How much 'elbow room' do you have in your C: Drive?

Discussion in 'polls' started by AaLF, Oct 31, 2007.

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How much elbow room do you have in your C: Drive?

  1. 5Gb free in C:

    6 vote(s)
    5.0%
  2. 10Gb free in C:

    9 vote(s)
    7.5%
  3. 20Gb free in C:

    15 vote(s)
    12.5%
  4. 30Gb free in C:

    17 vote(s)
    14.2%
  5. 40Gb free in C:

    4 vote(s)
    3.3%
  6. 50Gb free in C:

    9 vote(s)
    7.5%
  7. 60Gb free in C:

    12 vote(s)
    10.0%
  8. 80Gb free in C:

    5 vote(s)
    4.2%
  9. 100Gb free in C:

    31 vote(s)
    25.8%
  10. Free Space - its important

    23 vote(s)
    19.2%
  11. Free Space - its irrelevant

    7 vote(s)
    5.8%
Multiple votes are allowed.
  1. AaLF

    AaLF Registered Member

    Joined:
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    There are times when I wonder how much 'free space' is required in the C: Drive? For instance if you run a cleaner application like say 'Cyber Scrub' it seems to 'take up' all the slack while doing its thing. I notice similar with some virus scanners. The PC at times can become very lethargic when some beast is running around inside it doing whatever it is 'this or that' program does.

    So...

    How much 'free space' or 'elbow room' do you have left over in your C: drive?

    And it would be nice if you could leave a comment as to whether you think 'free space' in C: is important or is 5gb spare the same as 20Gb spare the same as 40gb spare?
     
  2. WSFuser

    WSFuser Registered Member

    Joined:
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    Posts:
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    Computer one has more than 100GB free and computer two has 55GB free.

    I do not consider free space (entirely) important because the drive's capacity is meant to be filled. I would keep some space free though so files can move, grow, or whatever.
     
  3. zapjb

    zapjb Registered Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    USA still the best. But barely.
    I burn a lot. So my HDD isn't very full.

    Also as my HDDs were 3yrs old & older. So I bought new smallish (these days) Seagates 160 GBs for next to nothing ($32ea). And I sold my old HDDs (an 80GB $35 & 40 GB $20) after scrubbing them.

    So thats why I have over 100GB free.

    And I think it's important to have at least 10% free space.
     
  4. FadeAway

    FadeAway Registered Member

    Joined:
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    Posts:
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    Location:
    USA
    My drives are partitioned. I size C: to maintain about 67% free space
    within C:. Too little free space can sometimes prevent large files
    from being defragged. C: is only 5-7 GB worth of files, so 67% free is not
    that much.
     
  5. farmerlee

    farmerlee Registered Member

    Joined:
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    2,585
    I normally make my c: partition 20-30gig in size as it only ever has my OS and programs on it, all my data is stored on other partitions/drives.
     
  6. sukarof

    sukarof Registered Member

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    Location:
    Stockholm Sweden
    I have a 50GB C partition. I ususally have around 10-15GB free so I can throw in a extra FDISR snapshot when I need one.
     
  7. EASTER

    EASTER Registered Member

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    Why do you want to know?

    Are you interested in stealing some free space? Or data? :D :D :D


    Seriously, it depends on which drive i have plugged in because i have a modest collection of them in various sizes ranging from 20Gb to over 200Gb.

    But for sake of POLL, we'll focus on my current and most often used hard drive, and in that there is 75% free space where the other 25% is system/data occupied but that margins flunctuates by a difference between 10% up or down depending on new downloads ( i always download something everyday) and the dumping out of the clogged arteries (caches).
     
  8. clambermatic

    clambermatic Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2007
    Posts:
    216
    my rule of thumb (regardles of HDD sizes) for FREE space at C:\ was around 40% leftover. Besides, i always do a minimum of 4 partitions on each & every HDD i got (except for 20Gb HDD which i split half & half).

    11Gb on 'active/primary' partition was my norm, even for Linux; Next immediate drive letter can vary between 10~15Gb which always contain my system-secs setup & OS-related plugins; Docx/Misc were at 3rd (including word-proc system files; Last partition has always been half of C:, for fresh net dwnloads & registry backups. OS images were always burned copies.

    My most frequently used machine (an AMD64 laptop) got only 38% free space @C... which i find very adequate. Others averages 40%, and i don't play RPG except for beta-testing.

    But i won't 'squeezed' on DDRs (desktops nor laps), average is 1Gb+/rig except on 1 other which runs on a 512mb, based on AMD64-3800+.

    Another absolute 'must' was never having more than 4objects running on my sysTray... hence all rigs i use realtime were always in pristine speed! ;)

    ----------------------------
    EDIT: addendum
     
  9. ErikAlbert

    ErikAlbert Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 16, 2005
    Posts:
    9,455
    My harddisk[C:] = system partition (Windows + Applications) and I have about 50gb free space. It has always the same volume, because I clean it with a FDISR-archive, which cleans more than running registry cleaner + history cleaner + manual cleanings.
     
  10. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

    Joined:
    May 9, 2005
    Posts:
    10,213
    Hello,

    My C: drives are always only system + programs, nothing more. Data and such are stored on other partitions (usually 6-10, sometimes more). On average, I make C: to be 50GB, with roughly 70-80% free space, with baseline of about 10GB and expected annual growth of about 1-2GB. This way, I can keep the system running without format for 6-7 years at least without any hiccups on the OS side.

