheltiemom
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ableincGuest
March 4, 2024 at 6:21 pm #2645194
First run windows disk cleanup (type cleanup at start menu), click lower left “clean up system files” to elevate to administrator, and see if there is a box to delete update files which can be as large as 5gb. These are used for uninstalling updates but can be deleted if you don’t do that. If you have recently upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11, disk cleanup can delete the rollback file which can be 10-20gb.
After that, using a good tool to look for large files may help, Wiztree, Treesize, or Everything from voidtools. The first two are semi-graphical , with Everything you can search for all files and sort them by size, or tell it size:>1gb or size:>200mb to see files larger than 1gb or 2oomb.
Make a full backup image of your computer before you proceed, in case you pick the wrong thing.
In an emergency situation, disabling hibernate if it is turned on can free up however much your ram is, so typically 16gb, which will automatically remove the hiberfil.sys file – don’t delete it manually, disabling will take care of it. Your swap file may be set to twice your ram, and in a pinch can be set to 1gb, however this will mean that crash dumps from blue screens will fail, and can reduce performance and increase wear on your hard drive.
If you value your time at $20 an hour, you may quickly see that buying a 1 or 2TB SSD to replace your C drive instead of trying to free up space may be the best investment.
In some cases what you have is a partitioning problem, or an allocation problem. You may have a D drive (either another partition or another drive) with extra space but C is getting crowded. Changing partition sizes (after making a full backup) can be done with tools like Easeus partition master or Aomei partition assistant. If your 2nd physical drive has space, finding something large that can be moved from C could help, the easiest would be data files like a collection of movies. Moving programs is not impossible but can be harder.
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AskWoody MVP
March 4, 2024 at 7:48 pm #2645232
In addition to what ableinc suggests above with the use of Windows’ built-in Disk Cleanup tool, you might also look at how much space is being taken up with system restore points that are automatically created by Windows in the background at certain times, so you don’t even know that it’s happening. These can take up several gigs of space, all the way up to all the empty space on the drive that can be found if things aren’t set correctly. Another person here on AskWoody recently got a ton of space back by reducing the space that restore points were taking up…it had been allowed to use all free space on the drive.
To see just how much space is being taken up by System Restore and the restore points it creates, you’ll have to click through some windows! Settings>System>About (at the bottom of the menu on the left side) will bring up a page that will have a heading of “Related settings” on the right side. There will be some listings in blue under it, and one will say “System protection”. Click “System protection and you’ll see a window come up with a tab at the top highlighted that says, appropriately, “System protection”. In that box you’ll see a tab that says “Configure…”. Go ahead and click it. Now you’ll see a window that will have a slider in it and a figure above that slider. That figure is the amount of disk space that the system restore points are taking up on your hard drive currently. That slider will also allow you to reduce (if you need to) the amount of space that the system restore points are allowed to take up on your hard drive.
I have a 500 gig SSD with Windows 10, and had a 500 gig HDD with Windows 7 before retiring it permanently when I moved to Windows 10. In both cases, I set the slider to no more than 2 percent of the drive capacity and have never had a problem with System Restore (even though I’ve only needed it twice, once on Windows 7 and once on Windows 10).
Fair warning, though. Reducing the amount of space that is taken up by the system restore points can reduce the number of system restore points on your system at any given time. This can be a good thing, in that it will give you more available space on your drive, but if you want (orneed) a lot of restore points then you need to be careful about how much space you remove from the drive for its use.
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AskWoody Lounger
March 4, 2024 at 11:05 pm #2645289
Thank you for this advice. Very good instruction, got to where I needed, saw that it was already at 2%. 🙁
I am currently imaging the C: drive. In Windows Explorer, it tells me that I have 3.49 GB free of 104 GB. However, I suspect C: and D: are partitions of the same drive.
When I got this machine a few years ago, I knew the C: would be tight. 16 RAM, i7 processor. So I set it up with my work on the D: drive along with almost all of my programs. I have 3 external HD attached for storage of photos, backups, videos, etc so I just don’t have to worry about them.
