Recommended C drive size for Windows 10

[nvjnj]

I've been using Win10 for some time now and ran across the "Invalid MS-DOS function" error. After various attempts, I am planning on formatting my laptop.

What is the recommended size that I should partition my C drive?? I plan on installing all programs on the C drive, while games and other personal files will be installed/stored in drive D. I am an undergrad and need sufficient space in C for programs like Photoshop, Wamp, AutoCAD, etc... along with other necessary program. Also taking into account I use AVG as an antivirus. Sufficient space for Windows updates and AVG updates is necessary. My HDD is 500GB.

Any advice would be appreciated... I just don't want to wake up one day and realize I made a mistake in partitioning too much/ too little for C drive.

 

[blazorthon]

Do you really need to partition?

If you want to, then I'd think that around 100GB or 200GB should ensure that you never run into issues if you're installing programs on the C drive.

 

[geofelt]

Your question is exactly why my recommendation is to not partition a single drive at all.
A single partition gives you flexibility to manage space.
What are you trying to accomplish by partitioning?
Performance on a partitioned hard drive will be worse.

Also, I suggest you migrate to a ssd. The performance improvement will amaze you.
You can buy a 500gb Samsung 850 evo for <$200.
Use the Samsung migration tool to transfer everything to the ssd.
Then keep your hard drive as a checkpoint and backup.
Any critical user data should be backed up externally.

 

[Alec Mowat]

I've been using Win10 for some time now and ran across the "Invalid MS-DOS function" error. After various attempts, I am planning on formatting my laptop.

What is the recommended size that I should partition my C drive?? I plan on installing all programs on the C drive, while games and other personal files will be installed/stored in drive D. I am an undergrad and need sufficient space in C for programs like Photoshop, Wamp, AutoCAD, etc... along with other necessary program. Also taking into account I use AVG as an antivirus. Sufficient space for Windows updates and AVG updates is necessary. My HDD is 500GB.

Any advice would be appreciated... I just don't want to wake up one day and realize I made a mistake in partitioning too much/ too little for C drive.

What version of Windows are you running?

 

[nvjnj]

I already have like a 100GB size data I need to backup before formatting. I don't have any backup media of that capacity to make that transition. Shrinking my current disk to an appropriate size will help me move these file there, after which I can format C without worry.

And I was under the impression partitioning will make my pc more organized for use.

 

[nvjnj]

I've been using Win10 for some time now and ran across the "Invalid MS-DOS function" error. After various attempts, I am planning on formatting my laptop.

What is the recommended size that I should partition my C drive?? I plan on installing all programs on the C drive, while games and other personal files will be installed/stored in drive D. I am an undergrad and need sufficient space in C for programs like Photoshop, Wamp, AutoCAD, etc... along with other necessary program. Also taking into account I use AVG as an antivirus. Sufficient space for Windows updates and AVG updates is necessary. My HDD is 500GB.

Any advice would be appreciated... I just don't want to wake up one day and realize I made a mistake in partitioning too much/ too little for C drive.

What version of Windows are you running?

Windows 10

 

[nvjnj]

Your question is exactly why my recommendation is to not partition a single drive at all.
A single partition gives you flexibility to manage space.
What are you trying to accomplish by partitioning?
Performance on a partitioned hard drive will be worse.

Also, I suggest you migrate to a ssd. The performance improvement will amaze you.
You can buy a 500gb Samsung 850 evo for <$200.
Use the Samsung migration tool to transfer everything to the ssd.
Then keep your hard drive as a checkpoint and backup.
Any critical user data should be backed up externally.

I think my laptop does have an SSD HDD.

