Trying to combine disk space

Hi MC. I'm Greg, an installation specialist and 9 year Windows MVP, here to help you.

You can't combine hard drives into one drive without creating a RAID which is not what you want and unstable in Windows easily leading to total data loss if one drive fails.

I will give you steps to both manage smaller drive storage and perform version Updates on them manually by the most stable method that requires much less space than Windows Update.

First here are tips here for managing smaller drives:

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3040404/windows...

https://www.groovypost.com/howto/maximize-stora...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/...

As more space becomes needed, you can offload User folders (Documents, Music, Pictures, etc) to another drive as shown in this tutorial, which will not affect speed if C is on an SSD and the other drive is not: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1964-move-u.... I would not move program files or speed will be affected.

This should make enough space to install Windows Updates. But for now I'd focus on the latest Version 1803 since successfully installing it will bring along all Windows Updates and also resolves almost all other problems since it reinstalls Windows keeping your files and programs in place.

Install the Media Creation Tool on another PC to create bootable media or download the ISO to stick or disk, transfer it back to the target PC to open the media or click to mount the ISO, right click Setup file to Run as Administrator. This avoids needing the space to download the Upgrade and it's staging files. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/m...

If the Upgrade Assistant has already been installed by WIndows Update then I'd remove it and it's staging files first to recover that space:

First turn off Windows Update service to regain control:

Type services.msc in Start Search, Open Services applet.

Scroll Down to Windows Update Service and click on it, Stop service and set to Disabled. Now it should clear the queue of Version and other Updates until you turn it back on and Check again.

Uninstall Upgrade Assistant In Settings > Apps & Features.

Clear out any Upgrade folders in C: drive root including C:$Windows.~BT. Restart PC, try Upgrade again.

Another option is to do the the best possible Clean Install in this link which will stay that way as long as you stick with the tools and methods given, has zero reported problems, and is better than any amount of money could buy: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki....

This will give you back all but 15gb of the drive so you can slowly reinstall programs to see how they affect performance, move your files to another drive if possible or offline into OneDrive in the cloud with On-demand access to them only: https://www.pcworld.com/article/3233488/windows....

There is also an automated Fresh Start that reinstalls WIndows while shedding corrupting factory bloatware, saves your files, but doesn't clear the drive to get it cleanest: https://www.howtogeek.com/265054/how-to-easily-...

You can also turn off or block Updates if they are bothering you.

There are ways to block Updates here: https://www.howtogeek.com/223864/how-to-uninsta...

If you want you can set a Metered Connection per the above tutorial, then when ready turn it off to install Updates. You can even wait until the twice-yearly Version Updates to run manually from Media Creation Tool which is a more stable method than Windows Update and includes all previous updates rolled into it. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/m...

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask back any questions and let us know how it goes. I will keep working with you until it's resolved

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Yes, as suspected, you appear to have two physical drives, one SSD and the other a mechanical hard disk.

The Disk 2 has unallocated free space.

Right click the D: volume on Disk 2 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 rest of D. Once you have selected the space, click Next, at the end of the wizard, you will see the amount allocated.

Follow the procedures from a my previous reply to partition the drive into two so you can free up space on C:

Hi,

Thanks for your response.  Here´s a screen shot.  I am certain that I´m not using the drive space efficiently.  The PC belongs to my son and we bought it as a gaming PC, hence getting an extra drive with extra space.

I´ll try the work arounds you suggested.  Thanks again.

Sounds like you have a Hybrid drive but its not being used.

Press Windows key + X

Click Disk Management

Could you take a screenshot then post it in a reply here?

If the D: drive is larger than C:, I would try partitioning the drive.

Here is an article how to partition a drive:

https://www.groovypost.com/howto/create-partiti...

Name one Partition 'Files' and the other 'Apps'.

Open the Files partition, create a folder and name it: Mccolles

Press Windows key + R

Type: %userprofile%

Hit Enter

Right click your Documents folder

Click Properties

Select the Location tab

Click Move

Browse to the Files partition we created earlier then select Mccolles folder.

Repeat the same steps for other folders such as Pictures, Videos etc.

Open Start > Settings > System > Storage

Under More storage settings, click 'Change where new content is saved'

In New apps will save to list box, choose the 'Apps' partition we created earlier.

Open Start > Settings > Apps > Apps & Features

Select any large app you have downloaded from the Windows Store

Click Move, choose the 'Apps' partition

Hi Mccolles, sorry your screenshot is not coming through . ..

If your C drive and D drive are physically separate drives inside your PC, then you cannot extend C into D, it is not possible

It is only when C and D are logical partitions on the same drive that space can be re-allocated between the two partitions . ..