Increasing disk space with Windows 7. Ways to expand memory on a disk with

If the system displays an error when downloading new files, then you should worry about the capacity of the system storage. There is no need to panic and clear everything stored on your computer. There is no need to remove installed components. It is enough to understand the methods of increasing the capacity of the system drive C without losing data.

When is it necessary to increase the disk size?

It happens that the system storage medium (often this is C) becomes full. New programs won't install, the system constantly reminds you of low memory, and the color of the local storage turns annoyingly red.

The reason for this may be:

1. very small amount of allocated memory. When installing an operating system, the HDD must be rationally divided into partitions. It is on drive C that, according to the standard, all programs and games are installed, which are becoming more and more numerous over time. Desktop documents are also stored on the system storage;
2. Even if most of the memory is allocated to system media, it can fill up very quickly. Unnecessary components, countless installed games and simply irrational use lead to the fact that the fullness indicator turns red.

Due to the overload of information, the computer stops functioning normally and refuses to install anything new. Therefore, it is worth increasing the system memory partition.

Video: C drive enlarged

Methods

Expanding system storage capacity is sometimes very simple. But in some cases, it is enough to simply clean the computer by reviewing the information on it. This does not require installation of additional components. Most often, an ordinary user can simply clean the desktop, delete temporary files, or use the command diskmgmt.msc.

Clean desktop

The desktop is best used to simply place shortcuts to your most used programs. But many users create countless folders in which a lot of information is stored. Most often, this information is multimedia in nature, which means it takes up a lot of memory.

To clear a little (or often a lot) of memory, you just need to tidy up your desktop. To do this, move all folders with movies, music and photos to the designated media (D, E). Each HDD section must be used rationally.

Clearing temporary files

Temporary data can also take up the lion's share of system memory.

Therefore, it is worth getting rid of them. Temporary files include information saved by the browser when viewing web pages, namely:

• visit log;
• files Cookie;
• download log;
• World Wide Web temporary files;
• site settings;
• saved passwords;
• autocomplete.

Such information speeds up the launch of many sites. This is convenient for personal use. But if the computer is a family one, it is better to get rid of them.

There are three simple and convenient ways to clean them:

• manual deletion of temporary data. To do this, you need to empty the trash can and independently delete the saved information from the browser you are using. Each of them does this in their own way.

1. Internet Explorer. You need to clear the log in the window "Internet Options". The section is located in the browser itself in Service;
   
   
   

   

2. Opera. You need to get to deleting personal data by Menu – Tools – Delete personal data.
   
   

   To select the desired items, you should open Detailed settings;

   

3. Firefox. You need to go here Tools – Settings – Privacy.
   
   

   

• using the function "Disk Cleanup". It helps you get rid of a lot of unused data stored on your drive.

To do this, do the following:

Diskmgmt.msc utility

Using this utility, you can partition, create a new one, delete an unnecessary one, or format the HDD.

Further actions depend on the required task. The storage capacity on the computer can be achieved using another medium:

How to increase the amount of memory on drive C

You can increase the storage capacity of the media with the operating system installed using special programs. Acronis Disk Director is considered the most popular and frequently used for these purposes.

Acronis Disk Director

It does not require special skills and works both from the boot disk and from the installed software. Acronis Disk Director refers to disk partition managers. Therefore, you need to be careful with it, otherwise there is a chance that absolutely all HDD partitions will be deleted.

To enlarge the media, do the following:

• create unoccupied space.

To do this, you need to reduce the partition of another drive (for example, D):

In this simple way you can significantly change the memory capacity of any media.
These methods are very simple to use. They are available to every user who can press a mouse button. Most of them don't even require the use of additional programs. Such simple operations increase the capacity of drive C without losing data. This will require a little time, desire and effort. Try it yourself.

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How to enlarge the D drive? On my computer, the system disk (C:) is very large, and (D:) for storing files turned out to be very small, it’s inconvenient to work, in Disk Management I shrink the large system partition (C:) and try to attach unallocated space to the disk ( D:), but the Expand volume button is not active, since there is a partition (C:) between (D:) and the unallocated space. They recommended Acronis on the forum, but I don’t know how to work with it, they say that if the program is used incorrectly, it is very easy to lose data. You have several good articles on this topic, but unfortunately they do not answer my problem. Victor.

