Solid State Drive Issues

I recently got a new Toshiba computer, I love it, but Toshiba put a backup of the OS on the rather small ( 64 gig ) solid state drive, and since it is a fairly small drive a lot of it went to the backup ( which I hope never to have to use). The computer also has a big ( 500 gig ) conventional drive, so overall space is not an issue just the precious very fast drive. After about a month I had only about 4 gigs free on the solid state drive.

Where is my space

At first I did not know why I had so little space. Disk properties showed only about 50 gigs on a 64 gig drive. A call to Toshiba support told me the backup copy is on a hidden partition ( making it safer from a virus? ). And that to recover the space I would need to reformat the drive and reinstall the OS. This is not something I am really comfortable doing, but planned to at some point in the future. I never add programs to C:, I always use the standard drive. I am running Win 7 upgraded to professional.

Making a backup

I assume I can buy a backup copy of the OS from Toshiba at any time, I declined when I first got the machine. So I used the Toshiba utility to create restore disks. This takes 4 blank DVDs. Then I did it again, I want to be sure I had a good set. This takes as I recall a couple of hours, but you do not have to sit there and watch it.

Do Not Reformat

Maybe you should for best results, but there is an easier, quicker way. I downloaded a free partition utility ( Partition Wizard ). A nice feature of this utility is that it comes in a CD bootable version. One reason why this is good is that you do not have to worry about disabling any anti virus, utility...... So I got the software, burned the cd, and booted it. Set you computer to boot from the CD, and reboot, comes right up in the utility:

• Click on the C drive.
• Find the hidden partition in the display, click on it.
• Click on delete, and carry out the delete.
• Click on the primary partition
• Click on Move/Resize
• Expand to fill all available space, and carry out the expansion.
• Exit the utility and reboot.
• Time, about 5 to 10 minutes.

Side Effects

As far as I can tell none. Except I now have about 15 gigs free on C:

Going Farther

• I should probably run a disk defrag on C:
  • Intel: High Performance Solid State Drive SSD Frequently asked Questions: "Q: Do I need to defragment my Intel Mainstream Solid-State Drives?" A: No.[1]
  • Alexander Wolfe. "SSD Onslaught Spotlights Defrag Debate".[2]
  • Alex Handy. "Do Solid State Disks Need Defragging?" [3]
• There is still other junk software on C: that I should probably delete or move. Anyone have detailed directions?
  • Perhaps CCleaner might be useful?
• There is still the page file and hibernation file on C: I probably want the page file there, but the hibernation file might go as I do not use it.
• At some time some utility popped up that let me migrated My Documents to the E: drive. Kinda lost track of the details.

Can you contribute some tips

Please do so here, or add to above.

• Windows 7 - Moving My Documents
• [4] may help with moving applications.