But, over time, the space available on C: has been shrinking and now I can’t get more than about 3 GB available.
System and reserved at 26.2 is what I’m looking at. I’ve got to believe there are some things in that HUGE Windows folder that do not need to be there.
It’s not so much finding the large folders; I can do that. It’s knowing WHAT to look for once I have identified them and what is safe to prune away.
I disabled the hibernate file since I do not use it.
The only Windows folders 1.0 GB or more are
*servicing 1.84
*assembly 1.51
*system32 5.84
*sysWOW64 1.09
*WinSxS 9.26
Finally, I have 15 folders with long alphanumeric names, each about 20 MB, and each with DellUpdateAppMSI in them
Is there anything I can do with those folders?
Thank you!
Pat in CT
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OldNavyGuy
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March 4, 2024 at 9:07 pm #2645256
To see just how much space is being taken up by System Restore and the restore points it creates, you’ll have to click through some windows!
Quick way is open an elevated Command Prompt and run vssadmin list shadowstorage.
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AskWoody Plus
March 5, 2024 at 1:33 am #2645310
You can gain some GB by compacting Winsxs
Run these command as admin
dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore
Then
dism /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
Then run again :
dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore
to see the gained storage space.
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AskWoody Lounger
OldNavyGuy
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March 5, 2024 at 2:01 am #2645290
So another option you have for managing disk space is Storage Sense.
Settings > System > Storage
You can set it up to run automatically, so it’s a “hands-off” tool.
BTW, you might ask a mod to delete your duplicate thread on this topic, since this one seems to have the most activity.
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AskWoody Lounger
AskWoody MVP
March 5, 2024 at 2:08 am #2645312
I have 3.49 GB free of 104 GB. However, I suspect C: and D: are partitions of the same drive.
Send us a screenshot please.
Click Start
Type: disk manager
Select the offered app (create and format hard disk…)
Expand Disk Management to remove all the scroll bars.
Take a screen shot (snip n sketch), save as PNG and use the “Select File” button to attach it to your post.
cheers, Paul
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AskWoody Lounger
March 7, 2024 at 10:57 pm #2646458
Thank you for your help. I added 2 screenshots to get everything.
I have all of my work on D: I install new programs there, documents are there, recent photos are there. I keep downloads on M: (that would be the downloads I select, not updates) and other photos and videos on other external hard drives.
Computer is a Dell from 2019. Bloatware gone on setup. It’s a good idea to go through and remove the programs that sounded good, but that I just don’t use — but few of them are on C: which is my current crisis. BTW, also did the deep malware scan & CHKDSK. Have a Macrium image of C:
I could use a walk through Disk 1 on my attached image. And while I have learned a lot to do what I need, I have never done anything with partitions. :-0
Pat in CT
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AskWoody MVP
March 8, 2024 at 12:58 am #2646494
Disk 1 is your boot / OS disk and is too small.
Buy a 250GB SSD and swap it in to replace the disk 1, then we can look at sorting out the rest.- Make a fresh image backup of disk 1.
- Take the old disk out.
- Put the new one in its place.
- Boot from the Macrium recovery USB.
- Restore C: to the new disk. You should be able to increase the size of partition 2 (C:) as part of the restore.
- Boot normally – fingers crossed.
If it all goes pear shaped, put the old disk back in.
Come back when you are up and running and we can work out moving your apps back to C.
cheers, Paul
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AskWoody MVP
March 11, 2024 at 2:09 am #2647453
Run Dell Update.
Read the “Service Tag” and enter it at the Dell Support site.
Go to “Parts & Repairs” > “Hard Drives & Storage”.You will see what sort of drive your machine has / needs and can compare it with the Crucial info.
cheers, Paul
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AskWoody Lounger
March 19, 2024 at 3:07 pm #2651326
Making progress. I used the Crucial upgrade tool (terrific – thanks!) and downloaded the service manual. I ordered a 1TB SSD and while I’m at it, I’ll upgrade the memory to 32GB. Yes, I am getting full of myself, but I only want to do this once.