How to enlarge the D drive?

Note: Hello friends, this article was written 5 years ago and now a lot has changed, in particular, a very good free program has appeared AOMEI Partition Assistant and she can too increase drive (D:), here.

Victor sent us a screenshot, but the quality leaves much to be desired, so I simulated his problem on my computer; it happens quite often. There are many reasons for it, often due to errors in the Windows 7 file system or because of, well, it doesn’t matter, you can actually solve it with Acronis Disk Director or for fans of free software, we have instructions for working with the free program . When working with a laptop and netbook, be careful and first copy important data to a portable media. If Acronis warns you that unsupported drives have been detected, it means you need to use a newer version of the program, do not continue under any circumstances. Friends, we look at the screenshot and see a disk (C:) with a capacity of 367 GB, as well as drive (D:) with a capacity of 96.7 GB, of course it’s not very convenient to work like this, always store all personal data, no doubt you have a lot of it, on disk (D:).

Next, let's see what the situation will look like after compressing the partition (C:). Start->Computer, right-click on it and open Management, then Controldisks, right-click on the drive (C:) and select from the drop-down menu Shrink volume.

For example, choose 187 GB.

You see, unallocated space is formed, which simply cannot be attached to our drive (D:), button Expandedit's volume inactive, so increase disk (D:)?

We act like this, the first thing we will do is prepare our program, we will work using the Acronis boot module, read how to make it or a flash drive with a module. How to change priority. If you want to work with the program directly by installing it on your computer, please, you can also use my instructions and increasedrive (D:), although of course the boot disk has more possibilities.
We insert the disk with the program into the drive and reboot.

The main window of the program. Pay attention to our disk (D:) on the far left with the capacity 96,7 GB and we need to increase it due to the unallocated space we created.

You may ask why drive (D:) marked as primary, because Windows 7 is installed on another disk with a capacity of 184.3 GB. This is because I also have two operating systems, Windows XP is on (D:), I installed it first, and Windows 7 was installed later on drive (C:), you can ignore this.
Select with the mouse drive (D:), with a capacity of 96.7 GB and many tools immediately appear on the left side of the window.

Click on the button Change timesmeasures.

The following program dialog box appears. In it, many people don’t know what to do and get lost, but you need to check the Add unallocated space to volume checkbox.

Don't know how to find out the storage capacity? Is the Windows operating system warning you that there is not enough free space? Let's look at how to expand drive C on a computer.

OS Vista and 7 often confuse their users, because no one understands where the storage space goes over time. The system begins to take up more and more disk space, and then a significant decrease in PC performance is observed. Especially on machines with a small amount of RAM (1-2 GB).

Due to the fact that there is not enough disk space, the system tries to use a smaller virtual memory buffer, and when there is not enough of it, devices begin to slow down and may not even start. With a careful approach, it is quite possible to find free space even on a very busy PC, for example, by increasing the C drive at the expense of the D drive, and this is quite possible, both with third-party tools and in the standard way on Windows Vista and newer systems.

During work, especially over a long period of time, users notice that the free space on the system partition is constantly decreasing. The history of updates can tell you where space on your hard drive disappears.

Microsoft OSes, which are constantly updated, clutter up the system partition the most. In addition to system garbage, browsers such as Opera and Google Chrome make their contribution - they constantly receive auto updates, which is why there is less and less free space, and besides, these programs themselves are rather large, occupying 300-500 MB. You also need to add to them the volume of downloaded files in the “Downloads” section (also located on the C drive).

Temporary files after watching movies online (they are loaded onto the HDD when watching). After all this, it’s no wonder that memory gradually disappears. Especially if the hard drive is broken up so that there is only enough space left for the system volume (for Vista and newer it is 20 GB, and for XP and older it is 1.5 GB). Over time, there may not be enough space.

In addition, repeated installation of games and programs also takes its place of honor in the top sources of system disk clutter. But how can you ensure that there is always enough memory?

How to increase the size of the system volume

On Windows Vista and newer versions, the question of how to move memory from drive D to drive C is not difficult. It can be easily solved using standard system tools. Just go to “Start” - “Control Panel” - “System and Security” - “Administration” - “Computer Management” - “Disk Management”. A window will appear in front of you, showing all the partitions of the drive, even hidden and unsupported ones (for example, from Linux). Above you can see the whole process in more detail by watching the video.

