Windows 7, 2 partitions and Junctions

[joseardzm]

Hi All,

I have a w7 64 bit machine with 2 partitions on a 1TB hdd. First partition is 100 GB and 2nd is 900GB

W7 is installed in the small partition, and slowly has completely eaten all HDD space. Even after many non-system folders have been "transferred" to the 2nd partition using junctions.

To solve this hdd space issue I was thinking on backing up the big partition, delete it and expand it through windows hdd utility. But what will happen to the junctions??? How should I do the restoring process and get rid of the junctions?

 

[Acova]

Hi,

You are not doing anything to your smaller partition in this scenario, which suggests that junction links are to remain untouched there. Wouldn't this naturally imply that all you would have to do at this point is restoring the files removed from 2nd partition back and ensuring the partition's letter remain same as before? (if you are to expand 1st partition whilst keep making a use of junction links referring to 2nd partition, however, if it is not what you like to do, below I wrote more)

To solve this hdd space issue I was thinking on backing up the big partition, delete it and expand it through windows hdd utility. But what will happen to the junctions??? How should I do the restoring process and get rid of the junctions?

This might come useful: NTFS junction point - Wikipedia

If I have understood you correctly, you can do the following test:

Create a folder on 1st partition and have some files in it to take a bit of space
Do the junction for it and "move" to the 2nd partition
Once done, get in that folder on 2nd partition and empty its content whilst leaving the folder's existence untouched (because you would cancel junction link and logically it is normal to expect folder's return to the first partition, but since you're running low on space there, an empty folder won't take much anyways)
Do the junction point deletion as shown in the above resource mentioned
This should return the folder back to 1st partition (from my understanding) and delete the junction link


This type of test provides you with the idea of a workflow to carry out and testing its outcome.
If you however, merely get rid of junction links after having deleted its target location completely, it will probably notify you of that and tell to clear this junction link. You could test it there too.



I am not experienced with junctions and partition expansions in the given case, your best option is to wait for someone more to respond to your thread, should you find my reply of unsatisfactory.

 

[dg1261]

A junction point is a fictitious alias to another location that actually exists. For example, if you have an existing directory "d:\archives", you might create an alias where that directory appears under the name "c:\backups" or even "c:\archives". You would do that with the command: "mklink /J c:\backups d:\archives", for instance. Note that the target "d:\archives" must already exist, and there must not be any pre-existing file or directory named "c:\backups".

Thereafter, any files stored in the target directory can be accessed via either directory name. Note there is only one copy of any given file, but that file can be accessed as "c:\backups\file" or "d:\archives\file". Do not make the mistake of thinking there are duplicate files and try to delete one of the copies--there is only one actual file and it will disappear from both directories if you delete it.

As a junction point is just an alias, joseardzm should have no trouble. At worst, he'd merely need to delete and recreate a new junction to where the target directory has been moved. Remember, there is only one copy of the contents and they exist only at the target location. None of the contents actually exist on the C: drive. If you repartition or remove the 900GB partition, make sure you preserve the contents of the target directory beforehand.

IMHO, 100GB should normally be large enough for the OS partition--especially if the bulk of user content is being stored on the 900GB partition, with or without junction points. So if it were me, I would try to figure out what's eating more space than it should. I'd use a program like SpaceMonger or SpaceSniffer to get a visual overview of space usage on the C: partition. If you can identify what's eating more space than it should and remedy the problem, then C: should have plenty of breathing room.

However, it sounds like joseardzm just wants to merge the two partitions into one giant partition--after which he won't need to bother with junction points at all. That skirts the underlying issue of what's eating more space than it should, but if it doesn't bother Jose enough to worry about it, then there's nothing wrong with that as a solution.

The process will involve:

1. make a note of where the junctions point to (e.g., "c:\backups => d:\archives")
2. backup everything on the 900GB partition (e.g., to an external drive)
3. delete the junction points
4. delete the 900GB partition
5. expand the 100GB into a single 1TB partition
6. restore the contents of the old 900GB partition onto the new, larger C: partition (e.g., copy "\archives" from the external drive to "c:\archives")
7. rename the old junction targets with the old junction names (e.g., rename "c:\archives" to "c:\backups")

Afterward, any program or script that was expecting to find files via the old junctions will still find the files via the same path, except the files will now actually be on the C: partition instead of on a second partition.

 

[joseardzm]

So I have to options I think...

one is backing up the big partition, expand the small one, copy all files back into a not to big partition.

The other is to find all my junctions, expand the main partition to whole 1TB, restore all the contents to the junctions that were pointing to other partition.

 

[dg1261]

That's correct. Although I think there's probably a third option: troubleshoot if something is eating more disk space than it should, and fix it. If so, you may be able to continue using your existing partition sizes, as is.

If you choose to keep two partitions but resize them, you might be interested in a quick experiment I just performed in a virtual machine:

• I created a virtual disk with two partitions, and booted it.
• I created a target directory (d:\target) on the second partition, and a junction point (c:\test) pointing to it.
• I saved a few files to c:\test, and they correctly showed up in d:\target.
• I then resized the partitions, shrinking the second partition and making the first partition larger.
• When I rebooted, the files were still accessible via the junction, c:\test.

