Most people assign far too much Disk space to the Windows system

larc919 · Feb 25, 2022

pparks1 said:
I typically don't see much benefit in breaking up a drive into multiple partitions.

Nor do I. But I still think it's a good idea to keep some things such as downloads and stored data apart from others. That's why I have a separate physical drive for each major partition (C, E and F - D is reserved for USB drives).

cereberus · Feb 25, 2022

Typically, I partition as follows:-

up to 250 GB, 100% OS +data (1 partition only)

For drives < 250 GB, partition 50%OS, 50% data

Between 200 GB to 500 GB 33:67

Above 500 GB 25:75

Of course, I vary this as needed using tool like minitool partition wizard free.

Winuser · Feb 25, 2022

Does anyone besides me have an Ultimate X12 Backgrounds folder in C:\Users\Public\Public Pictures?

meimeiriver · Feb 25, 2022

*yawn*

People who worry about how much disk space Windows takes, simply need a new system.

Edwin · Feb 25, 2022

Winuser said:
Does anyone besides me have an Ultimate X12 Backgrounds folder in C:\Users\Public\Public Pictures?

Nope!
Sumpthin that came with your machine?

brummyfan · Feb 25, 2022

Edwin said:
I keep everything on C: SSD, it's faster!

Me too.

Haydon · Feb 25, 2022

In a clean install, how much is the default partitioning for W11 on a 250 GB C: SSD? 500 GB? 1 TB?

NavyLCDR · Feb 25, 2022

Haydon said:
In a clean install, how much is the default partitioning for W11 on a 250 GB C: SSD? 500 GB? 1 TB?

All space is allocated to the C: drive partition except for about 1 GB in system and recovery partitions.

Haydon · Feb 25, 2022

NavyLCDR said:
All space is allocated to the C: drive partition except for about 1 GB in system and recovery partitions.

I meant for the OS, considering the title of this thread 'too much space for the Windows system'. There has to be a reference point for 'too much', hence I was thinking of the default values.

NavyLCDR · Feb 25, 2022

Haydon said:
I meant for the OS, considering the title of this thread 'too much space for the Windows system'. There has to be a reference point for 'too much', hence I was thinking of the default values.

I answered your question. On a clean install, the default partitioning is 100 MB for an EFI system partition, 16 MB for a MSR, 518 MB for a recovery partition, and the rest gets allocated to C: drive for the OS to use.

Haydon · Feb 25, 2022

LOL, OK @NavyLCDR, I think we are stumbling on semantics, and I am not positive I understand the intentions of the OP correctly either about his 'too much'. I believe that further up in post #22, someone tried to interpret that by partitioning different sized disks

hsehestedt · Feb 25, 2022

My thinking may be a little bit different than that of some.

For my desktop, I devote an entire 1TB disk drive to my OS drive and I do so for the following reasons:

1) I like not having to worry about space. With a 1TB OS drive, I can do about anything I want without worrying that I'll get caught short of space.

2) It's an SSD, and a unique aspect to SSDs is that with each doubling of size you are also doubling the theoretical and warranty lifespan for the TBW (TerraBytes Written) rating.

3) Storage is fairly inexpensive, so I sprung for an oversized drive.

For a laptop, where you may only have a single drive, I prefer a single large partition. The problem in creating separate partitions when only a single drive is available is that I also always regret the choice I make at some later point in time. For example, oh no - I'm running low on space in the OS partition. I should have made it larger and assigned less space to my data partition. Or, I need more data space and I have enough space on the drive, but it's tied up in the OS partition.

By using a single partition, all of the space is shared between all possible potential uses and I never have to double-guess my choices.

Winuser · Feb 25, 2022

Edwin said:
Nope!
Sumpthin that came with your machine?

I did a search, and it apparently it has something to do with DirectX 12. There are some nice pictures in all of the folders. Not of much good being hidden though. I found them by taking a look at what programs and files were taking up the most space.

Winuser · Feb 25, 2022

hsehestedt said:
For example, oh no - I'm running low on space in the OS partition. I should have made it larger and assigned less space to my data partition. Or, I need more data space and I have enough space on the drive, but it's tied up in the OS partition.

If you have enough free space on the C drive, you can shrink the partition.

NavyLCDR · Feb 25, 2022

Haydon said:
LOL, OK @NavyLCDR, I think we are stumbling on semantics, and I am not positive I understand the intentions of the OP correctly either about his 'too much'. I believe that further up in post #22, someone tried to interpret that by partitioning different sized disks

Well..... you asked:

Haydon said:
In a clean install, how much is the default partitioning for W11 on a 250 GB C: SSD? 500 GB? 1 TB?

Default: a preselected option adopted by a computer program or other mechanism when no alternative is specified by the user or programmer.

So, unless you, the user, specifies different partitions, the default size for the OS partition (C: drive) is the size of the disk minus 634 MB. Did you mean to ask the question what size of partition that @jimbo45 recommends based on the size of the physical disk?

hsehestedt · Feb 25, 2022

Winuser said:
If you have enough free space on the C drive, you can shrink the partition.

Sure, but what good would that do? You can't expand the partition that follows the C: partition backwards, at least not without third-party utilities. It can only be expanded forward. For me, it's far easier to spend $50 to never ever have to worry about it again.

Haydon · Feb 25, 2022

NavyLCDR said:
Well..... you asked:

Default: a preselected option adopted by a computer program or other mechanism when no alternative is specified by the user or programmer.

So, unless you, the user, specifies different partitions, the default size for the OS partition (C: drive) is the size of the disk minus 634 MB. Did you mean to ask the question what size of partition that @jimbo45 recommends based on the size of the physical disk?

OK, thanks @NavyLCDR! I think I need time to sort things out in my own mind, first

Dch48 · Mar 14, 2022

Nope, everything on one drive and one partition for me.

Haydon · Mar 15, 2022

Dch48 said:
Nope, everything on one drive and one partition for me.

One advantage in the tax season of leaving everything at default is that the tax software immediately carries over your particulars from last year, and all you have to do is type in your new numbers

PerpetualCycle · Mar 15, 2022

Have a 1TB drive nvme partitioned into:
C: , 100GB
E: (data including user data) 874 GB:
and
H: 10 GB containing browser and other caches.

Games/benchmarks is another 1TB nvme drive.

Backups and sundry other stuf to a 2TB raid 0 SSD array.

Backups of C:+recovery+system partitions takes 5 minutes.