Remember, before increasing the space on drive C at the expense of drive D and others, it is advisable to save important data on external drives (in the cloud, on a flash drive, external hard drive, or by burning it to DVD). First, you should free up space on drive D. To do this, select this drive in the window and LMB call up the pop-up menu, where you select the “Shrink volume” command. It will help you “transfer” memory to drive C as quickly as possible. A window will appear in which there will be only one editable partition; in it, indicate by what size you want to reduce the disk. After setting the value, wait for the operation to complete. Next, go to drive C, highlight it, select “Extend volume” and in the window indicate the value obtained from the previous operation.

Alternatives

In addition to the standard method, you can use third-party programs that will show you how to enlarge drive C at the expense of drive D in the optimal way. The most popular program is Acronis Disk Director Suite. Has the free space on the HDD decreased significantly? Install the program on your PC; if there is not enough space in the system partition, install it on D or in other partitions where there is space. Launch it and select automatic operating mode in the window that opens. Next, in the next window, select the “Increase disk space” section. A window will appear with a list of disks, select the one that requires the most free space, and click “Next”. After this, the volume from which free space will be taken is selected. In the program, you can even select several sections, and not just one, as in the standard utility.

In a new window that appears, the program will ask you to specify the size of free space to move to drive C. You can manually specify the size or move the slider. Then click “Next” and “Finish”. Once on the initial window, the program will save the changes. In older versions of the utility, you need to reboot the device. In addition, I cannot help but note that the program is paid.

Standard method or Acronis?

If you are interested in how to redistribute space on the hard drive of a computer running Vista or later, it is easier to use standard tools. For legacy systems, there are no options other than third-party programs, of which Acronis is the best. This is a paid program that does not have full functionality in free trial versions and will not help you increase the size of the disk where the system is installed.

In addition to moving data, Acronis can also expand the volume, create backups, free data, and even test for errors. When the system partition takes up too much space, optimization is mandatory. But before the operation, save the data.

To free up free space, you can erase the partition, especially without much experience in setting up a PC. Don't forget about basic caution. If in doubt, you should double-check the Acronis program management information, otherwise the changes will be irreversible.

Significant freeing up of space is also possible with the “mechanical” deletion of the contents of the TEMP folder; it is located at C:\Windows\Temp.

Freeing up free space

If you have a catastrophic decrease in space on drive C, then you can stop the process by clearing all folders of temporary files and performing cleaning using standard system utilities. To get started, go to “Start” - “Control Panel” - “System and Security” - “Administration” - “Free up disk space”, in the window that appears, select drive C. The system will perform a cleanup, and if we are talking about a Windows 7 or newer OS, the user will be able to even choose which files he wants to delete: temporary ones from the Internet, OS update files, other temporary data.

In this way, you can significantly free up space on your PC hard drive. If these procedures have not been performed for a long time (or never at all, and the computer has been used for several years), then the procedure will significantly increase the performance of the PC, since garbage mixed with system files takes up all the free space of the drive.

Since drive C can only be enlarged at the expense of other partitions, the procedure with small-capacity old-style eMMC drives becomes meaningless. They had 8 or 16 GB and, as a rule, were not partitioned. To increase free space, all they have to do is clean it.

Free up space on Windows 10

The newest version of "windows", unlike the old ones, can itself free up space on the system partition. So, if the unallocated space on the disk is 0 MB, the system will issue a warning and offer a deep cleaning of unnecessary files.

Unlike the "seven", on Win10 you no longer need to think about how to increase the size of the C drive, because after installation and deployment the system takes up to 8 GB on the 32-bit version and 12 GB on the 64-bit version. Naturally, after installing updates, disk space gradually disappears, but not as quickly and aggressively as on Win7. In addition, automatic cleaning effectively removes old versions of the OS and simply unnecessary temporary files.

If you are interested in the question of how to increase space on the C drive under the Windows 10 operating system, then in this version you can expand the volume in a similar way to older OSes. In the system search menu, enter “panel”, the system will find “Control Panel”, then the algorithm is similar to that described above.

You can manually find space on drive C by following the path: “Start” - “Settings” - “System” - “Storage” - “Disk C” - “Temporary files”. Here you can delete the Temporary Files folder, as well as the Trash and Downloads.