 

[cosmoji]

an ssd is not an hdd, though they funtion as the same compnent in your system, storage. an ssd is a "solid state drive" and is literally a giant memory card, in that it has no moving parts. its just a pcb with a bunch or chips on it. an hdd is a "hard disk drive" and actually has spinning platters and an arm that moves back and forth to read/write on platters.

as you can imagine, the ssd is usually a much better component in that its much less susceptible to being dropped, and most importantly without having to wait for it to spin up and parts to move the read/write speeds are vastly improved over an hdd. this is the performance increase you're hearing about. your system will boot faster, copy/move files faster, open folders with lots of stuff in them faster. an improvement to anything that involves reading from or writing to the drive.

now, assuming you want to just use this drive alone and not upgrade, this is my suggestion. first, move all your stuff on your "D" partition to to your main "C" partition, or to another form of storage like a removable drive.

open your file explorer. on the left, right click "this pc" and choose "manage". or you could type "computer management" in to your start search bar. in computer management, on the left side, click "disk management". its probably second from the bottom, under the "storage" catagory.

now in the middle, towards the bottom, is a graphical representation of your drive. you can see your C partition, your D partition, and probably a recovery and a system reserve partition. right click your D partition and choose "delete volume". this makes it unallocated space. then right click your C partition and choose "extend volume" to add the unallocated space to your C partition.

remember, back up everything on your D drive before this because it will all be deleted when you do this. after finishing, you can copy everything back in. there ARE third party programs to merge partitions for you without doing all this, but i have never used one before.

again, this is all assuming you dont want to just upgrade and go that route. maybe you just want more space total, instead of just combining your 2 partitions in to 1 usable space.

 

[nvjnj]

an ssd is not an hdd, though they funtion as the same compnent in your system, storage. an ssd is a "solid state drive" and is literally a giant memory card, in that it has no moving parts. its just a pcb with a bunch or chips on it. an hdd is a "hard disk drive" and actually has spinning platters and an arm that moves back and forth to read/write on platters.

as you can imagine, the ssd is usually a much better component in that its much less susceptible to being dropped, and most importantly without having to wait for it to spin up and parts to move the read/write speeds are vastly improved over an hdd. this is the performance increase you're hearing about. your system will boot faster, copy/move files faster, open folders with lots of stuff in them faster. an improvement to anything that involves reading from or writing to the drive.

now, assuming you want to just use this drive alone and not upgrade, this is my suggestion. first, move all your stuff on your "D" partition to to your main "C" partition, or to another form of storage like a removable drive.

open your file explorer. on the left, right click "this pc" and choose "manage". or you could type "computer management" in to your start search bar. in computer management, on the left side, click "disk management". its probably second from the bottom, under the "storage" catagory.

now in the middle, towards the bottom, is a graphical representation of your drive. you can see your C partition, your D partition, and probably a recovery and a system reserve partition. right click your D partition and choose "delete volume". this makes it unallocated space. then right click your C partition and choose "extend volume" to add the unallocated space to your C partition.

remember, back up everything on your D drive before this because it will all be deleted when you do this. after finishing, you can copy everything back in. there ARE third party programs to merge partitions for you without doing all this, but i have never used one before.

again, this is all assuming you dont want to just upgrade and go that route. maybe you just want more space total, instead of just combining your 2 partitions in to 1 usable space.

Okay yeah... sorry for the technical issue...i do have an SSD instead of an HDD.

I never had two partitions, I just wanted to figure out recommended C partition size for windows 10. I wanted to create another partition by shrinking my current single partition so that I can move my necessary data into it to take them through the formatting process without the need of external backup. However, thanks for pointing out my mistake.

 

[blazorthon]

If you don't try formatting the partitions like that and just install windows on the same partition, it should move everything that is currently on the drive to a folder in the root called "windows.old" without the quotes. I make no guarantees, but re-sizing partitions like that is also risky in that it too can cause data loss.

I have used both methods many times for various reasons and never had an issue; I'm just letting you know that there is risk involved either way.

 

[nvjnj]

If you don't try formatting the partitions like that and just install windows on the same partition, it should[/] move everything that is currently on the drive to a folder in the root called "windows.old" without the quotes. I make no guarantees, but re-sizing partitions like that is also risky in that it too can cause data loss.

I have used both methods many times for various reasons and never had an issue; I'm just letting you know that there is risk involved either way.

This is what I have:
-One C drive with everything in it.
-I need to format my drive due to a windows 10 error.
-I have around 100gb of data i need to backup for which i don't have a sufficiently sized external storage device.

My plan:
-Shrink my C partition to 200gb.
-Create new drive called D: with the remaining <300gb storage (total capacity=500gb)
-Move my 100gb data into D:
-Format C and reinstall Windows 10 on C:

Will this work??

