Running out of space on my Windows drive

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[lenrdbik]

I have an HP ENVY All-in-One – 27-b119. It comes with two installed physical drives. (I’m going by Microsoft Disk Management.)

Disk 0 is 119.23 GB divided into 3 partitions – 1) 260 MB EFI System partition; 2) 117.27 GB NTFS Windows partition; and 3) 1.70 GB Recovery partition.

Disk 1 is 931.51 GB divided into 2 partitions – 1) 915.99 GB NTFS Primary partition; and 2) 15.53 GB NTFS OEM partition (Recovery).

The C drive has 35 GB free out of 117 GB.

The Windows 10 installation is getting too big for its partition. I have moved as many Microsoft Store apps as possible to the other drive, deleted all unnecessary files and programs, etc., etc. I think it’s time to try to move it to  Disk 1.

I’m pretty good at backing up, re-installing Windows, re-partitioning drives, etc. (advanced intermediate).

Is moving Windows in this situation advisable? And what would the logistics of it be, setting aside backing up files, etc. (which I know how to do). I’m thinking backup everything, change the drive letters so that Windows would still be on “C”, and just do a Windows reinstall except reinstall it to the primary partition of Disk 1 (the new C drive) instead of to Disk 0. Then I would maybe split that partition to provide some storage space, because even Windows 10 doesn’t require 915 GB (yet). Am I missing anything? BIOS settings?

Thanks.

• This topic was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by lenrdbik.

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A better solution will be to replace the the NVMe M.2 SSD C drive to a bigger SSD drive and restoring from backup to to new drive.

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lenrdbik

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I was afraid someone would say that. The fact is, although I have replaced a drive before, I have a lot less confidence in my hardware skills than in my software skills.

At this point frankly, I wouldn’t know how to find and identify a larger capacity drive that would be a replacement for mine.

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You cann’t go wrong with Samsung EVO NVMe SSD drives.
Go to Crucial.com, enter you PC model and look for NVMe SSDs and you will get list of compatible drives.

You need to know your current SSD model and characteristics (SSD NVMe PCIe 3×4 M.2 2280)

You can check current installed SSD model with portable Speccy app.

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Agree with Alex; put in MINIMUM 240 GB drive.

Zig

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lenrdbik

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[Bundaburra]

Does your C drive have anything on it, apart from Windows itself?  You say “35 GB free out of 117 GB”, which implies about 82 GB in use.  On my PC I have Windows 10 2004 on the C drive (including the usual Program Files, Users, Windows folders etc.) but nothing much else, and it is using about 44 GB.  (My data is on a separate drive).  As a starting point, run Disk Cleanup on the C drive, and check that “Windows Update Cleanup” is selected.  You may be surprised at how much would be deleted, but it could run for a long time.  Run a backup first, of course, if you don’t have a recent one.

Windows 10 Pro 64 bit 20H2

• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by Bundaburra.

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lenrdbik

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Disk Cleanup should be “run as Administrator” to see  “Windows Update Cleanup.”

Be sure to UNCHECK the “Downloads” folder.

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lenrdbik

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Thanks, Bundabura and PKCano. 4 GB for Windows Update cleanup.

This is just a holding action. It’s going to be a new system drive for this baby.

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Just be aware that there are 2 types of M.2 80mm SSD drives – SATA III and NVME. Identify which type you’ve got before deciding on a replacement. You’ll also need a USB M.2 drive holder (of the appropriate type) to transfer your System drive to the new one using one of the free cloning tools available. Hardest part will be getting the back of the case off – but there’s a Youtube for that.

Zig

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lenrdbik

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No, I did NOT know that about M.2 80mm SSD drives, Zig. Thank you very much!

I don’t know what you mean by a drive holder, but I think I do see the problem (maybe). I don’t have any data on the Windows drive, aside from AppData. I was planning to just reinstall Windows and all my apps and programs, not clone the drive. Cloning would involve having both drives connected at the same time, wouldn’t it, and I don’t know if the motherboard has the connections for an additional drive.

(I think I’m beginning to reveal how much I don’t know about this.)

And yes, I’ve seen the YouTube on how to get the case open (whew!).

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[Alex5723]

You can run the portable free 100largest files or portable free Treesize in order to find out what is hogging your C drive.

My version of Windows 10 1909 Pro including sleep and hibernation take just 60GB.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by Alex5723.

