How big of partition should I leave for Windows 7?

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If you look at what is spec’d for XP Pro it “requires” 1.5 gig. I have a 16.6 gig partition for it and it’s almost full and I’ve deleted all the old Windows updates, moved program files (other than those that just have to be on C:), temp files and swap files to their own partitions. Windows 7 requires 16 GB for (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit) how much space do I really need?

Thanks,

Marc

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Hi Check Marc, that depends on how much you intend putting in C: I have about 10 mb in it that I put there myself, making backups faster and smaller. Both my PC’s C: drive’s are only 45gb. Backup file size under 5gb takes approx. 7 minutes.

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As I posted I only have the minimum on C all my program files other than the ones than must be on C, swap file and temps files are in their own partitions. XP Pro “requires” 1.5 gig and I’m closer to 14 gig now. I’d do the same thing with 7 if I can.

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If I remember correctly IE and OE both, at least use to, had to be installed on C but nothing else. At least I could never get them to work correctly if they weren’t.

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If I remember correctly IE and OE both, at least use to, had to be installed on C but nothing else. At least I could never get them to work correctly if they weren’t.

Not entirely true. With a bit of registry editing, they will run from any partition you want them to run from.

My Windows currently amounts to 19.1 GB, of which 4.5GB is a hibernation file. If I eliminated hibernation, I could run Windows comfortably (and have) from a 20GB partition with all features (except hibernation) fully functional.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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satrow – post 6

I am interested in “you could create your own install for W7, mine uses about 4G”. Can you point me in the direction of how to do it please? Currently I make an image in case I need to re-install.

Brian

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satrow – post 6

I am interested in “you could create your own install for W7, mine uses about 4G”. Can you point me in the direction of how to do it please? Currently I make an image in case I need to re-install.

Brian

This post has a few sizes and details, Brian.

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There are no programs that have to be on C:. There are some that are hard-coded to install on C:, but they can be moved, and still continue to function normally in every way.

See Set 7 Free for a different view or how to operate Windows.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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If you have the patience, you could create your own install for W7, mine uses about 4GB on a 7.5GB netbook drive. It really depends on which features you (don’t) need.

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Now that I think about it I could move them but if they needed to be updated that freaked out because the update could find the install on C. I may have have been hallucination.

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Now that I think about it I could move them but if they needed to be updated that freaked out because the update could find the install on C. I may have have been hallucination.

They have no problem updating.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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Sorry about the late post, just got home. I have left 75 GB for my OS /app partition and the remainder of a 320 GB HD for the data partition. Have an OS partition of 75 GB has left about 50 GB free.

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Ted are you running 32bit or 64?

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Ted are you running 32bit or 64?

Check in my signature! 64 Bit

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When I first installed Win7 from XP, I had a 36GByte partition and it installed fine. After adding XP Mode and a few other things, I noticed my wiggle room was all but not, so I upsized my C partition to 100GBytes. Currently my C drive is using 36GBytes of space. I would not use a partition size smaller then 64Gbytes. I store all my data on 2 other partitions; I keep my C drive small to make imaging easier (only image the C drive; just back up Data manually for my storage drives).

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I leave Program Files and Program Files (x86) on C, but I have moved my personal directories (docs, pics, etc.) to D:. I originally thought that 64GB would be sufficient for C:. After running out of room I upped it to 128GB. But a few game installs later (Steam insists on installing in c:/Program Files, it doesn’t give you a choice) and I am once again out of room and will now reclaim the rest of that hard drive and use all 500GB for C:. Hopefully that will last me a year or two.

On my laptop I get by with about 130GB (there is only the one partition) but then I don’t install as much stuff. Though I am somewhat limited on the number of video files I can put on it so I have to pick and choose. I’d get a larger hard drive for the laptop but it’s over three years old and is already showing some issues – I am waiting for it to bite the dust so I can replace it.

Hard drives are cheap – less that $100 for 2TB at Fry’s. So why be concerned about squeezing things into small spaces?