A couple of questions:
- What is on the SSD I will be removing? Is it Disc 0 and Disc 1? Want to make sure of the backup images.
- Once this is done, and I reconnect my external hard drives, will they be assigned the same letter? Is there any way to ensure they will? I know my Macrium is by letter of the drive, and my downloads folder, and I don’t know what else.
Thank you!
Pat in CT
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AskWoody Lounger
March 19, 2024 at 7:56 pm #2651395
A couple of questions: What is on the SSD I will be removing? Is it Disc 0 and Disc 1? Want to make sure of the backup images. Once this is done, and I reconnect my external hard drives, will they be assigned the same letter? Is there any way to ensure they will? I know my Macrium is by letter of the drive, and my downloads folder, and I don’t know what else. Thank you!
Your screenshot shows your C: drive is on Disk 1.
Crucial has an Acronis-branded tool to help you clone the entire drive to the new drive.
https://www.acronis.com/en-sg/promotion/crucialhd-download/
My experience is that after the Crucial tool clones, the old drive is removed, and the new drive is installed, the drive letter is the same.
If it is not, you can right click on the volume (upper section of the Disk Management windows) and select “Change Drive Letter and Paths”.
Of course you would only change the drive letter.
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AskWoody Plus
March 20, 2024 at 12:07 am #2651484
Mom,
Before you do your transfer of your C: drive to your new SSD (preferably using image/restore, not clone – thee the recent discussion on this topic) , you should NAME each drive (through tho Properties dialog) e.g, C: System D: Data, etc., so as not to be confused as to where you’re restoring to. See attached screenshot.
Zig
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AskWoody Lounger
April 1, 2024 at 4:41 pm #2655884
OK, I am almost ready to go. I have some last questions while I am making my images.
- I included the photo below again. When I remove the existing hard drive, am I taking out disk 0 and disk 1?
- Does the new hard drive need to be formatted before I restore the image? How do I do that?
- Do I need to do anything special for the memory, or just take out the old and put in the new?
- Any other suggestions?
Pat in CT
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AskWoody Lounger
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AskWoody Plus
March 5, 2024 at 3:07 am #2645323
I’ve read the whole thread and I don’t see any clear mention of the total size of your C: drive SSD regardless of the partitions, except for this comment:
Windows Explorer, it tells me that I have 3.49 GB free of 104 GB. However, I suspect C: and D: are partitions of the same drive.
If 104 GB is the correct total size from the Windows Explorer “My PC” view, then it would include all partitions. If you use Google Drive (cloud), it will usually show up as “D” drive in the “My PC” view.
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AskWoody Lounger
March 5, 2024 at 9:00 am #2645399
Another possible space hog is the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder.
Unless you’ve run Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe) with “at least” the Downloads option checked,
It’ll contain copies of all the Windows updates that have ever been installed on your PC.
Just FYI, the Windows folder on my Windows 10 Pro 22H2 (built 19045.4046) PC currently contains 115,753 Files in 86,732 Folders and uses 25.5 GB.
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AskWoody_MVP
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AskWoody Lounger
AskWoody Plus
March 5, 2024 at 11:02 am #2645441
When you got the computer did you clean out the bloatware that shipped with the unit?
If not, download and install the free version of Revo Uninstaller, scan your system and see if you have any apps that you do not need or want. If so uninstall them.
Also, what brand of computer is it?
HP computers ship with HP Support Assistant. One of the Assistant’s tools is HP Performance Tune-up Check. Using the tool, you can:
- Delete system temporary files;
- Delete system prefetch files;
- Execute a system file checker;
- Empty the recycle bin;
- Clear history, cookies, and cache for the installed web browsers;
- Disable search indexing; and
- Enable storage sense.
Finally, as mentioned above, consider replacing your current SSD with a larger one.