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Biiljoy, doriel

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[JohnW]

WinDirStat is a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for various versions of Microsoft Windows. Quickly see what the biggest folders/files are hogging you drive.

Free.

Get it here: https://windirstat.net/

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by JohnW.

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The problem with WinDirStat is that the app doesn’t break down System Volume Information list of files and other protected folders. TreeSize does.

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Biiljoy, JohnW

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[Alex5723]

Alex5723 wrote:

You can run the portable free 100largest files or portable free Treesize in order to find out what is hogging your C drive.

My version of Windows 10 1909 Pro including sleep and hibernation take just 60GB.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by Alex5723.

X2 I love treesize because of the visual graph.  If you set it to percentage of storage space shown and can see in a graph it becomes obvious if you have a cache gobbling space or whatever it is.  Obviously the solution is a bigger drive though.

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Although I have used WinDirStat, I prefer the (somewhat less flashy, but more features) SpaceSniffer: http://www.uderzo.it/main_products/space_sniffer/download.html

Zig

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lenrdbik wrote:

I was planning to just reinstall Windows and all my apps and programs, not clone the drive. Cloning would involve having both drives connected at the same time, wouldn’t it, and I don’t know if the motherboard has the connections for an additional drive.

One way around this limitation of cloning might be to image the drive (instead of cloning it). Using your favorite backup program, you can create a full-disk image of all the partitions on that M.2 drive to any other kind of drive that you can connect to the computer. That drive could be a traditional magnetic hard drive connected via USB. Then, when you’re ready, you can replace the M.2 drive with a suitable new one inside the computer case, and then–again using your favorite backup software–copy that image from the hard drive to the new M.2 drive. Reboot into the new M.2 drive.

Once you have everything up and running, you can extend the Windows partition on the new M.2 drive to use the drive’s full capacity.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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JohnW

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Alex5723 wrote:

The problem with WinDirStat is that the app doesn’t break down System Volume Information list of files and other protected folders. TreeSize does.

Thanks for the tip! I like the improved scan speed!

The System Information Folder on my system is only 0.8% of my C: drive. But that would be useful to know if Windows was hiding enormous chunks of data in protected folders. FYI, you will need to run TreeSize as ‘Administrator’ to access the protected folders.

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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Cybertooth wrote:

copy that image from the hard drive to the new M.2 drive

The only quibble I would have with that comment is that it would probably be better to say “Restore that image from the hard drive to the new M.2 drive”. Not sure that a copy would achieve the desired result…

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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Cybertooth

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[Cybertooth]

@JohnW, yes, that was imprecise language on my part. “Restore” is the right term for what I meant. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by Cybertooth.

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If you have a drive enclosure that works for cloning with less sata jacks.

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Biiljoy wrote:

If you have a drive enclosure that works for cloning with less sata jacks.

This YouTube video covers the process using an M.2 enclosure and Partition Wizard:

https://youtu.be/egNMtC3vwN0

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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Zig wrote:

You’ll also need a USB M.2 drive holder

You can manage without the adapter.

Make an image to a USB hard disk using your favourite backup software.
Make a bootable USB for the backup software and make sure you can boot from it.
Remove the old drive and install the new one.
Boot from the USB.
Restore the image to the new drive.

cheers, Paul

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Paul T wrote:

You can manage without the adapter. Make an image to a USB hard disk using your favourite backup software. Make a bootable USB for the backup software and make sure you can boot from it. Remove the old drive and install the new one. Boot from the USB. Restore the image to the new drive.

Yes, that is correct!

But it’s a two-step solution to a one-step problem. Although it is a great work around if you don’t have or want to buy a USB drive adapter.

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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FWIW the adapters run about $30 and are useful tools to have around. Others are right, however, about the 2-step method being an alternative.

Zig

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Zig wrote:

FWIW the adapters run about $30 and are useful tools to have around. Others are right, however, about the 2-step method being an alternative.

Zig

For a standard 2.5″ SATA to USB 3.0 adapter this is $8.99, and worked flawlessly for me with both SSD and spinning HDDs. https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-2-5-Inch-Adapter-Optimized-EC-SSHD/dp/B011M8YACM

But for the M.2 type connections they seem to run in the $20 and up range. May be an incentive to perform an extra restore step from a regular external drive if you just need to upgrade once.

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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The one good reason to buy an adapter is you can then use the old disk as a backup disk.

cheers, Paul

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JohnW

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