In both cases I am using Win7 Pro 64-bit.

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After a lot of years supporting servers with seperate OS partitions, I haven’t been convinced that we still need to do this. Especially with PCs and laptops that have a single drive in them. My Win 7 64bit Dell Studio laptop has a 500GB 7200 RPM drive with one big C: drive. I have a “data” directory that all programs point to, to save files, photos, mp3s, etc. I run a Robocopy script that does incremental backups to a USB drive, and an e-SATA drive. No hassles, all performs well. If I make changes, I create a restore point. They work VERY well in Win7. I do make an occasional image of the laptop and run regular restore points. But its my data that is of primary concern. While I have the ability and knowledge to create partitions and move programs, I find that more of a hassle for very little, if any gain. Even if I installed Windows from scratch, I would still do a single partition. The question I have, aside from speeding up an OS image restore, is what problem does multiple partitions solve?

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Again, my main concern is recoverying the main drive quickly via imaging, so, keeping this partition small is better for me. I do use other partitions for data storage and also backup (but no where near as often as I should; don’t save or create much anyway). Also, even NTFS isn’t very efficient with storing DATA in large partitions; smaller partitions are more efficient with storage space.

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Again, my main concern is recoverying the main drive quickly via imaging, so, keeping this partition small is better for me. I do use other partitions for data storage and also backup (but no where near as often as I should; don’t save or create much anyway). Also, even NTFS isn’t very efficient with storing DATA in large partitions; smaller partitions are more efficient with storage space.

That goes back to my question though. What are you doing that you have to restore often enough for this to be a concern? Or is this “just in case”? In 18 years, I have only been forced to restore or rebuild an OS a handful of times. I haven’t even had to do it in the last 5 years save for one time when an upgraded hard drive in my old laptop went bad. System restore points have worked very well when things have gone wrong, which frankly doesn’t really happen all that often.

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… In 18 years, I have only been forced to restore or rebuild an OS a handful of times. I haven’t even had to do it in the last 5 years save for one time when an upgraded hard drive in my old laptop went bad. System restore points have worked very well when things have gone wrong, which frankly doesn’t really happen all that often.

So SR worked a maximum of 5 times out of 5 in 18 years …

… If I make changes, I create a restore point. They work VERY well in Win7.

including 1 time with W7. Is that really enough samples to claim that SR works very well?

I use a stripped install of W7 on my netbook – because it has an 8GB (7.5 usable) SSD.

How you choose to install or restore your OS is entirely up to you and your own needs, usage and experiences (and the amount of money and time you can afford to put into it).

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That goes back to my question though. What are you doing that you have to restore often enough for this to be a concern? Or is this “just in case”? In 18 years, I have only been forced to restore or rebuild an OS a handful of times. I haven’t even had to do it in the last 5 years save for one time when an upgraded hard drive in my old laptop went bad. System restore points have worked very well when things have gone wrong, which frankly doesn’t really happen all that often.

If your method is good enough for you, then that’s fine with me. However, your method isn’t good enough for me. So why can’t that be fine with you?

I’ve seen enough “Oh NO!!!” stories about System Restore on this and other Windows help forums that I don’t use it at all; I have it disabled. Not that it has failed me, but that it has been known to fail, is enough evidence for me not to put my trust in it. And a thousand testimonials from those who do trust in it won’t change my mind about it. I’ve seen “the dark side” of System Restore.

I prefer something bullet-proof as a backup method, something that will allow me to restore my system to bare metal if necessary. I have found and extensively tested such a method, and that is the one I will continue to use.

Not everything needs to be backed up on the same schedule. Why do a daily backup on something that hasn’t changed in weeks? Some things (pagefile, hiberfil.sys for instance) never need to be backed up. And incremental backups are a bind. I much prefer drive images. And I don’t want to use any process that runs on top of Windows; I want bit-for-bit drive images, and I don’t want it to take half a day to do it. I want to use my computer too, not spend half my time backing it up.