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AskWoody Lounger
March 7, 2024 at 11:22 pm #2646465
Bloatware be gone when I got the computer 5 years ago and was nursing my whiplash from an i7 processor, 16 of RAM and Win 10. Bang, Zoom were those the good old days.
After those days pass, Revo is my friend. 💑 To be fair, so is Glary and their Clean Up Tool.
Pat in CT
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AskWoody Lounger
April 1, 2024 at 6:12 pm #2655922
I included the photo below again. When I remove the existing hard drive, am I taking out disk 0 and disk 1?
Disk 1 is the drive Windows is running on.
Does the new hard drive need to be formatted before I restore the image?
Maybe…
Depending on your imaging software, it may need to be formatted in order for it to “see” the new drive for the restore operation.
Or you can just do it…
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-format-new-hard-drive-windows-10
Do I need to do anything special for the memory, or just take out the old and put in the new?
Just make sure the new memory stick is oriented to match the slot.
I’ve seen people try to put them in wrong and either break the stick, or damage the slot because they think it’s “stuck”.
Ground yourself by touching a metal part on your computer before handling any internal components.
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AskWoody Lounger
AskWoody MVP
April 2, 2024 at 10:09 am #2656214
Does the new hard drive need to be formatted before I restore the image? How do I do that?
No. The image software will restore the entire disk, including formatting.
Do I need to do anything special for the memory, or just take out the old and put in the new?
Do NOT do this at the same time as the new disk.
Install the new disk first and when you are happy it is running fine, make a backup and then install the memory.
Ground yourself by touching a metal part on your computer before handling any internal components.
Don’t open the disk / memory until you have done this, especially when you have moved the new components to the computer. Walking across carpet can cause havoc.
cheers, Paul
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AskWoody Lounger
April 5, 2024 at 4:13 pm #2657116
What.A.Nightmare.
FYI — Dell locks its BIOS. So, after installing my new SSD, it wouldn’t boot from USB. I had to call advanced tech support to get let out of BIOS jail. But that was only the beginning.
I got bounced the last time I tried to post a longer message, so I will try shorter ones until Woody recognizes me.
Pat in CT
@sheltiemom
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AskWoody Lounger
April 5, 2024 at 4:37 pm #2657121
It seems as if I can’t post a photo. So, I will try to describe it.
The computer did not recognize my Macrium rescue, so I inserted the original Windows USB rescue, and it booted right up. I looked and the 1TB was there as a C: drive.
I downloaded Macrium, followed the instructions in the user manual, selected C: as the target. The software then said that I had to create the PE to boot from, I clicked on OK and restart now, and I got a kernel error screen (that I can’t attach right now). I clicked enter, got the blue screen offering a windows boot or a Macrium PE boot, and I selected the Macrium boot for restoring the system image. Boom. Back to the kernel error.
Pat in CT
@sheltiemom
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ableinc
Guest
April 5, 2024 at 4:57 pm #2657125
To boot the Macrium USB most easily, I would disable secure boot in the bios until the image is restored and tested. https://www.tenforums.com/backup-restore/160796-macrium-rescue-usb-wont-boot.html
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AskWoody Lounger
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AskWoody Lounger
April 5, 2024 at 6:22 pm #2657158
Info: The operating system couldn’t be loaded because the kernel is missing or contains errors.
You’ll need to get in to the Repair Environment, either using a bootable Windows 10 ISO, or a recovery drive.
From the Repair environment…
In Advanced Options, select Command Prompt.
At the X: Command prompt, enter diskpart
At the diskpart command prompt, enter list volume
Check the drive letter for the volume Windows is installed on (may or may not be C:)
At the diskpart command prompt, enter exit. This will return to the X: Command prompt.
Enter the drive letter for the Windows volume (i.e. C: or whatever diskpart says it is).
Run sfc /scannow /offbootdir=<drive letter:\> /offwindir=<drive letter:\Windows>
Example (where W: is the drive letter)…
sfc /scannow /offbootdir=W:\ /offwindir=W:\Windows
Reboot when it’s done.