This proves the junction points survived the partition resizing without a problem.

 

[joseardzm]

Thanks a lot I will try this when I visit my mothers house in christmas.

I have been trying to find who is the culprit here but I cant, once I am back at that PC I will try to find out that first. 100GB HDD is enough for only having windows there. Almost everything has been put into a junction to save space.

 

[dsperber]

Hi All,

I have a w7 64 bit machine with 2 partitions on a 1TB hdd. First partition is 100 GB and 2nd is 900GB

W7 is installed in the small partition, and slowly has completely eaten all HDD space. Even after many non-system folders have been "transferred" to the 2nd partition using junctions.

To solve this hdd space issue I was thinking on backing up the big partition, delete it and expand it through windows hdd utility. But what will happen to the junctions??? How should I do the restoring process and get rid of the junctions?

Why don't you just use Minitool Partition Wizard Free, to resize your two partitions? You would then need to completely forget about solving any "junctions" problem.

Just perform the two obvious steps using Partition Wizard:

(1) resize the larger 900GB partition to shrink it "in place", by sliding its lower boundary "to the right" say by 100GB and keeping its upper boundary exactly where it is. You now have an 800GB partition and you have created 100GB of unallocated free space between the upper boundary of your smaller 100GB partition and the new lower boundary of your larger 800GB partition.

(2) resize the smaller 100GB C-partition to enlarge it "in place", by sliding its upper boundary "to the right" to use up all of that newly created 100GB unallocated free space you just generated by shrinking the larger partition to its right by 100GB.

You will end up with two newly resized partitions... one (C) is now 200GB (or whatever), and the other (D, presumably, or whatever you have named it) is now 800GB. Isn't that what you really wanted to do?

That's exactly how Partition Wizard can solve your problem, easily and directly. Once you build up the above "queue" of steps to be performed, you push the APPLY button to actually initiate the performance. The program allows you to make corrections (i.e. UNDO one step at a time going backward in your sequence) if you change your mind, so that when you finally are satisfied and push APPLY only exactly whatever you have settled on will be performed. You can even do one thing at a time if you want, just so that you can APPLY one step at a time in order for you to prove that it really did what you asked it to do.

It's a wonderfully powerful utility, with an easy-to-understand intuitive GUI.

Step (1) can be done while still running Windows. It will start and finish and you will still be in that same booted instance of Windows, since step (1) doesn't affect the operating Windows C-partition.

But when you finally do APPLY that step (2) which resizes the Windows C-partition, Partition Wizard will perform some initial getting-ready stuff and will then prompt you to OK a re-boot. The program will have inserted its own "resize C-partition" task to the pre-Windows-desktop boot sequence, so when the automated restart occurs it will be interrupted by Partition Wizard completing the rest of the "resize C-partition" task. Once complete it will then resume the rest of the normal Windows boot process, eventually placing you at the normal Windows logon Welcome screen.

When you finally get back to your Windows desktop, all will have been completed. You can use Partition Wizard again to review the new sizes of your two partitions, and you can marvel at how amazingly simple and easy and straightforward and intuitive this was, using Partition Wizard and its GUI.

Your need is to enlarge your C-partition which has outgrown its 100GB size. You can perform that growth by grabbing 100GB (or whatever you want to grab) from the current 900GB partition to its right, by shrinking that 900GB partition accordingly. That is your stated goal... so just do exactly that, with Partition Wizard. You don't need to have any other goals or concerns about "junctions".

 

[lehnerus2000]

100 GB should be plenty of space for W7 (unless you are installing lots of games).

You might want to check if this issue is causing your space problem:
https://www.computerworld.com/artic...pression-bug-can-fill-up-your-hard-drive.html

 

[joseardzm]

100 GB should be plenty of space for W7 (unless you are installing lots of games).

You might want to check if this issue is causing your space problem:
https://www.computerworld.com/artic...pression-bug-can-fill-up-your-hard-drive.html

It seems that was the problem though that service was not running, perhaps it stopped after filling all the harddrive?

anyways, i didnt know what to do with these steps

Step 4. Use File Explorer to go to C:\Windows\Logs\CBS. (If Windows is installed on a different hard drive, you have to go to that drive.)

Step 5. Move or rename all of the files in that folder.

Should I delete the CBS log files or not?

I only removed the cab* files, it freed up 25 gb of space magically

 

[lehnerus2000]

Can you create a Backup System Image (and verify it)?
If yes, you could try deleting the CBS files.

If there are any problems you can just restore the Backup System Image and try a different approach.

You could also copy the CBS files to an external HDD/SSD.

The CBS files are useful if your system is having problems (like driver issues).
If you delete them, Windows will create a new one next time you start your PC.

It should be safe to delete those files (according to several blogs I looked at) but you probably shouldn't delete them constantly.
I sometimes let CCleaner delete them.

This link also describes a procedure for fixing this bug:
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/windows-bug-may-accumulated-junk-files-pc/