Partitions in W7

Hi, just bought a new laptop Lenovo Thinkpad T430s with Win 7 Professional. Having read about making 2 partitions (one for OS and another for data) I used the W7 DISK MANAGEMENT feature. Had seen some suggestions that 26-30GB should be enough - but the DISK MANAGEMENT only allowed me to shrink to 41.68GB (I did it before installing anything else). Then ran MS Office and some Windows Updates and suddenly I was down to have only 3% space left on the OS partition. Restarted a few times and some more updates - now I`m up to 14% free space but still think this is too little and amazed why 36GB should be necessary. Searched some forums and found that you can only shrink, not extend the "main" C-drive?
Status is (in order shown in DISK MANAGEMENT):
SYSTEM_DRV 1.46GB (77% free)
Win7_OS (C 41.68 GB (14% free)
New volume (E 399GB (98% free)
Free space (when trying to shrink E: not being able to "shift back" to C 9.8GB
Lenovo recovery (Q 13.67GB (16% free).

What does a wise do now?

Thanks

Stig

 

That does seem a bit high for used space on a Win7 partition but with Office it is possible. You have plenty of space on the drive so I would give C: 50-70gb to allow for updates (win7 keeps undo's for all updates so it does take some space).

You can only have 4 primary partitions on a HD at a time. I think the easiest to do in your case is to delete E: giving you a large block of unallocated space. Expand C: to 60-70gb. Then create a new partition in the remaining unallocated space.

I think that should work. If it doesn't than you may need to use a third party partitioner like Easeus to shrink E: from the beginning/left and then expand C: into that space. (Easeus will let you do it where disk management won't.) As in solution 3 in this guide.

One thought is that because changing partitions on some machines can effect the ability to use the recovery partition make sure you burn a set of Recovery CDs using the Lenovo utility. (It depends on how your recovery partition is accessed whether this pertains to your model or not but having this discs is a good idea anyway.)

Edit: I just read your post again and don't hink extending a volume is a problem in Win7. Disk Management will only do it if there is unallocated space directly adjacent to the C: partition which is why deleting the E: partition should allow you to extend C:. Then create a new E: in the remaining unallocated space.

 

Hi sach2,

the DISK MANAGEMENT doesn't let me expand, only shrink drive C.
Likewise, I can`t choose the DELETE VOLUME option for drive E - only Open, Explore, Change drive letter, Expand (!), Shrink and Properties are available.
Any other thoughts before trying EasyUS?
Office and other software should be installed on C drive, right? wouldn't be right to try install on E and then create F for normal data files?

Cheers

Stig

 

I install all programs on C:. Then I try to keep all my personal documents, music, downloads on a separate partition. Some people install programs on another partition but I don't bother since my total program files are about 8gb.

My 6mos. old Win7 64bit installation is close to 28gb. My last one at a little over a year old was about the same size but I consider a 50gb C: partition might feel a little cramped over time so I have gone with a 70gb partition this time. I expect it will always remain about half full.

I'm not sure what is going on with Disk Management.

You should be able to delete any partition. (referencing E: )
As far as C: goes I was thinking the reason you couldn't expand was because when you tried to shrink E: it only let you cut space from the end of the drive rather than from the beginning. That means there was no unallocated space created adjacent to C: into which to expand.

Easeus is a reliable program. I would just go to that and see what it says about deleting E:, it should do it and if not give you some reason why it can't.

 

Easeus solved my problem - thanks a lot for your help!

Stig