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AskWoody Lounger
April 5, 2024 at 7:14 pm #2657159
OK, Old Navy Guy. What will happen when I reboot? (Or, what is it that your commands SHOULD give me?) I know it was disjointed because Woody didn’t recognize the “new” browser here — that missing kernel message appeared when I tried to boot into the Macrium recovery as part of restoring the system image.
Since the UConn women’s basketball game is less than an hour away, I will do this tomorrow. Thank you for your help!
Pat in CT
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AskWoody Lounger
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AskWoody Lounger
April 5, 2024 at 4:57 pm #2657127
So, now I have my C: drive back, but it is duplicated. I guessed and picked one, which I am operating now. It is odd to have my old C: but no D: which is where all my data resides. And, it restored what I am guessing are the same partitions, and that is why I have the “no space left” errors on my hard drive which is what started this whole thing.
In my dream world, I would like to fix this by going back to the big C: drive (1TB) and I can boot from my original Windows rescue.
Then, I am thinking I need to create partitions on that new drive — am I correct? Is that how the original SSD was set up (see image above from 2 weeks ago)?
Then, restore the system image to C and the data image to D.
Can someone walk me through that and tell me how to get around the kernel error?
Pat in CT
@sheltiemom
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ableinc
Guest
April 6, 2024 at 12:35 am #2657185
It sounds like you have the new SSD and the old SSD both installed in the system? It also sounds like you are booting Macrium from the hard drive instead of USB? If you can I would start from scratch. Remove new drive if you feel the old SSD will still boot. Check that all is working (except for the out of space errors). Create a Macrium recovery USB and verify that it boots. Image any drive that you want to migrate somewhere else, if you have not already done so.
Then, remove the old SSD entirely from the system, reinstall the new one, boot from the Macrium USB and restore your images where you want them, paying special attention to the ability to resize partitons as you restore. When restoring, you can choose to resize to fit, although it can also be done after with Partition Edition software like Aomei Partition Assistant.
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AskWoody MVP
April 6, 2024 at 12:43 am #2657208
So, now I have my C: drive back, but it is duplicated
Why don’t you put the original disk back and start again creating a MR boot USB?
As your current partitions are arranged you can’t easily expand C:.
MR lets you change partition sizes as part of the restore. Did you try this?
Can you post a screenshot of the new disk in Disk Manager?
cheers, Paul
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AskWoody Lounger
April 8, 2024 at 11:04 pm #2658091
Hi Paul,
I took out the old, tiny SSD and replaced it with a 1 TB SSD that should hold all the C: /OS partitions and the D: data.
And I need to learn how to tweak the size to get the C: OS twice the 100GB size since that is the problem that brought me here in the first place.
SheltieMom
Pat in CT
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AskWoody Lounger
April 9, 2024 at 12:11 am #2658095
I need to learn how to tweak the size to get the C: OS twice the 100GB size since that is the problem that brought me here in the first place.
Keep in mind there is a difference between partition size on a drive, and the drive itself.
The problem that brought you here is that you did not have enough space…on the drive.
Now that you do (1 Terabyte), there is really no need to double the size of the OS partition…100 Gigabytes is plenty of space (my fully-patched Win10 22H2 OS is 20 Gig).
However, if you want to go forward with that project, you will need to “extend” the partition.
A free tool I would recommend is MiniTool Partition Wizard.
https://www.partitionwizard.com/
You won’t be able to take any space from the left side of the C: OS partition, because your EFI partition lives there.
So it will have to come from the right side.
However, since we can’t see where your Reserved partition is in Disk Management, and you have multiple recovery partitions (for whatever reason) on that drive, we need to see what is where.
Post a screen shot of your disk layout using Partition Wizard…before doing anything.
Usually (but not always in the same order) this is what an EFI drive would look like…
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AskWoody Lounger
April 8, 2024 at 9:39 pm #2658083
Hello Friends,
I am THISCLOSE to having this puppy done!