Working on small drives

When a low-capacity 60 GB or 32 GB SSD is installed on a laptop or netbook, there is a catastrophic lack of memory. In this case, the problem of free space is extremely relevant for you. As a result, the question of how to increase the amount of free space becomes a priority. Typically, computing systems are built not only from SSD drives, but also from several (desktop PCs) or one HDD (laptops).

If this is the case for you, then you can simply transfer some of the installed programs to a magnetic drive. You will lose a little performance of programs, but you will free the system disk from unnecessary information. Although the hard drive is slower, the system will have free space to work with.

When the system has lost disk space, the only way to get it back is to clear garbage, temporary files and move some programs to another partition or even disk. This advice is especially relevant for fans of computer games. Due to the large size of modern toys, the capacity of cheap SSDs is sorely lacking. Using such a drive, you must know how to free up space in partition C and periodically perform the cleaning procedure.

How not to break your laptop

If the free space on partition C disappears literally before your eyes, then most likely this means one thing - your system is intensively receiving updates. They are the ones who can “clog” the device’s permanent memory. When users have a question about what to do, there is only one answer - clean the system partition (C) from debris. It is in it that the remains of updates, flash content download files, and auto-update programs accumulate. As soon as disk space begins to decrease, you need to take action - clean your computer from unnecessary programs and files, perhaps even transfer some of the free space from other partitions to the system one.

How to increase memory is discussed above. Never try to deal with memory expansion without a backup, especially if you do not have sufficient knowledge. Otherwise, you can make files that are important to you disappear without the possibility of restoring them. Before changing the volume, try clearing it of unnecessary programs. Or replace them with less resource-intensive ones (for example, Word 2003 costs hundreds of megabytes, and Word 2016 requires gigabytes to install).

It happens that there is a need to increase the size of drive C. This need may arise, for example, if the computer begins to slow down due to lack of memory on the main disk, i.e. on drive C. The reasons may be different. But it’s worth making a reservation right away, we are talking about increasing drive C at the expense of free memory on drive D (or a drive with a different letter), the main thing is that they are on the same physical hard drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD).

The instructions are written for the operating systems Windows 7, Windows 8 (8.1) and Windows 10. There is no built-in interface for such a transfer, so in the article you will find two free programs: MiniTool Partition Wizard And Aomei Partition Assistant .

Also, before starting the procedures, it is worth saying that an accidental power outage during the memory transfer or incorrect actions during the procedures may lead to the loss of some data on your disks, so before transferring, we recommend saving important data on other disks.

Increasing the capacity of the C drive using the Aomei Partition Assistant program.

The program can be downloaded from the official website using the link: www.disk-partition.com/free-partition-manager.html

This program supports the Russian language (you must select it at the installation stage) and does not install any unnecessary software additionally, so we give preference to it.

After installing the program, you will see this window.

1. To begin, right-click on drive D in the program and select "Resize partition" .

2. In the window that opens, you can change the disk size. It can be changed by simply dragging the dots on the right or left, or by entering data in fields special for this. There should be unallocated space in drive D BEFORE him (see figure below).

3. In the same way as with drive D, open the window for resizing drive C, but only this time the disk needs to be enlarged due to the free space created on the right. Don't forget to click OK.

4. Now all that remains is to apply all the settings. To do this, click on the button "Apply" in the main program window and wait for the movement to complete.

Increasing the capacity of drive C using the MiniTool Partition Wizard program.

Also a very good, simple and also free program for transferring and increasing the volume of disks. True, this program does not support the Russian language.

After installing this program, you will see the following window.

In principle, the program is almost identical and as simple as the previous one.

To resize disks, you need to perform the same steps: right-click on disk D, select the item in the menu "Move/Resize Partition" , then change the disk size according to the same scheme as in the first program, i.e. so that the free space is on the left. Perform the same actions with drive C, only we do not reduce it, but increase the space from the resulting space on the right. Click OK and apply the settings in the main program window.

If the operating system is already installed. Friends, this article can be successfully applied if you have the operating system Windows XP, Windows 7.

• In this article, we will use the paid Acronis Disk Director program, but free programs can also do the same operation: and, in the end, you can choose what you work with. By the way, if you have the Windows 7 operating system installed, you can do this without resorting to any programs.