 

[blazorthon]

lol my text formatting fail carried italics into your reply 😛

Yes, that should work. However, I must warn you that resizing a partition with data on it can cause data loss. This probably won't happen, I haven't had it happen to me, but it is always a possibility. It is best practice to have an external drive to backup things to just to be safe.

If you have no external drive for a backup and don't plan on getting one, then try it. It will probably work fine. I simply want to make sure you know that something can go wrong. Most programs with this feature warn you about this when you do it.

 

[Alec Mowat]

If you don't try formatting the partitions like that and just install windows on the same partition, it should move everything that is currently on the drive to a folder in the root called "windows.old" without the quotes. I make no guarantees, but re-sizing partitions like that is also risky in that it too can cause data loss.

I have used both methods many times for various reasons and never had an issue; I'm just letting you know that there is risk involved either way.

If you want to format your drive and create new partitions, you'll have to guess roughly what you need. 30 GB is enough for Windows 10, but the other programs will use considerably more space.

If you are planning on shrinking a partition and creating a new one?
Don't do that. That's a big risk on your OS drive.

 

[nvjnj]

lol my text formatting fail carried italics into your reply 😛

Yes, that should work. However, I must warn you that resizing a partition with data on it can cause data loss. This probably won't happen, I haven't had it happen to me, but it is always a possibility. It is best practice to have an external drive to backup things to just to be safe.

If you have no external drive for a backup and don't plan on getting one, then try it. It will probably work fine. I simply want to make sure you know that something can go wrong. Most programs with this feature warn you about this when you do it.

yea, i noticed that too...😛
Sure, thanks man. Appreciate it.

 

[nvjnj]

If you don't try formatting the partitions like that and just install windows on the same partition, it should move everything that is currently on the drive to a folder in the root called "windows.old" without the quotes. I make no guarantees, but re-sizing partitions like that is also risky in that it too can cause data loss.

I have used both methods many times for various reasons and never had an issue; I'm just letting you know that there is risk involved either way.

If you want to format your drive and create new partitions, you'll have to guess roughly what you need. 30 GB is enough for Windows 10, but the other programs will use considerably more space.

If you are planning on shrinking a partition and creating a new one?
Don't do that. That's a big risk on your OS drive.

What do you mean "Big Risk"?? It is an option provided by Disk Management and widely used right??

 

[MassEffectIT]

I would recommend not partitioning it at all.
Haven't really seen the need for this, since we are long way away from the XP days where you would reinstall Windows every couple of month

 

[Alec Mowat]

If you don't try formatting the partitions like that and just install windows on the same partition, it should move everything that is currently on the drive to a folder in the root called "windows.old" without the quotes. I make no guarantees, but re-sizing partitions like that is also risky in that it too can cause data loss.

I have used both methods many times for various reasons and never had an issue; I'm just letting you know that there is risk involved either way.

If you want to format your drive and create new partitions, you'll have to guess roughly what you need. 30 GB is enough for Windows 10, but the other programs will use considerably more space.

If you are planning on shrinking a partition and creating a new one?
Don't do that. That's a big risk on your OS drive.

What do you mean "Big Risk"?? It is an option provided by Disk Management and widely used right??

Shrinking the disk requires a 3rd party application to move all the data from the entire span of the disk into a smaller area, than delete that data.
It's a big risk to shrink a disk, there's a very good chance you'll break both partitions.
Never shrink a system disk. And I wouldn't shrink any disk to be honest. Format the disk, and use one partition.

If you don't allocate enough space now, you are just setting yourself up for future disk space issues that are going to require a format. There is no benefit to multiple partitions on the same disk. You are just reducing performance slightly and setting yourself up for an avoidable space issue in the future.

 

[nvjnj]

If you don't try formatting the partitions like that and just install windows on the same partition, it should move everything that is currently on the drive to a folder in the root called "windows.old" without the quotes. I make no guarantees, but re-sizing partitions like that is also risky in that it too can cause data loss.

I have used both methods many times for various reasons and never had an issue; I'm just letting you know that there is risk involved either way.

If you want to format your drive and create new partitions, you'll have to guess roughly what you need. 30 GB is enough for Windows 10, but the other programs will use considerably more space.

If you are planning on shrinking a partition and creating a new one?
Don't do that. That's a big risk on your OS drive.