You have seen my former configuration above. The AFTER is below. What I have now is a second OS image on D: That is not helping me. I need all of the data on F be on a D: drive so everything will integrate with the restored C: (system) drive. I backed up the OS D (which, in Macrium, does not have the Win logo, so I knew it was not the boot drive). It is on an external drive in case I need to move it.
Do I need that D: OS drive? It looks like a duplicate of C: If I could click through the “are you SURE you want to delete these files???” I’ll be great. Otherwise, I don’t think that duplicate OS needs a drive letter, (but I don’t KNOW) and I really need the data that is currently on F to be on a D: drive instead so everything will be back to where it was and the data and the programs will play nicely together.
- Do I need the D: OS files and folders?
- If yes, does it need a drive letter?
- If YES, how do I give it a new drive letter and then change the F: to the D: ??
If you can tell me how to do that, I should be home free. <fingers crossed>
Now back to basketball (I live in CT, after all, and only got a 95% eclipse today!)
Pat in CT
@sheltiemom
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AskWoody Lounger
April 8, 2024 at 9:56 pm #2658088
First, D: and F: are on the same physical drive, which is Disk 0…
They are simply partitions on that drive that have a drive letter assigned.
So the questions are…
- Do you want the F: partition contents physically on Disk 0, or Disk 1? If it’s Disk 0, you don’t need to do anything.
- Do you want to boot from Disk 0? If not, you don’t need an OS partition.
You can change drive letters in Disk Management.
So…if you wanted to keep the D: OS partition and the contents of F: on the same physical drive, you would rename D: to some other letter…and then rename F: to D:
If you don’t want to keep the D: OS partition, remove the drive letter…and then rename F: to D: You can reallocate the space, and assign a new drive letter later.
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AskWoody MVP
April 9, 2024 at 1:08 am #2658101
You used to have D: on disk 0 with just one partition. Where did it go? Can you get it back from backup?
The new disk has too many partitions on it. You seem to have been restoring partitions instead of disks. I would start again with a fresh restore and adjust the partition sizes as part of the restore.
First you need a bootable Macrium USB.
Boot from this, connect your backup disk and make sure you can see both the external and internal disks.
Restore D: to disk 0 first, then restore C: etc to disk 1 (with resizing of C:). Do NOT reboot between restores.
Do an image restore, not partition restore.
You need to click on “Copy selected partitions”, then highlight C: on the destination disk and click “Restored partition properties”.
cheers, Paul
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AskWoody Lounger
April 9, 2024 at 1:23 am #2658102
It’s now F: according to her screen shot attached in #2658083, and her post about making it D:(which is already assigned)
I need all of the data on F be on a D:
She has instructions on how to remedy that.
The main decision she needs to make is whether the Data partition should be on Disk 0, or Disk 1.
Some folks like OS and data on separate physical drives.
Her “original” setup in the screen shots attached in #2646458 was D: Data was the only partition on Disk 0, and Disk1 contained EFI, OS, and several recovery partitions.
So all she really needs to do to “match” that is delete every partition on Disk 0…except F: then change the drive letter to D:
She can then extend the partition left and right to take up the whole drive…as before…if that’s what she wants it to look like.
Then, she can move on to clean up the extra recovery partitions on Disk 1…once we know where Reserved is located.
Of course…image both physical drives before doing anything.
Cheers, OldNavyGuy
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AskWoody MVP
April 9, 2024 at 2:59 am #2658118
It’s now F:
The data may be on F: but there are now 7 partitions instead of 1.
You should always have the data drive as just a data drive. Multiple EFI / system partitions is not a good idea in a standard Windows only system – makes it hard to be sure what Windows will boot from / recover from failure.
cheers, Paul
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AskWoody Lounger
April 9, 2024 at 9:53 am #2658197
The data may be on F: but there are now 7 partitions instead of 1.
Already discussed…
all she really needs to do to “match” that is delete every partition on Disk 0…except F: then change the drive letter to D: She can then extend the partition left and right to take up the whole drive
MiniTool Partition Wizard was recommended.
