Windows 7 - Increase size of C:\ drive

Running Windows 7 Professional SP1 on a Dell 1764.

My hard drive is partitioned as follows: C:\ = 99.9gig with 20gig free, D:\ = 365gig with 312gig free. Seeing that my laptop is a Dell, another partition exists with the operating system which could be used to put the computer back to factory settings.

With only 20gigs of free space on the C:\ drive, my laptop is running slow. I've been told the only way to increase space on C:\ is to wipe the drive, re-partition it, and reinstall everything.

A work colleague mentioned that he had used Partition Magic to transfer space from his D:\ drive and add it to his C:\ drive.

Any recommendations would greatly be appreciated.

Pierre

Your system is running slow because the minimum recommendation for Windows 7 32-bit is 16GB of HDD space rising to 20GB for Windows 7 64-bit, while it's thought you need nearer 40GB for a normal installation.

What you would need to to is reduce the size of the D drive on the left-hand size of the drive instead of the right, and then extend the C drive to take up the resulting free space.

Unfortunately, Windows 7's disk management tool is too basic and won't allow you to do that.

You need something like Acronis Disk Director, Paragon Partition Wizard or Easus Partition Manager - just do a search on Google for them.

You might want to check through the tutorials here on WSF as they are a mine of information.

A word of warning, before you start, backup everything including a complete system image before you start.

Thanks for the help, I will view the help before I undertake anything.

I had done a google search and did find a number of applications you suggested. How would I do a backup everything including a complete system image before I start?

Go into Control Panel>System & Security>Backup Your Computer>Create A System Image and follow the wizard's instructions.

It is best to backup to an external hard drive if you have one. You mentioned that Dell's recovery partition is still available so you could use that to recover your computer, but of course you would then have to re-partition your drive afterwards if you wanted to get back to your extended C drive.

Thank you for your help (BTW - it was under Backup and Restore).

I have a Western Digital My Book (1T) at home - so I will to create a System Image and will let you know how it went.

Pierre

OK, I hope it goes well for you.

I created a system image and backup disk.

I spoke to someone at a local computer shop about extending the size of my C:\ drive in order to speed things up. The tech claimed moving large files off of my C:\ and D:\ drive would increase the speed of my laptop. I responded that seavixen32 noted that 40gigs would normally be required for a normal Windows 7 installation (I have 20gigs). He tried to convince me that the OS would look at the total amount of space in both partitions instead of looking at free space on C:\ drive.

Your comments please.

Pierre

Hello Pierre.


Before we make any specific recommendations will you please post a snip/screen-shot of the entire disk management drive map with a full description as to which drive/partition is which, so we can see what you have going on as there may be a fairly simple way to resolve the situation.

In the Windows start menu right click computer and click manage, in the left pane of the "Computer Management" window that opens click disk management and post a maximized snip of that.

How to Upload and Post a Screenshot and File in Seven Forums

See attached document

Please post a snip using the method outlined in the tutorial, I don't open attached docs.