Making a Win7 partition

[alexanderfc]

Everything is hunky dory with the partition and the operating system... but it is using one heck of a lot of storage. I have a 1TB HDD and gave the partition to install Win7, 20GB. I thought that would be absolutely fine as it's only the Home Premium edition, it works great, but when it came to install all the drivers etc I hit a snag on the very last one... one of the most important, the driver for my dedicated GPU.

Why can I not install this I ask myself, after a few tries I do a bit of exploring to find all 20GB have been used! The size the partition was made was supposed to hold both the OS and a few programs not stable in Win10.

None of the software takes up a huge amount of space, the most being 371MB from Intel ProSet Software and all others that follow ~20MB.

I have reluctantly given the partition an extra 10GB, but is there something I'm missing?

Thanks!

 

[Kurz]

WinDirStat you can get it on Ninite.com
You'll see where the space is going to.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there alexanderfc,

Most probably, your system is creating some restore points.
My advice would be to delete all the previous restore points and reduce the space allocated for System Restore.

Apart from that, you can use the tool that Kurz suggested and see if you can free up some more space.

It may be a good idea to expand your OS partition. You can do so through Disk Management. If you can't do that, you can provide a screenshot of Disk Management so we can have a clearer picture.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[alexanderfc]

It may be a good idea to expand your OS partition. You can do so through Disk Management. If you can't do that, you can provide a screenshot of Disk Management so we can have a clearer picture.

Rather annoyingly it wouldn't let me extend it from another unallocated partition taken from the my C Drive, I've had to delete my Win7 partition, so it can merge with the extra 10GB, now to start the process all over again, [strike]fingers crossed 30GB is enough![/strike] I'm just going to make it 50GB to be on the safe side!

 

[D_Know_WD]

Well, in similar cases, when you can't do similar partition management through Disk Management, you can use some third party partition management tool. Yet, you need to keep in mind that you need to back up your data first. Things could sometimes go wrong when dealing with partitions.

Even if you make your partition 30 GB, the space filling up issue could continue. So, check out the system restore options.

D_Know_WD

 

[alexanderfc]

Even if you make your partition 30 GB, the space filling up issue could continue. So, check out the system restore options.

Yes, just had a look on the Microsoft website, I'm surprised it does require 20GB storage:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/10737/windows-7-system-requirements

50GB should be plenty! But I will still check out the restore points. Thanks.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Give win7 partition at least 70GB of disk space or you'll have to increase it later.
There are processes like disk defragmentation, that require certain amount of free space to work effectively.

 

[photonboy]

20GB isn't even close to being enough.
50GB would be the bare minimum I'd suggest, depending on what you plan to install.

Windows eats up memory over time. If you're careful you can keep it down:
a) do NOT allow Hibernation for W7
b) go to Cleanup-> System cleanup, especially after major updates as W7 may have made a large backup IMAGE (i.e. W7.old or similar name)

*don't agonize over 30GB vs 50GB. If you are that close to running out of space with W10 on the remainder you should be getting another drive anyway, but if not then it's not an issue.

So my advice is:
50GB - a few light programs (if a few games, then add up the install amount and add to this)

Alternative:
I'd recommend getting a cheap drive and use it for W7 by itself, or consider getting an inexpensive SSD for Windows 10, then W7 on the HDD Part1, and rest of HDD for W10 Steam games, other media, backups etc

You can get a 320GB new HDD for $20 (plus ship)
http://pcpartpicker.com/product/rd7wrH/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd3200aajs