# W7 Pro x64 - How much Hard Drive space does the OS partition really need?



## petepc (Feb 20, 2010)

I've installed W7 pro 64-bit with 4GB system memory, but I'm still playing with it. Shadow Drive is barely used or turned off. I plan to keep non-OS data on other partitions. Games, videos, music, my documents, etc. 

I want to give the OS a generous amount of partition space, but I don't want to go overboard and waste hard drive space. However, I haven't had W7 long enough to know what it really needs so I'm looking for "real world" advice on what to give it. 

Thank you.


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## oli356 (Nov 22, 2009)

Well I think the OS itself takes around 30GB and then room for updates and restores is quite alot...
If you play games they can be 10GB each and sometimes even more. I made my OS partition 100GB but that's also for a few games.

I would say 45-50GB but I'm sure someone who knows more will give you a better answer


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## jcgriff2 (Sep 30, 2007)

Well, who's "real world" are we in? 

How large is your hard drive?

Windows 7 Ultimate x64 w/ 320 GB here total HDD (298 GB in Windows math terms)
- 170 for OS drive partition
- 33 GB free
- 58 GB for VSS/ System Restore
- 37 GB - music/ docs/ pics
- 5 GB Live Mail

170 - 33 - 58 - 37 -5 = 37 GB used by OS, installed apps

I would not go lower than 70 GB OS drive, 15% for VSS/ System Resore = 10.5 GB 

Net = 60 GB for OS + installed apps.

Don't forget you have a ~ 4.3 GB page file on the OS drive as well. Keep it there because if you move it to another partition/ drive and get a BSOD, no dumps will be produced.

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

.


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## petepc (Feb 20, 2010)

jcgriff2 said:


> Well, who's "real world" are we in?
> 
> How large is your hard drive?
> 
> ...


jcgriff2,

Thanks for reply! I've found good info from you by reading some of your older postings to other forum users.

I have a 400GB hard drive (about 370 for use). I use 3rd party software to make my own images of the OS partition and my plan was to create a 50 GB partition just for holding backup images. I like to keep a fresh image of the OS on hand with all my preferences in place. Rather than do a clean OS install as some do, I will occasionally just restore the OS partition with this clean image. Anyway, I won't rely much on the Shadow Volume/system restore. I try to keep non-OS data off the OS partition although it's nice to have room to play with new apps. 

I'll take your advice and keep the page file on the OS partition which I intended to do anyway. I think this is what I'm mistakenly calling the swap file, or the file that the OS uses as virtual memory? In the past I've keep "my docs" type files off the partition. That way I don't lose configuration settings for apps or games when I restore the image for the OS partition. 

So the reason you keep 170 GB for your OS is that you want have room for installing new apps and gadgets, right? It's not so much for performance? Seems like a lot, but for peace of mind I could live with giving the OS partition 70 GB if you think this is the safest bet.

Oh, and if I give the OS 70 GB, my plan was to let that 70GB make up the entire primary partition and just make the rest of the HD logical. I don't ever plan to use a secondary OS. Other than the System Reserve, there's no reason to partition space for non-os data when I could just as easily create new partitions out of the logical drive, right?

Thanks for the help.

Pete


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## jcgriff2 (Sep 30, 2007)

petepc said:


> jcgriff2,
> 
> Thanks for reply! I've found good info from you by reading some of your older postings to other forum users.
> 
> I have a 400GB hard drive (about 370 for use). I use 3rd party software to make my own images of the OS partition and my plan was to create a 50 GB partition just for holding backup images. I like to keep a fresh image of the OS on hand with all my preferences in place. Rather than do a clean OS install as some do, I will occasionally just restore the OS partition with this clean image. Anyway, I won't rely much on the Shadow Volume/system restore. I try to keep non-OS data off the OS partition although it's nice to have room to play with new apps.


Hi - 

Thank you, I'm glad prior posts are helpful.

For the imaging, be careful of 3rd party apps. You will find BSOD threads here from the likes of Acronis and others. I'm not saying that is always the case, of course.

Windows 7 has its own on-board backup image creation app -

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Back-up-your-programs-system-settings-and-files

You may want to try it and see if it works for you.
START | type *backup* | select "Backup your Computer" | select "Create a system inage" - top-left of screen




petepc said:


> I'll take your advice and keep the page file on the OS partition which I intended to do anyway. I think this is what I'm mistakenly calling the swap file, or the file that the OS uses as virtual memory? In the past I've keep "my docs" type files off the partition. That way I don't lose configuration settings for apps or games when I restore the image for the OS partition.


You're right - the swap file = the page file = virtual memory. You'll find in Windows 7 x64 with 4GB RAM that you will use little if any virtual memory. 

