How to free up C: Drive space?

Right now my C drive has 0 free space.

I'm running Vista 64 Ultimate.

The C drive is partitioned to 29.2 GB.
Windows Folders is 20.2GB
Program files are 3.8

Where is the missing 5 GB free space?
After I did an windows update I'm at 0 free space, I should be around 3GB....

Any ideas, thanks

 

system restore/shadow copy are the first suspects.
I've also found significant space in C:\users\%username%\appdata. There's 3 folders in there, and sometimes, one will have quite a bit of temp files.

 

1) go to c:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download and delete all the files in there, it is safe to do so, they are just temporarily downloaded Windows update files which you can safely delete.

2) delete your temporary files
3) enable hidden folders, then go to C:\ and delete a folder called MSOCACHE. it is safe to delete and will give you an additional 600 MB or so of space. (this is the temporary installation folder for Microsoft Office incase and is 100% safe to delete.)
4) Move your Virtual memory or paging file to D: rather than keeping it on C:


If you need further clarification on how to do any of the steps above, do let me know.

 

how much ram do you have in the machine? I think part of your missing space might be the windows page file and/or the hibernation file.

With regards to freeing up free space on your drive C, you can try:
running disk cleanup
running ccleaner
limiting the amount of space system restores uses (or if you're comfortable, just disable it)
If you don't use hibernation, you can run also delete those files
delete everything in the folder C:\Windows\softwaredistribution\download (this is where windows update dumps install files)
reducing the size of your page file
installing some applications

In short, theres a lot you can do.

 

try downloading the 30-day free trial of R-Wipe & Clean. i run ccleaner typically, but R-Wipe & Clean had even more clean options as well as a decent wiper. try a program like WinDirStat to take a better look at the contents of the drive. be careful with that one though.

 

time for a bigger hdd man!

 

I'm on a 320gig but only made C: 30 gigs......should have it made 50!

THanks for all the advice...working on it now

 

I have 4 GB RAM
i erased the hibernation files..

how can i move the virtual memory files (4.6gig) to my other partition?

 

How?

When you say "D" do you mean my other partition? (I have my storage partition named "M:")

I did everything suggested so far and freed up 1 gig....

 

Perhaps there's a hidden partition somewhere with some crucial files only accessable via a restore CD or restore utility?

 

no restore CD with this laptop..

 

Oh well thats easy to fix.

Just extend the partition, Vista can do it for you.

Start Button --> Right Click "Computer" --> Select "Manage" --> Select "Disk Management" --> Right Click your C: and choose "Extend Partition" Choose a new size and then it will make it bigger and you wont lose files.

If you cant extend the C: because your D: is using all remaining space wich is probably the case, just Shrink the D: first the amount you want to extend the C:, its easy to do and will have your problem fixed in a jiffy.

 

I shrank my storage partition but cannot extend my C: to the unallocated space (I tried formatting it, still doesn't work).

I can extend the M: drive with the unallocated space, but cannot extend the C:

 

increase the C: partiton size :|

Edit just read above, nevermind.

 

There is a reason, maybe you need more space on the drive or something is not being done right.

I would temporarly move a chunk of files to the partition with more space to free up some C: space to see if it will let you extend it.

It may be like defragmenting a disk where so much must be free.

If you really cant figure it out there are other programs like partition magic or g parted you can try that can do it also.

Also your drive letters are not standard and sounds like you have multiple drives since you said you have a M drive.

You need to shrink what ever partition is sharing the same physical hard drive as your C: to extend it.

 

To extend C: he needs to defrag his partitions using vista defragmenter.


Will take a while

 

Download trial or buy Auslogics BoostSpeed and run defrag and disk clean up manager. It helps a lot. I have it run it every time I surf on web and don't have nothing much to do. Best thing is you can wipe your disk that means it deletes all of the old re-covry files for Recyclibin ect.
Give it a try...

Note: I use full version. But you can download 15 days trial of I'm not wrong...

 

Most likely you're not being allowed to monkey with the .c:\ partition because that's the system partition and a lot of the files are in use by the system.

If you want to add the unallocated space to your .c:\ partition, you should use something like EASEUS' Partition Manager (free for personal use), gparted, or the like.

I've used EASEUS' partition manager to resize the system partition in XP installations, and what it does to deal with the system-files-in-use issue is to require a reboot, from which it boots into a dos environment, completes the partition resizing actions, and then passes the boot back to .Windows to finish booting like normal.

Gparted, from what I've read/heard of it, accomplishes more or less the same thing since you have to boot into a non-Windows environment to use it, in which case your system partition is just another passive storage device like any other hdd partition.

 

I have extended my C: many times in the past with no issues on Vista. He just needs to do one of the above. Free space, or shrink the correct opposite partition to allow extension of the C:

 

Geez, I miss Spacemonger.

I had it on my two 2003-vintage Sony Vaio desktops and Spacemongers disk-mapping was able to show me how the remnants of an old AOL installation (a very primitive anti-spyware component) was sucking hard drive space, even though I thought I had completely uninstalled AOHell long ago.

The Vaios each had 80GB total...hard to believe nowadays...partitioned into a 20 gb C: and 60: gb D:. I was going to move the partition but Spacemonger helped solve my problem simply.