Using multiple partitions allows me to categorize my files in ways that are conducive to drive imaging on a schedule that suits the rate of change in those file groups. I have also found that separating Windows into discreet partitions makes it more stable, more reliable, more nimble, and much quicker and easier to backup.

I don’t use tweaker apps for Windows settings. I prefer to do the tweaking myself in the innards of Windows. As a result, I sometimes break things. Having Windows all alone on a separate small partition lets me get right back to breaking it again in just a few minutes. And in the process of breaking and recovering, I learn useful tidbits that I can pass along to others in places like this.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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So SR worked a maximum of 5 times out of 5 in 18 years …
including 1 time with W7. Is that really enough samples to claim that SR works very well?

I use a stripped install of W7 on my netbook – because it has an 8GB (7.5 usable) SSD.

How you choose to install or restore your OS is entirely up to you and your own needs, usage and experiences (and the amount of money and time you can afford to put into it).

Huh? Where did I say I only used it one time? I was referring to my home systems. I’ve only had to use restore points a few times. And I’ve only had to rebuild or re-image a few time in all the years I have owned PCs. Only one reimage in the past 5 years. I just don’t have issues with my home PCs, so, no I don’t need to do this very often. However, I’ve used it regularly at work while testing changes. And yes, this is also many, many times with Windows 7. So please don’t read into posts what isn’t there.

For home, I have a pretty comprehensive, but simple and straight forward, method of backing up and restoring. It includes imaging, system restore points, and file backups. I use two external hard drives, and sometimes DVDs (just for an occasional 4th copy of my photos).

If your method is good enough for you, then that’s fine with me. However, your method isn’t good enough for me. So why can’t that be fine with you?

I’ve seen enough “Oh NO!!!” stories about System Restore on this and other Windows help forums that I don’t use it at all; I have it disabled. Not that it has failed me, but that it has been known to fail, is enough evidence for me not to put my trust in it. And a thousand testimonials from those who do trust in it won’t change my mind about it. I’ve seen “the dark side” of System Restore.

I prefer something bullet-proof as a backup method, something that will allow me to restore my system to bare metal if necessary. I have found and extensively tested such a method, and that is the one I will continue to use.

No problem, if you method works for you, great! Its more than fine with me. I’m not challenging you, I am pointing out to the OP the complexities of setting up such a scheme. There are many ways to approach backups. Your method is easy to set up when building a system from scratch, but is cumbersome and time consuming for an existing system. I like simple, and I like to help others do things simple. You’ve read about “oh no!” stories regarding System Restore, but you haven’t tried it yourself? Its been reliable and useful for some time now. But I’m not trying to change your mind, just telling you that there are those of us who use it regularly without issues. BTW, no backup strategy is bullet proof. Its why more than one backup method and storage medium is recommended.

I totally agree that images are critical to a good backup scheme. And maybe its because I support servers for a living, but I’ve always viewed an image restore as a last resort.

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No problem, if you method works for you, great! Its more than fine with me. I’m not challenging you, I am pointing out to the OP the complexities of setting up such a scheme. There are many ways to approach backups. Your method is easy to set up when building a system from scratch, but is cumbersome and time consuming for an existing system. I like simple, and I like to help others do things simple.

To me, “simple” is losing everything, then getting it all back, to the last bit, in a couple of hours, and resuming my normal activities as if nothing ever happened. That’s simple. Sometimes one may need to buy a new machine before the “couple of hours” part kicks in, but still, to me, that’s simple.

As for setting my system up, it’s a one-time operation that takes maybe half a day, and it’s not really all that complex. And it works easiest on an existing system; I worked it out for that express purpose. From that point on it’s just getting into a regimen of making selective drive images on a routine basis.

You’ve read about “oh no!” stories regarding System Restore, but you haven’t tried it yourself?

Absolutely not. Why try something that is not only known to fail, its failures are very well and widely documented. It’s akin to putting one’s hand over a fence right next to the sign that says, “Caution! This dog Bites!”