Here is one of the best articles written on the subject --> http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/WindowsGeneralWeb/RAMVirtualMemoryPageFileEtc.htm

To check your virtual memory usage --> http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/55958-virtual-memory.html#post510974

Keep in mind that there are apps that write directly to the page file, like MS TechNet SysInternals Process Monitor just one of > 70 stand alone executable files found in the SysInternals Suite, available free from TechNet - 

SysInternals Suite --> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062.aspx





petepc said:


> So the reason you keep 170 GB for your OS is that you want have room for installing new apps and gadgets, right? It's not so much for performance? Seems like a lot, but for peace of mind I could live with giving the OS partition 70 GB if you think this is the safest bet.


I don't ever see this system using the 170 in a traditional sense. You'll notice there is just 33 GB free, but 58 GB, ~ 34%, is used by VSS/ System Restore. VSS = Volume Shadow Service which allows me to restore a single file or an entire folder from a prior period in time. One folder I just looked at has 40 saved versions of it going back to January 16. I use system restore quite often as I install apps to test them or answer a thread. Simply un-installing the app does not get rid of it - or possibly it may not be un-installable due to a missing file. 

System Restore can solve many issues, program un-installs being one of them. The 58GB used by system restore provides me with about 5 weeks of restore points. That is just enough as I prefer to re-install the OS about once a month if I can. I download a literal ton of files and do not scan each one. I also like to play around during the OS installation to try and re-create scenarios that I have read about; hence the reason for a fresh install and not using an image.




petepc said:


> Oh, and if I give the OS 70 GB, my plan was to let that 70GB make up the entire primary partition and just make the rest of the HD logical. I don't ever plan to use a secondary OS. Other than the System Reserve, there's no reason to partition space for non-os data when I could just as easily create new partitions out of the logical drive, right?
> 
> Thanks for the help.
> 
> Pete


You can cut the 70 down if you don't plan to use much space for system restore. Windows 7, like XP, allows you to set the size allocation. What is the current usage of your OS drive now?
START | *diskmgmt.msc*

For partitioning or "shrinking" - use Disk Management. RIGHT-click on the drive, select "shrink volume". You can always back out of it. For further info on shinking - press F1 while in Disk Management. Keep in mind - 4 partitions total allowed under Windows NTFS per drive.

Here is a post containing a batch script and instructions if you wish to see details about system restore on your system -

http://www.techsupportforum.com/2570788-post2.html



If you're looking for a good free security package, check out - 

Microsoft Security Essentials --> http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/


Other notable items in Windows 7 - 
- Action Center - click on the flag, lower right of screen
- Reliability Monitor - will show you program installs/ un-installs, driver updates, Windows Updates for each day - 
START | *perfmon /rel*
- System Health Report - 
START | *perfmon /report*
- Resource Monitor - 
START | *perfmon /res*

Windows 7 "God Mode" - The Control Panel on steroids - 
- Create a new folder anywhere - like Desktop. Then rename it - 

```
[FONT=Lucida Console]
GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}[/FONT]
```
pics --> http://cid-e5d03c221cac693f.skydrive.live.com/play.aspx/Windows 7 - ^4GodMode^4 - jcgriff2 MVP?ref=1

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

.


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## petepc (Feb 20, 2010)

Thanks for the help. I decided to go ahead and go with 70 GB for the OS even though I'll keep 50 aside for True Image to make BUs. Win7 might have good imaging too, but I'm more familiar with TI so I'll stay with that for now.

I know you recommend using W7 setup DVD to format the unformatted hard drive and create the partition for W7. I did that the first time but got stuck with 186GB partition (after shrinking). 

This time I used my windows xp boot disk to wipe the hard drive clean then create one partition 70 GB in size. I then exited and restarted the PC with the W7 setup DVD. W7 saw the 70 GB partition and installed normally. 

With W7 freshly installed, I went to disk management in the control panel (where you can create partitions). There I noticed something strange. The first time when I formatted the hard drive with the W7 DVD, it created not only the partition with the OS on it, but it also created some kind of system resource partition about 100 MB in size. This time around that system resource partition was not present. The partition that's there looks fine and is 70 GB in size, but it's all alone. Everything else was unallocated. So what's the deal with the system resource partition? Do I need it? Do I have to start over? Where to go from here?

I'm also confused about the method of partitioning. In the past when I've created partitions I would first create the primary partition and then I would create the extended partition with the rest of the unallocated space. Inside that extended partition I would create a few logical partitions. However, there would only be one primary partition and the OS would be on it. With W7, there are no options except create simple volume. When I do this, it automatically makes the next partition part of the primary drive even though it's a separate partition. Then if I make more partition it makes them logical drives. I know the OS should be on the primary partition and it should be active, but otherwise I'm not sure that it matters. In the past I always made all my non-active partitions non-primary as well. For W7 I don't seem to have any options.

Also, with XP I create 7 partitions beyond the primary partition that held the OS. All were NTFS. I'm confused why you say I'm limited to only 4? In fact, the first time around when I had the 186 GB partition for the OS, I was able to create four more partitions beyond the one with the OS. One was listed as primary and three were logical. I might have been able to create more but I didn't try. 

Thanks. I really want to take my time an absorb all this, but I've wasted hours just trying to things formatted the way I want just so I can get started.


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