What do you mean "Big Risk"?? It is an option provided by Disk Management and widely used right??

Shrinking the disk requires a 3rd party application to move all the data from the entire span of the disk into a smaller area, than delete that data.
It's a big risk to shrink a disk, there's a very good chance you'll break both partitions.
Never shrink a system disk. And I wouldn't shrink any disk to be honest. Format the disk, and use one partition.

If you don't allocate enough space now, you are just setting yourself up for future disk space issues that are going to require a format. There is no benefit to multiple partitions on the same disk. You are just reducing performance slightly and setting yourself up for an avoidable space issue in the future.

I really do understand what you mean. But you have to understand that I HAVE to format the disk due to a Windows 10 error. Because I did not partition earlier and had everything in C, I am having difficulty finding a backup media that can sufficiently hold the data i need to migrate, because whole of C would be wiped out. If I did partition beforehand, I would only have to format C while keeping my data safe in the other partition.

 

[blazorthon]

You guys aren't paying attention to what the problem is. OP's windows is ruined and he needs to reinstall. If you can't backup data that you want to keep, then these are the two options I see:

1. Shrink the disk and allocate the now unused space to a new partition, install windows there. The old partition should be intact and shouldn't lose data, but sometimes data loss does occur when data is written near the end of the partition. This is most common when you have deleted a lot of things, leaving some data on the other end of the partition with a big gap between it and the rest of your data. If you don't shrink past the highest point where your partition has had data, then this should not have any risk at all. Removing things you don't need such as the previous Windows directory is fairly easy if the new partition has enough capacity to fit all of your old data. You just copy it all over and then format the old partition.

2. Install a fresh copy of windows on the same partition as you already have without reformatting anything. Assuming you don't accidentally reformat the partition while installing windows, all of your old data should automatically be moved to a folder with this path: C:\Windows.old
Windows.old will have the exact same structure as your C drive had before installing your new copy of windows. It will also be a bit of a pain to get rid of anything that was system protected, but no longer needed, such as the old windows directory.

Theoretically, option 2 should be a little bit less risky because you don't need to keep track of where data is logically stored in the partition in order to avoid accidentally deleting it, but then you're trusting that Windows will do what you want it to while installing.

Again, I've done both of these and never had an issue, but you never know. The last time I tried these was when I was having a driver issue where I couldn't install a graphics driver without breaking windows and I fixed it by installing an older version of windows (server 2012 instead of server 2012 R2) a few weeks ago.

 

[Alec Mowat]

You guys aren't paying attention to what the problem is. OP's windows is ruined and he needs to reinstall. If you can't backup data that you want to keep, then these are the two options I see:

1. Shrink the disk and allocate the now unused space to a new partition, install windows there. The old partition should be intact and shouldn't lose data, but sometimes data loss does occur when data is written near the end of the partition. This is most common when you have deleted a lot of things, leaving some data on the other end of the partition with a big gap between it and the rest of your data. If you don't shrink past the highest point where your partition has had data, then this should not have any risk at all. Removing things you don't need such as the previous Windows directory is fairly easy if the new partition has enough capacity to fit all of your old data. You just copy it all over and then format the old partition.

2. Install a fresh copy of windows on the same partition as you already have without reformatting anything. Assuming you don't accidentally reformat the partition while installing windows, all of your old data should automatically be moved to a folder with this path: C:\Windows.old
Windows.old will have the exact same structure as your C drive had before installing your new copy of windows. It will also be a bit of a pain to get rid of anything that was system protected, but no longer needed, such as the old windows directory.

Theoretically, option 2 should be a little bit less risky because you don't need to keep track of where data is logically stored in the partition in order to avoid accidentally deleting it, but then you're trusting that Windows will do what you want it to while installing.

Again, I've done both of these and never had an issue, but you never know. The last time I tried these was when I was having a driver issue where I couldn't install a graphics driver without breaking windows and I fixed it by installing an older version of windows (server 2012 instead of server 2012 R2) a few weeks ago.

1. Backup the files you want to keep to another drive/USB key/Google Drive/Onedrive
2. Format the disk
3. Install Windows on a single partition.
4. End.