Its been reliable and useful for some time now. But I’m not trying to change your mind, just telling you that there are those of us who use it regularly without issues.

And I’m just saying that I won’t use or recommend to anyone any method that is known to fail unexpectedly. Again, it’s simple.

BTW, no backup strategy is bullet proof. Its why more than one backup method and storage medium is recommended.

I totally agree that images are critical to a good backup scheme. And maybe its because I support servers for a living, but I’ve always viewed an image restore as a last resort.

My house burned January 4th. My laptop (in its Dell case) was the only computer to survive. My drive images on an external drive did not survive. My drive images on DVD’s did survive. I bought a Dell Inspiron 580 with a 1TB drive and added a nearly new Seagate 1TB drive that also survived (there was hardly anything on it to begin with).

On this Dell I now have very little left of the Dell software, and the contents of 2 PC’s restored from drive images. I’m dual booting, and each installation looks just like it did on the PC’s that didn’t survive. Complex? Not really; quite simple, actually, and quite thorough. Bulletproof? Close enough for my purposes. The proof is in the pudding, as they say.

And one more bright note, it seems the hard drives from the computers that didn’t survive did themselves survive. I’ve ordered an eSATA drive dock, and when it gets in I’ll check the drives out thoroughly. The ones that pass all the drive tests will be put into service as temporary drive image storage for the images waiting to be burned to DVD.

It’s all in my signature…

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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It’s all in my signature…

Our methods are working well for both of us, so no worries. We’ll have to agree to disagree on this subject.

I’m terribly sorry about your house. No one should ever have to deal with that. I hope no one was hurt. Losing a life or serious injury in a fire is far more of a loss than a computer. My wife survived a fire when she was a kid.

Are you now keeping backups off site? I’ve considered it but don’t have a practical way to do it. You need a place you can trust, a good friend or trusted relative, or a safe deposit box. I have good friends, but not in convenient locations.

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I’m terribly sorry about your house. No one should ever have to deal with that. I hope no one was hurt. Losing a life or serious injury in a fire is far more of a loss than a computer. My wife survived a fire when she was a kid.

No one was hurt. My 17-year-old was up at 2:00AM on Facebook, heard a noise, went to investigate and saw a couch engulfed in flames. He got everyone awake and alerted to the danger, and we all got out safely. He also called 911 on his cell phone, and was talking to them when I came running from my bedroom. As many times as I have fussed at him about being online in the wee hours… I won’t again. We’ve all told him that he’s our hero. The house is a total loss (old woodframe construction), but the only pain I’m experiencing is dealing with the insurance company.

Are you now keeping backups off site? I’ve considered it but don’t have a practical way to do it. You need a place you can trust, a good friend or trusted relative, or a safe deposit box. I have good friends, but not in convenient locations.

My DVD image files survived because of their location, and the fact that they were stacked on the floor in a corner. I had two sets in separate locations, and neither location was the hottest part of the fire. I’ve considered off site storage, just never really got around to it. I’m considering it much more seriously now.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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I agree that Images are far superior to System Restore. I also have System Restore disabled. I have had numerous times when an Image Restore was necessary to fix a problem quickly. As many of us here, I try a lot of different things on a daily basis and at times these things cause major problems that could probably be fixed with other means, but that I find is time prohibitive. I can restore from an Image in less than 10 minutes. The biggest thing is that I do keep my Images Up To Date, not daily, but whenever changes take place or about twice a month, whichever comes sooner.

I also have used some tweaker apps because they seem quicker to accomplish the tweak. My favorite is Ultimate Windows Tweakerby the Windows Club.

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Ted, your link does not work, post #22

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It appears the Windows Club site may be down. If I open the Ultimate Windows Tweaker app and try to go to the site right now it also will not open. The link came directly from the site this morning. I would suspect it will work fine once the site is back up.

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Ted, still no access.

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Ted, still no access.

