Windows 10: Can/Should I free up these unused C: partitions?

This is the current layout of my Windows 10 boot drive:





I understand that WIn10 has a required 1/2 gigabyte "Recovery Partition" that it likes to use when required to rebuild the boot partition etc. But somehow, over time, my boot drive has those other 3 partitions, including 776 MB of unallocated space. So my question is: why are those partitions there and can I free them up and make that space usable for something? And if so, what would be the best software to use to do this?

I don't think it matters, but the drive is physically an NVMe Samsung 970 SSD.

:)

 

W7 Hard drive partition issue

to get rid of that 100 meg windows partition that setup creates for you on a new install on a blank hdd:

- press shift+f10 when on the partition management screen in setup <-- this opens a command prompt
- diskpart <-- start the windows command line partition management tool
- list disk <--- list the installed hdds in this computer for the next step
- select disk 0 <- might have to replace 0 with the number of the correct disk
- clean <-- this will erase all data on the disk you selected one step up- dont use the wrong disk!
- create partition primary <- creates a primary partition taking up all space on the drive, adjust the command if necessary
- exit, exit to exit diskpart and the command prompt
- click refresh in partition manager and select your newly created partition and install to that

 

Resize partition C

In order to extend C and recover space from D, you will need to delete the 866 MB Healthy Recovery Partition and the Storage D:\ partitions.

There appears to be data on the D:\ partition.

I recommend you backup any important data on that partition before deleting it. After deleting the partitions, you will be able to extend C:\

Steps:

Right click the ‘Healthy (Recovery Paritition) and the
Storage (D’ partitions in Disk Management, on the contextual menu, click the ‘Delete Volume’ option. Click ‘Yes’ when the warning dialog appears.

The Volume you deleted will now appear as ‘Free space’, you will also notice that the disk icon no longer appears in the list of volumes.

Right click the Free space partition, and click Delete, click Yes on the Disk Management warning that appears.

The volume will now appear as Unallocated. Our next step is to merge back that unallocated free space with the system partition
(C. Right click the System volume then click the ‘Extend Volume’ option on the contextual menu, click ‘Yes’ when the warning appears.

A wizard will now begin that will guide through the steps to merge back the unallocated space with your system partition.

The wizard provides a simple procedure to merge back the unallocated space with the system drive. Once you have selected the space, click Next, at the end of the wizard, you will see the amount allocated.

 

hard partition

Hi Prasad,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

I understand that you are trying to extend the Volume of Drives and create partitions from C: drive.

I would suggest you to follow the steps and check if it helps you.

• Press Windows + R keys, type diskmgmt.msc hit
  enter.
• Disk management will open. Right click on the C: drive
  below in the segments of the partitions.
• Select Shrink Volume. Select the Amount of space
  you want to extend in MBs (1GB = 1024MB).
• Follow the instruction and check if it creates a Unallocated Drive.

Later after the Unallocated drive is created follow the below steps to crate a partition.

• Right click on the Unallocated drive and select
  New Simple Volume.
• Select the Drive letter and follow the instructions and check if it
  creates a partition.
• Follow the same to Create partition.

Note: C: drive must be not less than 100GB if you are using a 1TB hard drive. partitions must not be more than 3 drives to have a better functioning of the system.

Keep us posted to help you better.