You should always have the data drive as just a data drive.
No one said otherwise…
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AskWoody Lounger
April 9, 2024 at 2:52 pm #2658291
OK, Old Navy Guy and Paul,
I appreciate your idea of having things nice and clean without all of these partitions. I agree. But it took me a week to get this far, and now that it is working, I am thinking, “Beggars can’t be choosers.”
I restored the original C: image in Macrium. My greatest problem was that I could not boot into the PE environment because I kept getting the kernel error. And to be perfectly honest, I do not remember how I finally got there. But I did, and I have what I have. I apologize for not using the proper terms WRT “drive” and “partition.” My bad.
I was unable to simply change drive letters in disk management (see above) so I downloaded the MiniTool Partition Wizard. Changed the OS partition to Q: and renamed my data D: so my programs now work and my data is where the programs are looking for it.
So I am back to baseline, except I now have a 1 TB SSD. But, as Paul noted, I still have my original problem of no space on C: AAARRRGGHHH.
But, I feel like I am almost there. Here is the latest, messy, yet functional image from Disk Manager.
I have one SSD. 1 TB. I do not understand why Disk Manager is showing Disk 0 and Disk 1.
Can you please walk me through how to give the C: partition more space? (with Mini Tool Partition Wizard)
And if there is a simple way to clean up all of the sub-partitions, I’m open to suggestion.
If you go back to the first images I posted, you can see what I had originally. I have never done anything with partitions — so those original configurations are what the computer came with. I am only able to post one image — I guess Woody still doesn’t recognize that I am still me.
Fingers crossed!
SheltieMomPat in CT
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AskWoody Lounger
April 9, 2024 at 6:16 pm #2658346
Can you please walk me through how to give the C: partition more space? (with Mini Tool Partition Wizard) And if there is a simple way to clean up all of the sub-partitions, I’m open to suggestion.
MTPW can help with deleting any unnecessary partitions, and then using the unallocated space to extend a partition.
Tutorials on both operations –
https://www.partitionwizard.com/help/delete-partition.html
https://www.partitionwizard.com/help/extend-partition.html
First, however, post one (or more) screen shots of MTPW showing all your disks and all partitions.
The top half of the screen would be preferred…see the example posted in #2658095
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AskWoody Lounger
April 9, 2024 at 8:09 pm #2658365
The MTPW screen shot I posted is a couple of versions old…it looks like they deprecated the menu bar.
So, in the upper right corner, next to the Minimize icon, is the “hamburger” icon (3 horizontal lines).
Click on that, and select Debug.
Then select Make Screenshot > Save Screenshot.
Note that the default location is the MTPW Program Files folder.
I would select the Desktop.
Post those results.
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AskWoody Lounger
April 9, 2024 at 9:49 pm #2658391
Will this tell you what you need to know?
Hyperdisk N: is where my Macriium backups are
G: is the USB.
Stayed up late to watch basketball last night, so I may not be back atcha till tomorrow.
Thank you so much!
I never knew the beginning of the joke, but the punchline is, “When you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s hard to remember your first objective was to clear the swamp.” :-0
Pat in CT
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AskWoody Lounger
April 10, 2024 at 1:28 am #2658433
Will this tell you what you need to know?
You posted a screen shot of Disk Management…I asked for Disk 1 in MTPW.
Don’t care about Disk 3 and Disk 4.
Disk 1 (where D: Data lives) is missing in the top half of the screen. You”ll need to scroll up to get that.
These are going to be your “blueprints” moving forward.
Bottom lines are (using MTPW disk labels, rather than Disk Management labels) –
- All partitions on Disk1, except D: Data, can be deleted. Then, D: can be extended to the left and the right to use the unallocated space…and take up the entire drive. That would “match” the way it was originally.
- Disk 2 partitions that need to be kept are EFI, Reserved, C: OS, and one Recovery (you have 6). You have decisions to make on whether to keep any of the other partitions (i.e “Image”, DELLSUPPORT”…2 each, and 3 other unlabeled).
