[SOLVED] Increase the size of C drive

[PennW]

I'm having problems with my C drive. Basically, it's only 76 GB and is almost full. I did assign another partition that is 900 GB a letter and started using. However, I messed up when trying to transfer the files so I am reverting back to the C drive. I'm hoping it will be easier to increase the size of the C drive rather than start using another drive. So, how can I increase the size of my 76 GB drive and make it let's say five or 600 GB?

 

[jeremyj_83]

Is this a physical computer or a virtual machine?

 

[PennW]

Physical computer. Hewlett-Packard with a 1 TB hard drive. But the C drive is only 76 GB. I have a partition that is 900 GB so I'm hoping there is some way of adding to the C drive to make that much bigger. I've already made a complete mess of things by creating the new drive and then moving the files across without creating subfolders first.

Thankfully, the libraries are still on the C drive so it's just a case of putting everything back in place. However, I'm already almost out of space on the C drive now I've put some large photo files back where they were originally.

 

[jeremyj_83]

If I am understanding correctly you have a single 1TB hard drive with a 76GB partition and a 900GB partition. If that is correct you will need to delete the 900GB partition and then extend the 76GB partition. You can follow this on removing a partition https://www.digitalcitizen.life/delete-partition-windows To extend follow this https://www.easeus.com/partition-master/expand-windows-7-partition.html

 

[britechguy]

Please post a screenshot of your system disk config from Disk Manager

 

[PennW]

Yeah, I don't need a 900 gig partition, I just want a big hard drive. I think part of the drive is also partitioned off for recovery so I will leave that alone. Anyway, thanks for the instructions, I'll see what I can do.

 

[PennW]

Screenshot

Try this

 

[PennW]

Unfortunately, it's not very big because I'm using two monitors and when I did a screenshot it keeps including both monitors. I hope you can see what you're looking for? If not, I'll try again

 

[britechguy]

Very difficult to read, but there's enough there for at least some basic advice.

First, general with regard to repartitioning:

1. Always, always, always have a full system image backup on an external drive before you even consider playing with your partitions.

2. If you do not ever intend to go back to true "out of the box" state, then the OEM recovery partition can be dispensed with.

3. Third party repartitioning tools are, in my experience, far easier to use than Disk Manager. My favorite is MiniTool Partition Wizard (which had and probably still has a free version).

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Were this my drive, using a third party repartitioning tool I would:

1. Delete the OEM recovery partition at the end.
2. Move the three partitions between what looks like C: and N: to the end of the drive into the space created by having deleted the OEM recovery partition.

Let this complete and reboot as necessary. You should then have C:, unallocated space between C: and N:, and the three moved partitions now at the end.

3. Expand C: to use the now available unallocated space (which is still probably not going to be enough, but if it is, you could complete this step and just stop afterward.

4. If C: is still not large enough you could either:

a) Shrink the N: partition, then expand C: into the space you create by doing so.
b) Merge the C: and N: partitions such that there will be one huge C: partition at the end.

What the above will do if you have taken the user libraries out of C: I can't say, precisely. I seldom separate user data out of the C: partition anymore.

 

[jeremyj_83]

Very difficult to read, but there's enough there for at least some basic advice.

First, general with regard to repartitioning:

1. Always, always, always have a full system image backup on an external drive before you even consider playing with your partitions.

2. If you do not ever intend to go back to true "out of the box" state, then the OEM recovery partition can be dispensed with.

3. Third party repartitioning tools are, in my experience, far easier to use than Disk Manager. My favorite is MiniTool Partition Wizard (which had and probably still has a free version).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Were this my drive, using a third party repartitioning tool I would:

1. Delete the OEM recovery partition at the end.
2. Move the three partitions between what looks like C: and N: to the end of the drive into the space created by having deleted the OEM recovery partition.

Let this complete and reboot as necessary. You should then have C:, unallocated space between C: and N:, and the three moved partitions now at the end.

3. Expand C: to use the now available unallocated space (which is still probably not going to be enough, but if it is, you could complete this step and just stop afterward.

4. If C: is still not large enough you could either:

a) Shrink the N: partition, then expand C: into the space you create by doing so.
b) Merge the C: and N: partitions such that there will be one huge C: partition at the end.

What the above will do if you have taken the user libraries out of C: I can't say, precisely. I seldom separate user data out of the C: partition anymore.

When it comes to expanding a drive with minimal left over space, Win 8 and later don't have an issue even if all you have left before expansion is a few kilobytes. One Win 7/2008 R2 and earlier you usually had to have a good 50+ MB free to be able to expand the drive.

 

[jsmithepa]

If the partition immediately following C: ( call it D: ) can be rid of, or its data can be backed up somewhere else, then all u need to do is to delete partition D: then that space becomes UNALLOCATED, then you can resize C: to "grab" the now unallocated space.

