Lost partition size

[devWaleed]

Well, my problem is so strange that I don't know how to search on internet to get help. They only thing came in my mind is Tom's hardware forums.

I bought this Laptop few months ago and it came only with 1 partition, the C drive. I used mini tool partition magic wizard software to divide the partition into smaller parts so I can use them efficiently. My hard drive is around 512 GB and after splitting it goes like this:

New sizes:
C: 100GB
D: 100GB
E: 250GB

That's 450 GB but we all know 512 GB hard drive is never 512 in real and that's another theory...

The problem is, My C drive has only 3 GB remaining. I was shocked! I update all of my software and Windows whenever a new update is available but I know my programs can never make up to 100 GB.

I started to check each folder size in C 1 by 1. Combined all folders were around 48 GB, lets say 50 GB. Where's the remaining 50 GB ? I don't know what should I do. The only thing I can think of as a solution is to wait for the Windows 10 then completely wipe my C drive and start from scratch. Is there any other way? I am sure there is!

Please kindly help me. Thank you!

 

[mbarnes86]

Hi

Some windows folders are hidden from you
Those used for restore points for example
Run disk cleanup
If will offer to remove most restore points for you

Or do it manually and allocate less space for them as well as the size of the recycle bin

You did not say how much ram you have
There is a hidden file the size of the ram for hibernation and swap file

Regards
Mike Barnes

 

[Solandri]

C: 100GB
D: 100GB
E: 250GB

That's 450 GB but we all know 512 GB hard drive is never 512 in real and that's another theory...

The problem is, My C drive has only 3 GB remaining. I was shocked! I update all of my software and Windows whenever a new update is available but I know my programs can never make up to 100 GB.

This is why you shouldn't partition your drive unless you absolutely need it (e.g. installing other operating systems). I used to create a OS and data partition as you have, and it caused way more headaches than it saved. Now I just put both into one partition and have an external drive backing up my data if I should ever have to reinstall.

It's better to have everything on one partition, organized by folders. That way the remaining free space can be shared by everything, and you won't run into a situation where one partition is almost full while another has lots of free space. Newer filesystems allow virtual allocation, where partitions can "grow" with physical free space shared among different partitions. But Microsoft seems to have done little development on NTFS since about 2000, so you don't get neat toys like that.

In your particular case, check the amount of disk space allocated to System Restore. In many Windows installations, it gives itself 50% of the disk space, which is just stupid.

Start -> Control Panel -> System -> System Protection -> Configure

The slider is probably set to something stupid like 50%. Lower it to a sane value, like 10 GB.

 

[devWaleed]

@Solandri: Thank you for the detailed answer. I created multiple partitions to avoid viruses. Sometimes I have to download stuff from torrents, better safe than sorry 😀 And yes It was using 50% around 34GB for system restore. I reduced it to 15% that is 15 GB. Now 35% space available which is perfect! Thank you!