Windows keeps filling up my C partition

ProGamer643

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Mar 14, 2011
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Hi, so I did a SSD (120gb) upgrade on my dad's old computer, all went relatively fine. I made a C drive partition with the intention this was to be for the OS only, (about 18gb). Rest was divided into another partition, D drive (about 95GB). Now the problem I'm facing is every time I install something, even if I install it to the D: drive, Windows puts stuff in the C: drive, so now its full and I can't install anything. Is there a way to mark C: drive as OS only so that nothing resides there apart from the OS?
 
Solution
I made a C drive partition with the intention this was to be for the OS only, (about 18gb)

Major fail.
A 120GB drive should not be partitioned at all. Use the whole drive for the OS.

Even if you were able to have 'everything else' go to another drive or partition, 18GB is far, far too small.

But...you can't. Many things become part of the OS.
Run any Windows updates lately? That is part of the OS.

Many other things should be on the same drive/partition as the OS.

Installing things to another drive/partition...some little bits do end up on the C. There is nothing you can do about that.

Solution?
Use a rational size drive or partition for the OS.
120GB absolute minimum.

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
I made a C drive partition with the intention this was to be for the OS only, (about 18gb)

Major fail.
A 120GB drive should not be partitioned at all. Use the whole drive for the OS.

Even if you were able to have 'everything else' go to another drive or partition, 18GB is far, far too small.

But...you can't. Many things become part of the OS.
Run any Windows updates lately? That is part of the OS.

Many other things should be on the same drive/partition as the OS.

Installing things to another drive/partition...some little bits do end up on the C. There is nothing you can do about that.

Solution?
Use a rational size drive or partition for the OS.
120GB absolute minimum.
 
Solution

ProGamer643

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Mar 14, 2011
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Thanks. This is the first time really I've bothered to partition my drive, thought I'd do things 'right' this time instead of being lazy haha. I'll just merge them back together
 

USAFRet

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If it were me, I wouldn't even try to 'merge.
I'd wipe the whole drive and do a full reinstall.

Probably faster, and guaranteed to work.


Partitioning used to be a good thing. 20 years ago, when drives and space was stupidly expensive.
Now, not so much.
 

ProGamer643

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Yeah that's not a bad idea, I have not installed much so it won't be a problem

 

ProGamer643

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Thanks, I'll definitely keep this in mind
 

USAFRet

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Problem with that is...some things you DO want on the OS drive, especially if it is an SSD. AV, browsers, etc.
Junction point your Program Files folder, and you have those living on maybe the slow secondary HDD.
 

bloodroses

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That is definitely the trade off for going that route. In those cases, he will need to install those programs into a folder other than Program Files to be able to take advantage of the SSD performance.

What I ended up doing on my machine is I created a junction point to the c:\games folder on my primary SSD drive, and put my games on a 2nd disk since I was running out of space. Luckily the games I play aren't really affected by the hard drive 7200rpm speeds.
What makes it really nice for me as well is if I choose to add a 3rd drive later, I can just copy the contents of the second drive to the third and redo the junction point. This way I don't need to worry about issues with pathing in the registry.
I also have junction points for my c:\user\<name>\Music, c:\user\<name>\Videos, and c:\emus folders; pointing to equivalent folders on my second drive.
 

USAFRet

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That functionality is built into the OS.
Properties/Location.

Same with the Steam and Origin clients. Built into their functionality.

Again, no need for jp's.

But if it works for you...go for it.
 

bloodroses

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Yeah, it was just more convenient at the time; especially with the emus folder since some of the emus I have are picky on their pathing.