Merging Partitions
- Thread starter jbpjb500
- Start date
ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
That might not be wise unless you also have a Windows install DVD and a drivers DVD for that machine. If you don't you need the recovery partition.
Can you post the sizes of these 5 partitions? I rather suspect you'll find that the recovery partition is just a few GB and the other 3 partitions are measured in MB (that's typically the case). What this means is that deleting the other partitions will lose you a useful feature and not gain you very much disk space at all.
It won't be possible to merge these partitions and maintain the functionality of the recovery partition, it has to be a unique (bootable) partition, so deleting them is the only way to recover their space, but as I said they're probably tiny partitions in any case and not worth the hassle.
The first 3 are only around 300mb each , the recovery partition 6.3gb,i have a windows disc and all drivers, when setup as required I tend to use Paragon for a system image so no need for a restore partition.
ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
So you'll recover only 7GB, less than 6% of your disk space, if you delete these partitions and extend your C: partition into the space. Is that really worth it? If you desperately need that 7GB then your SSD is just not big enough.
I know it looks messy having all those partitions (which you can't use) but the space they are taking up is tiny - really it is. If it we're mine I'd leave it alone.
So you'll recover only 7GB, less than 6% of your disk space, if you delete these partitions and extend your C: partition into the space. Is that really worth it? If you desperately need that 7GB then your SSD is just not big enough.
I know it looks messy having all those partitions (which you can't use) but the space they are taking up is tiny - really it is. If it we're mine I'd leave it alone.
Ok thanks for your reply
Buzz
Master
Yeh I agree with ubuysa. Forgetting about everything else, 7 gig really isnt worth it. However, if you do have a FULL windows install cd and windows activation key, along with all backed up drivers then in essence the restore partition in my opinion is a waste of time as I'd never really restore from that myself anyway. Id always do a full fresh install and format the drives and create new partitions while installing windows, or use a system image file. The smaller partitions are needed. One will be the MBR 100mb usually (Master Boot Record) and is needed to install operating system and will always return regardless of formatting or merging partitions. The other two smaller partitions depend on your system setup. They could be used as the page file location or a raid setup or what not, but again as ubuysa says its minor space for the hassle of it all. Is it just in partition software or computer management you are seeing the partitions rather then in my computer, all bar the recovery partition id imagine?
Partitions are only displayed in disk management and Paragon, I use Paragon disk manager to create images on a 1TB drive I only use ssd for OS, at the moment I have only windows installed nothing else and I only have 52gb left, so I wanted to free up some space.
ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
Do you only have the SSD or do you gave a hard disk as well?
If you don't use hibernation at all you can free up quite a bit of disk space by turning it off. Open a command prompt and enter "powercfg -h off" (without the quotes). That will delete the hiberfil.sys file which will be many GB in size.
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I have a 1TB drive I use for data.
ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
Then you can also free up space by moving the pagefile to your hard disk. You can do that by going to Control Panel > System > Advanced System Settings. Click the Performance Settings button and then the Advanced tab. Click the Change button to modify your pagefile and select No paging file for your SSD and a System managed paging file on your HDD. Now reboot. That will save you several tens of GB as well, so with hiberfil.sys deleted (if you don't use hibernation) and the pagefile moved you should have recovered a ton of space.
Thanks for all your advice will try out all suggestions.
Have tried out all your suggestions, after installing most programs that I use I ended up with only 28gb left on drive then tried your suggestions and ended up with 48gb free. I have another pcs machine with a 128gb ssd and with all programs installed I have 88gb free, why the difference, is it because on this pc I never installed an OEM version of Windows. This pc has no other partitions at all just the c drive.
ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
Did you upgrade this version of Windows from a previous one? If you did there will be a Windows.old folder which you can safely delete.
You might want to download WinDirStat from http://windirstat.info/ (it's free). That will show you exactly where all the allocated space is going.