So here we will use Acronis Disk Director. Use this program if you need to divide your hard drive into several partitions or if you need to change the size of a partition. You can also use this program to find and restore a deleted partition. There are a lot of articles on our website that describe working with this program, you can find them. In our case, we incorrectly partitioned the hard drive when installing the operating system.

• Acronis Disk Director can be installed directly into Windows, but many users work from the program's boot disk, so there are fewer errors. can be created in Acronis Disk Director itself.
• Acronis Disk Director is a disk partition manager, which means that when working with the program there is a risk of accidentally deleting all partitions on your hard drive if you do something wrong.
  Therefore, before working with Acronis Disk Director, I recommend making a backup of all partitions of your hard drive. It's very simple. Any user, regardless of experience with a computer, simply must be able to create a backup of the operating system and, if necessary, deploy it back.
  These detailed articles will help you master indispensable operating system recovery tools. These tools will help you restore your operating system in any case.

When installing Windows XP, the disk (C:) on which we installed the operating system turned out to be only 20.8 GB in size, and the disk (D:) turned out to be large 90.98 GB. Let's correct our mistake and increase the disk capacity (C:) due to the disk (D:), we will make them almost equal, all our files will naturally remain untouched, we will do this using a special program Acronis Disk Director 11, website http://www.acronis.ru, you can download a free demo version. This program is very serious, if used skillfully it can help, but if used ineptly you will lose all your data, but I think it will do without it.

If something doesn’t work out for you, read the article: -, which describes all your possible mistakes when carrying out this operation.

How to increase space on drive C

1. The first thing we will do is reduce the disk partition (D:) and we will create unallocated space
2. Second, we will attach the unallocated space to the drive (C:).

In general, for the future, it is better for you to perform an operation on the hard drive partition in, immediately before the installation itself.

So here is our drive (C:), the total volume is 20.8 GB

Disk Management

Let's launch our program

Point the mouse at the disk (D:) and right-click once (select it), then resize the volume

We change the size of the selected volume (D:) downward so that the unallocated space is in front of the volume (D:), set it to 34 GB, then we add the freed volume to the disk (C:) and the two volumes will become approximately the same in size.

Set it to 34 GB and click OK

Our program works in deferred operation mode and all changes we make will take effect when you press the button Apply pending operations

Continue

As we can see, free space (Not occupied) with a volume of 34 GB has appeared. It’s time to increase the size of the disk (C:) select it and click Resize volume

Increase the volume size to 54.81 GB or to the maximum and check the box Add unallocated space to volume

In the main program window, click Apply pending operations, a request to reboot appears, continue and reboot

Before starting the operating system, we see the program working.

Windows loads, go to disk management and see the enlarged disk (C:)

Attention: Friends, if someone in the process of working with the Acronis Disk Director program, after allocating free space from the disk (D:), this very space will disappear into nowhere and the disk (C:) will not increase in size, and the disk ( D:) will become smaller, then firstly, this article will help you or read these two small instructions.

How does this happen?

For example, if we take our case, then initially we had
drive (C:) is only 20.8 GB in size and
disk (D:) size 90.98 GB.
In Acronis Disk Director, we pinch off 34 GB from the disk (D:), then attach this space to the disk (C:). After this operation, the disk (C:) should have a capacity of 54 GB, and the disk (D:) 56 GB.
In fact, we get disk (C:) the same as it was 20.8 GB, and disk (D:) 56 GB. In other words, the detached space from the disk (D:) 34 GB disappears into nothing.
In this case, you once again need to boot into the Acronis Disk Director program and pinch off a small space from the disk (C:), about 1 GB and leave it unallocated, then click the button Apply pending operations. After the reboot, enter the "Disk Management" of the operating system and expand the C drive: due to this unallocated space, the missing gigabytes will also be attached to the drive (C:)

Another instruction from our reader:

ATTENTION, maybe my advice will help someone. I also wanted to increase the “C drive”, and was also tormented by the loss of GB. One thing helped: I tore off one more small piece from the “D drive” (100 MB) and left them as “not used”. After restarting the computer, I went to “My Computer” -> “Disk Management” and there I already added these 100 MB to “drive C” (function: Expand volume). After which he admired his missing GB.