Don't mess around with partitions, it's not worth the effort. You are just creating problems and instability issues in the future. You should be able to just right click on the disk in System Manager and shrink it, or do it from CMD on the CD
https://www.petri.com/shrink-system-partition-in-windows-7

What will happen, is one partition will eventually be too small, and one will have free space available. You won't be able to expand or shrink the partitions in Windows and you'll end up in another situation where you need to format.

Just use one partition per disk.

 

[blazorthon]

There is almost no effort to waste because it only takes a few clicks of the mouse and a reboot using a free program such as Minitool's partition wizard free edition. There is no risk of instability. The only risk is data loss and that can be minimized by not shrinking past the point where data has been located. That's easy enough so long as you haven't completely filled the SSD. Furthermore, you shouldn't ever run into a problem where one partition is too full and the other has lots of free space. Simply use both partitions; problem solved without reformatting.

Again, OP doesn't have an external drive to backup the data. That leaves backing up a non-option if OP doesn't want to pay for one.

 

[nvjnj]

You guys aren't paying attention to what the problem is. OP's windows is ruined and he needs to reinstall. If you can't backup data that you want to keep, then these are the two options I see:

1. Shrink the disk and allocate the now unused space to a new partition, install windows there. The old partition should be intact and shouldn't lose data, but sometimes data loss does occur when data is written near the end of the partition. This is most common when you have deleted a lot of things, leaving some data on the other end of the partition with a big gap between it and the rest of your data. If you don't shrink past the highest point where your partition has had data, then this should not have any risk at all. Removing things you don't need such as the previous Windows directory is fairly easy if the new partition has enough capacity to fit all of your old data. You just copy it all over and then format the old partition.

2. Install a fresh copy of windows on the same partition as you already have without reformatting anything. Assuming you don't accidentally reformat the partition while installing windows, all of your old data should automatically be moved to a folder with this path: C:\Windows.old
Windows.old will have the exact same structure as your C drive had before installing your new copy of windows. It will also be a bit of a pain to get rid of anything that was system protected, but no longer needed, such as the old windows directory.

Theoretically, option 2 should be a little bit less risky because you don't need to keep track of where data is logically stored in the partition in order to avoid accidentally deleting it, but then you're trusting that Windows will do what you want it to while installing.

Again, I've done both of these and never had an issue, but you never know. The last time I tried these was when I was having a driver issue where I couldn't install a graphics driver without breaking windows and I fixed it by installing an older version of windows (server 2012 instead of server 2012 R2) a few weeks ago.

That a much better solution. I'll try the second option. Too bad I already picked the solution...:-(

 

[Layarion]

I've been using Win10 for some time now and ran across the "Invalid MS-DOS function" error. After various attempts, I am planning on formatting my laptop.

What is the recommended size that I should partition my C drive?? I plan on installing all programs on the C drive, while games and other personal files will be installed/stored in drive D. I am an undergrad and need sufficient space in C for programs like Photoshop, Wamp, AutoCAD, etc... along with other necessary program. Also taking into account I use AVG as an antivirus. Sufficient space for Windows updates and AVG updates is necessary. My HDD is 500GB.

Any advice would be appreciated... I just don't want to wake up one day and realize I made a mistake in partitioning too much/ too little for C drive.

no one seems ti really want to answer the question, and i was hoping for one. So i'll just make my own answer

I have an 250GB SSD and a 3TB HDD. I get funky malware on chrome a lot, so i keep my stuff on D whenever possible for easy windows reinstall.

then i use my SSD for windows and things like video editing. Problem is i got the SSD for speed but i don't move much stuff there because i don't want to reformat for that day when windows decides it don't wanna work.

so i think i'll make a 60GB partition, and use the rest for apps and everything else because...instead of using windows refresh, i will use a system image of C instead. This way i don't have to reinstall and re-register every app.

See if you windows refresh you gotta go to every app you install and get neew text codes, and 2-3 step verification proccesses again. with a clone of my C partition i won't need to do that, thus saving lots o time. so yes, it helps you organize, and in the case of manual backups, it helps with speed and saving space on how large those backups might be. hint: i aint using windows backup because it is a major pain in the a** with it's "requirements" damn thing won't let me use my 3TB HDD and when it does it says the system image is gonna be 1.9TB big! what a waste of space that program is.

i'll use AOMEI backupper