Image each drive before making any changes.
That way, if something goes sideways, you can start over (and over again if necessary).
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AskWoody MVP
April 10, 2024 at 1:49 am #2658439
Will this tell you what you need to know?
Yes!
Make an image backup of disk 1 (C:) first.
Run MTPW.
On Disk 1, right click on each of the partitions to the right of the 798GB unallocated and select Delete.
You will now have a large unallocated section at the end of the disk.
Right click on each of the remaining recovery partitions and move them to the end of the disk. Start with the last (right) partition and work back towards the C: partition.
You will now have a large unallocated space next to C:.
Right click on C: and select Extend. Extend it to fill the unallocated space.
Make sure it looks good, then click Apply to get MTPW to make the changes.
Go and get a cup of tea, or 3, while the changes are made.
Let us know when it’s done.
cheers, Paul
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April 10, 2024 at 1:13 pm #2658620
To clarify, for some reason, MTPW cut off the left side of the information about the partitions (top display of MTPW)
I sent the image from Macrium just so you can see what is there. If somebody can tell me how to get the proper display on MTPW, I can work from there and send a new image. I’m afraid the best I could do (sent 4/9) was what I posted.
Pat in CT
@sheltiemom
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AskWoody Lounger
April 10, 2024 at 3:38 pm #2658637
To clarify, for some reason, MTPW cut off the left side of the information about the partitions (top display of MTPW)
Nothing appears to be cut off on the left side. It looks correct.
Entries like “*.ESP” means there is no drive letter assigned.
Entries like ‘*. ” means there is no drive letter…and no partition label assigned.
What I was referring to was the “list” (top to bottom”) of all the partitions.
You have scrollbar space on the right hand side in your MTPW screen shot to scroll up to see the list for Disk 1.
However, since Disk 1 is going to be “all D: Data”…at this point, I think everything has been identified for you to move forward in MTPW.
No need to provide more screen shots.
Clicking on a partition in the bottom half will highlight it in the top half.
Right-clicking on a partition (top or bottom half) will give you a list of what you can do with it.
MTPW keeps a list of changes as you go (“Operations Pending”).
Nothing will change until you click Apply in the lower left corner.
If you don’t like a change you made before clicking Apply, click Undo.
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AskWoody Lounger
April 13, 2024 at 7:05 pm #2659441
We have liftoff!
Now I know it is not perfect, but I am in a much better place. The only issue is that on startup, I have to choose between Win 10 and Win 10 on volume 6. The latter is the correct boot.
I cannot thank you enough for holding my hand through the Interwebs to fix this. I apologize for the delay in getting back to you but I am even more frazzled because I just found out I need an urgent hip replacement. I am having entirely too much fun for one person!
The remaining question I have (and maybe I should just be quiet now) is why do I have Disk 1 and Disk 2 when I put in one new SSD 1TB?
💙💙SheltieMom
Pat in CT
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AskWoody Lounger
April 13, 2024 at 7:29 pm #2659445
The remaining question I have (and maybe I should just be quiet now) is why do I have Disk 1 and Disk 2 when I put in one new SSD 1TB?
Disk 2 is your new SSD, since it has C: OS, and the one you replaced (because you couldn’t extend C:OS) did as well.
The partitions marked out in red can be deleted, and the unallocated space used…whenever you get around to it.
This is what you started with…
Keep in mind Disk Management labels “disk numbers” differently than MiniTool Partition Wizard.
Good luck on your surgery.
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- ableinc
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April 13, 2024 at 8:30 pm #2659448
Based on the model numbers, your computer has a 1TB SSD installed and also a 1TB spinning hard drive. If a particular piece of software feels slow to load, make sure it is installed on the SSD (C:) , but for data files you will often not notice. It will probably never come up, but in the future if your D: ever approaches being too full (80% or so), remember that there is a large 117gb unallocated space on Disk 1, and with Minitool you could move partitions around to increase the free space on D:.
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