Be sure u understand what I said above, and always backup-backup-backup before doing anything dangerous like what you are about to do.

 

[PennW]

After reading all that information which is quite daunting I'm wondering whether it would be easier to use the 900 GB I have available?

In case you don't know what happened whole tell you. As you know, I only have 76 GB available on the C drive. I found out I have this 900 GB unallocated partition so decided to utilise it. However, what I neglected to do was create subdirectories under this partition. I suspect I should also have a user library as well. Anyway, I simply went to each folder on the C drive, documents, pictures etc and move them over to the new drive thinking that the whole folder would be moved. Obviously I was wrong because all that happened was the content of the folders was put under the age drive. So basically I've now got everything from all folders under one drive. Luckily, I didn't have an awful lot on the computer and none of it is really that important because I've not had the computer very long and I've been very careful not to clog it up with rubbish. So as long as I keep a few important picture folders and text files I should be okay.

 

[jeremyj_83]

After reading all that information which is quite daunting I'm wondering whether it would be easier to use the 900 GB I have available?

In case you don't know what happened whole tell you. As you know, I only have 76 GB available on the C drive. I found out I have this 900 GB unallocated partition so decided to utilise it. However, what I neglected to do was create subdirectories under this partition. I suspect I should also have a user library as well. Anyway, I simply went to each folder on the C drive, documents, pictures etc and move them over to the new drive thinking that the whole folder would be moved. Obviously I was wrong because all that happened was the content of the folders was put under the age drive. So basically I've now got everything from all folders under one drive. Luckily, I didn't have an awful lot on the computer and none of it is really that important because I've not had the computer very long and I've been very careful not to clog it up with rubbish. So as long as I keep a few important picture folders and text files I should be okay.

One issue you will have with your 76GB partition is that it will run out of space of the OS very quickly. Minimum size for a boot drive now is 120GB.

 

[britechguy]

I honestly have no idea who originally configured that system (and if it was you I apologize, this isn't personal) but I'd be ready to shoot them if I did.

Limiting the C: drive, the primary system drive, to 76 GB on a 1TB drive is a travesty.

What sounds daunting in my former instructions really isn't with MiniTool and similar. It allows you to make all the changes, showing them graphically as to how things will be after they've been made, but not applying any of them until you specifically tell it to. The main reason I proposed nuking the OEM recovery partition and moving the three small bits between your C: and N: partitions to the end was to simplify things for the expansion/merge afterward.

As @jeremyj_83 has noted, you are going to keep on having grief if you leave things as they are. If you never deleted your original source material from the C: drive that you copied "folderless" then you'd have nothing to worry about anyway. You could wipe the N: partition before merging it with C:, but don't have to.

Leaving your C: partition as small as it is is a truly bad idea that will only give you repeat episodes of grief.

 

[PennW]

This video should help you more than the screenshot

 

[britechguy]

Not that I don't appreciate the effort, but your screen capture resolution, whether video or image, is just awful, and I can't imagine why.

What I can see on the video still leaves me giving you the same advice I did earlier. Whether you choose to take it or not is entirely up to you, or if you wish to take it but modify it slightly is up to you.

You simply must end up with a larger space for the main Win10 system disc, which is the logical partition with the drive letter C:. Not doing this just perpetuates the issue(s) you're having.

 

[PennW]

Yes, make sense. Not sure why HP sold one of their PCs with a 1 TB hard drive but only 76 GB of it really usable, absolutely crazy.

 

[jsmithepa]

Yes, make sense. Not sure why HP sold one of their PCs with a 1 TB hard drive but only 76 GB of it really usable, absolutely crazy.

I highly doubt this is HP's doing. If u purchased this new from HP, they gave you an open box/refurb.

 

[britechguy]

And having bought HP refurbs (by them), and typing on one now, I know that they don't do this. The refurbed units ship exactly as configured when new. I wouldn't have known the two laptops I bought HP refurbed were not new other than from the packaging. Both have 2TB hard drives that are entirely partitioned for C: except for the recovery partition and EFI system partition.

 

[PennW]

I'm just getting ready to use mini partition Wizard. However, I was reading your instructions regarding removing the recovery partition. There are two recoveries listed in the wizard. One of them is E: RECOVERY (data partition) and the other one which doesn't have a letter next to it with (recovery partition) at the end. Should I remove both of them?

 

[PennW]

Okay, I've managed to increase the size of the C drive just over 500 GB which is more than I will ever need. I've also deleted the H drive which I created a few days ago that went back to being unallocated. However, when I go into file Explorer instead of seeing the five library folders I'm still seeing five library folders with H next to them. Obviously, nothing happens when I click on them because I removed the drive altogether. All the other libraries are in place and everything seems to work. However, to get the documents I've got to click on Windows (C) and then navigate through users. I want to get it back to where the folders were always along the top ready to be clicked on.