    Most of my partitions are about 40-60% occupied. I don't like extra clutter in anything and always keep a safe margin. For instance, if I need to download some biggies or such, there will be always be space.

    Mrk
     
  11. MikeBCda

    MikeBCda Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 5, 2004
    Posts:
    1,627
    Location:
    southern Ont. Canada
    I'm an old-timer with "only" a 40 gig drive. It's all the C: partition except for about 5 gigs used as an invisible partition by RestoreIT. And typically I'm showing about 85 percent free space which (so far) has been ample, since as a dialup user I'm not into space hogs like videos and the like.
     
  12. appster

    appster Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 19, 2007
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    Location:
    Paradise
    I prefer keeping my C-drive (partition) to a minimal size in order to facilitate imaging the C-partition. With Windows, IE, Paging File, Apps and several Rollback Rx snapshots on my C-partition, I find that an 18GB partition satisfies those needs quite well while still leaving enough free space 'for comfort'. All of my data, docs, pics, etc. reside on my D-partition.

    All of that is probably unnecessary explanation behind my 7 to 10 GB of 'elbow room'. :gack:
     
    Last edited: Nov 2, 2007
  13. Rmus

    Rmus Exploit Analyst

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    Location:
    California
    My C:\ partition on Win2K is 4GB with 1.1GB free. It has just the OS and related files. It is protected by Deep Freeze so never changes nor needs maintenance.

    ---
    rich
     
  14. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

    Joined:
    Sep 20, 2003
    Posts:
    20,590
    My C: drives are between 5-10% full. My D: drives run around 50%. My C: drive sizes are 500gb and 640gb, both with one partition.

    They defrag fast, and run fast cause everything is at the rim. Also imaging is fairly fast.
     
  15. cortez

    cortez Registered Member

    Joined:
    Nov 19, 2006
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    450
    Location:
    Chicago
    On one disk I have an XP w/ 2.3 gigs on a 3.5 gig drive with a cleaner, anti virus, browser and some small apps and it works A-OK with My Documents pointing to a data partition.

    The trick is to have a cleaner to keep the partition lean and dumping to a data partition to keep it from growing.

    Next I will test XP with only 5 megabytes free space with this type of set up to see how it works (restoring this size partition is only 4 minutes in case mal ware strikes).
     
  16. zfactor

    zfactor Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 10, 2005
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    6,102
    Location:
    on my zx10-r
    on my desktop i have 4 hard drives. 2 120gb and 2 500gb so i have lots of room

    on my laptop i just installed a samsung 320gb and i have room for a second drive in my sager

    on the wifes laptop i put my 250gb wd scorpio in there that was in my sager.

    lol i like to have lots of space. i am most likely ordering another 250gb wd or a 320 gb wd (when they become available they are out of stock right now from wd) to add to my 320gb i have now in the laptop.. lol 640gb should be more than enough for me
     
  17. AaLF

    AaLF Registered Member

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    Sydney
    640Gb? One spin around would be enuff for a full boot up. ;)

    That's a good point though -

    They defrag fast, and run fast cause everything is at the rim.
     
  18. YeOldeStonecat

    YeOldeStonecat Registered Member

    Joined:
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    2,345
    Location:
    Along the Shorelines somewhere in New England
    Depends on which computer I'm looking at. On my primary gaming rig...I have a WD Raptor 10,000rpm 36 gig drive, I think near 20 or 25 gigs are taken up by a few game installs and programs, I prefer to have the pagefile.sys on a second spindle drive for increased performance. Dunno...never really worried about it, nor intend to.
     
  19. progress

    progress Guest

    50Gb free in C: :p
     
  20. normishmael

    normishmael Guest

    C:/Drive has Windows/programs/documents.
    I have 191 of 232 GB's free.
     
  21. the Tester

    the Tester Registered Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    The Gateway to the Blue Hills,WI.
    C/: Drive has 73% of 30GB free.
    I burn to cd photos and images periodically.
     
  22. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2006
    Posts:
    9,065
    Hello,
    for my vista machine C: is 50gb
    just rememebered i can expand partitions using computer managment with vista.
    it only used for OS+ apps
    then ive got the rest of that hard drive for data

    free space is 31gb

    will be more free space when i get windows 7
    second hard drive is for backup of data +images of C and fedora + seprate home paritiion and of course swap file
     
    Last edited: Mar 13, 2009
  23. raakii

    raakii Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 1, 2008
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    593
    16.5 gb free space from 20 gb c drive.
     
  24. Osaban

    Osaban Registered Member

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    Location:
    Milan and Seoul
    On my Vista laptop 100 GB free.
    I'd prefer to keep the drive not more than 30-40% full, as defragmenting becomes time consuming as well as backup images. It is true I could partition my drive, but I don't like the idea. I generally store my personal data and images with several USB HDs and DVDs so I can diversify the location, just in case of theft or accident.
     
  25. yashau

    yashau Registered Member

    Joined:
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    Posts:
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    I have a 1TB Samsung Spinpoint and two 640GB Western Digitals.

    I have the WD's on RAID 0 and I've given it around 200GB for the OS partition. There's around 100GB left on it.
    :)
     
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