I wish it would work on Vista.

 

Has anyone asked the OP if the unallocated space he's trying to add is adjacent to his .c:\ partition, or are there one or more intervening partitions?

 

This is safe if (and ONLY if) you have ready access to your Microsoft Office install CD. If you need to install a service pack (or even a few other updates) and this directory can't be accessed, you will need to have the original installation media. Also doing this in the fashion prescribed leave MS Office thinking the files are still in the MSOCache. The better way to accomplish this is Open Windows explorer, right click on the C: drive. Then select "Disk Cleanup". From there you will see (among other things) an option labeled: "Office Setup files". This is the MSOCache. There are other things there too that cleanup can take care of. If you use hibernation do NOT select the "Hibernation file Cleaner". It disables hibernation.

Gary

 

No the problem is he shrunk the second partition. Now the empty space is at the END of the second partition. To extend the first partition the empty space needs to be adjacent to it. The trick now is to use a third party partition tool and move the second partition down so the empty space is between the first and second partition. Then he can extend the first one using Vista's native tool.

Gary

 

yeah I know as using partition magic you have to "move" partitions like that but Vista has always done it automatically for me. Even if I shrink the 2nd partition to extend the first.

he needs to figure out how to do it, a screen shot of his disk management screen would do us a lot of good.

 

That is the FIRST report I have ever seen that says Vista will allow you to shrink partition two and then extend partition one with the resulting empty space. Are you SURE you are not talking about a "dynamic disk" (I think that's the right term) whereby a partition can be comprised of non consecutive extents?

When you did this, at what point in the process did Vista shift partition two? When you shrunk it, or when you tried to extend partition one? I didn't think it could automatically do this. (Except with dynamic disks.)

Gary

 

Yeah I have done my partitions all sort of ways. Im most positive I have shrunk #2 than expanded #1.

Id say I just did it recently on the w90 but since it was a dual disk machine I deleted partition 2 and expanded #1

Id say I would try it for you but right now no machine to test with really, my EEE uses XP and my desktop I am not messing with and my 2nd partition is full again.

 

It doesn't work.

 

I am going to try to move some files into there to see if Extend Volume becomes available after..

 

Well it doesn't work for me. Neither C: or M: can "extend volume" after the new allocated space has been formatted.

 

Ok, well, the answer is staring you in the face with this image. The reason why you cannot get that unallocated space added to your c:\ partition is because the unallocated space is sitting in the wrong place, behind your M:\ partition.

I am going to guess that you'll be unable to do what you want to do with the built-in .Vista partition manager because you will never be able to specify that space taken away from the M:\ partition be taken from the beginning of the M:\ partition instead of the end of M:\. Consequently, even if you first add the unallocated space to M:\, when you then remove space from M:\ that space will simply be carved off from the end, putting you right back to where you are now.

You are going to have to use a more sophisticated partition manager, like EASEUS' partition manager or gparted. I know from having used EASEUS' partition manager that you will be able to "move" that unallocated space from the end of the drive to between the c:\ partition and the m:\ partition by first adding it to m:\ and then taking the same amount of space off of the front end of m:\. You will then be able to add that space onto your c:\ partition.

 

Good answer. Thanks.

Now there's another problem. I tried using Partition Magic but it had some compatiblity issues with Vista, so I uninstalled it.

After that when I rebooted I lost my M: Drive! (luckily I backed up all the crucial files awhile ago). And now I can't even reformat it. It says to "Check the system even tlog for more info on the error. close the disc console, then restart disk management, or restart computer". Did all of the above and nothing works.

I also had to run repair with Vista DVD on bootup because it said "Missing Boot MGR".

Now I just want to be able to reformat the M: drive! Then I can extend C: to it hopefully..

 

I hate to say it, but now would probably be the best time to do a clean re-installation. Partition Magic can do some awful things to systems on which it is incompatible (I royally muffed an XP installation using an earlier version of partition magic that wasn't meant for XP).

Basically, it sounds like the partition tables and boot records on your installation have been thoroughly corrupted by partition magic. It is possible that you could recover the installation using something like EASEUS' partition table doctor - although you'd have to pay for the license since it's not free, unlike partition manager - but there's no way of knowing up front if even that would do it.

I'm sure that that's not the answer you want to hear, but a clean reinstallation would probably be the best fix at this point. Sorry.

 

By formating the unallocated space it becomes a third partition. The ONLY space you can add to an existing partition is unallocated space. You can only add any unallocated space to the partition that precedes it. In your original picture you could have added the UNALLOCATED (before you formated it) space to the M: partition.

As others have pointed out you can use a third part partition to "move" the M partition down so the unallocated space resides between the C: and M: partition. Then you can add that space to the C: partition.

Gary

 

I deleted my old M: that wasn't even working.

Then I reformatted the remaining space and extended my C:

At least I got extra 30 gigs in my C: drive now. But I lost all my storage files! Case closed....... bitter sweet

 

Here's a trick, Shink your 2nd partition to minimum, create a new partition at the end of the disk, copy your data to it. Then delete your 2nd partition and then expand the OS partition. You can use windows' disk manage component thus no 3rd party software to deal with.