Just Clicked on it and it seems to be back up:

27557-TheWindowsClub

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I only had to recover from a backup image of Win7 once (and it was my stupidity; fortunately for me I had decided to even create the image just a few days prior since I don’t back up that often) but even though I have system recovery enabled, I never use it. Trust me when I say partition recovery is the way to go. A no brainer once you figure this one out. Win7 has otherwise been rock solid. Rolling the dice now since I’ve not imaged my C drive since I upgraded to Win7, but do plan on it soon. I know that sounds cavelier, but I no longer really go where angels fear to tread and I also have my system on UPS (and if you don’t, you better do so) so don’t worry about power outtages at all. I still run XP in a VM for sandbox purposes, creating shares between my VM and Win7 since my main purpose with my PC is photo retouching and computer generated art (so I mainly frequent other forums related to that). Still, I’ve been a Langlist member since 1999 and when it got incorporated into what eventually became Windows Secrets, I felt I needed to keep on the technical side too since I still occasionally have to fix PCs (no longer as a job unfortunately, but have always enjoyed fixing PCs prior to it being a job and still do so now) so decided to join this forum to participate and learn. Now you all are occasionally going to be stuck with me. lol

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Now you all are occasionally going to be stuck with me. lol

And I for one say welcome.

Now get on with that up-to-date image!

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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And I for one say welcome.

Now get on with that up-to-date image!

OK; you convinced me. Just finished doing the deed.

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My Images wer over a week old, and I had made a couple of minor changes so I created a new Image for both mine and the wife’s PC. This is such cheap insurance. I happen to use Acronis True Image Home 2011 for mine and 2010 for her PC, but any good app will do. The key is to make the Up To Date Images. Now restoration will take less than 10 minutes. What could be easier.

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Getting back to the OP, my current Windows partition is 60GB only because I haven’t yet shrunk it. The actual OS is only 13.4GB, so it could live quite well in a 20GB partition (which I have used in the past).

I don’t have any Program Files folder or Users folder, no ProgramData folder in my OS partition, so it won’t grow appreciably. I just haven’t gotten around to shrinking it to 20GB yet; haven’t yet figured the best use of the freed-up 40Gb that would create.

I dual-boot Home Premium, it is also on a 60GB partition and the actual OS is only 23.2GB. I run all program installs to another partition, and save my data to still other partitions, so my Home Premium OS partition isn’t likely to grow much, either. It would be comfortable in 40 or even 35GB.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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I ended up going with a 50 gig partition for Windows. Now I can’t get the cloned drive to start up it gets to the blue screen for user log on but there are no users.

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I ended up going with a 50 gig partition for Windows. Now I can’t get the cloned drive to start up it gets to the blue screen for user log on but there are no users.

What cloning software did you use?

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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I’ve tried both Ghost 8 running it from a USB that I have HawkPE on and XXCopy clone function running in Safe Mode command prompt. The partition is active. I go back in to Windows in Safe Mode Command Prompt and change R to C and change the boot drive order in the BIOS. When I try to log on to Windows it goes through the Black windows screen OK but when it gets to the blue start up screen it doesn’t show a user name to log on. If I go back and change everything to using the original windows install it works correctly.

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The BCD store goes by drive and partition, not necessarily boot order in the BIOS. Have you tried swapping cables?

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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No but I will, thanks!

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I tried that along with not connecting the other drive and I have the same problem.

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Do you have an installation DVD or a repair disk? You can boot to that (USB works) and run a boot repair on your cloned drive.

I use BootIt Next Generation, and I can run everything from there (BCD edit, imaging, boot manager, partition manager, and much, much more).

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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Thanks, I have those on HawkPE. I just didn’t know where to start fixing the problem.

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If you want off site backup, there are several “cloud” sites that will backup your data for a fee. See this for more information

Jerry

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If you want off site backup, there are several “cloud” sites that will backup your data for a fee. See this for more information

Jerry

Off site for free has much more appeal for me, thanks.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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