Best Partition Size for 1TB Hard Drive in Windows

It is really important to partition hard disks reasonably from my personal experience. A proper partitioning can avoid such problem as space shortage on C drive (system drive) or other drives, which usually happens in later use. What's more, it can also increase the utilization of the drive and improve the computer performance.

If you want to get ideas for how to partition a 500GB hard drive, please see Best Partition Size of 500GB Hard Disk for Windows 7, 8 and 10.

Recommended partition size for 1TB hard drive or SSD in Windows:

Attention: In this article, I recommend you to create a partition for temp files. If you don't want to create that partition, you could allocate more spaces for C partition, such as 200GB.

Why allocate 150GB for C drive?

Comprised files and required space on system drive:

• 1. System files need 10GB-20GB.
• 2. Programs installed on C drive need  30GB-50GB. 50GB is recommended.
• 3. Page file: the maximum is 64GB, approximately the computer memory. (It can be moved to other drives.)
• 4. Hibernation files: the maximum is 64GB, approximately the computer memory.
• 5. Temporary Files: About 10 -20GB
• 6. Other storage: 10GB

Based on the above, about 120GB can meet general needs. But out of space is easily caused by a large computer memory such as more than 24GB, or a great many of programs set up on C drive.  If it is 150GB, there will be a relatively surplus space to satisfy the demands of most people.

Tips: I recommend you to move temp files to E drive to avoid too many disk fragments. If you don't move the temp files and page file to another drive, you should allocate more space for C drive.

D drive for programs - 150GB

All my applications are installed on D drive, thus the space usage of my D drive is about 50G. It is advised that enough space should be left for software that takes a lot of space, for example, a game with dozens of GB.

Why need a 150GB E drive to store temp files?

When tidying and optimizing my computer, an idea occurs to me: to get a separate drive, put all temporary files and page file on it, and then clean it periodically. In this way, frequent deletion will not leave too many disk fragments on your computer, which makes your computer running in good condition. See how to move temp files and page file to another partition.

Tips: If you don't want to create this partition and move temp files to it, you should allocate more spaces for C drive.

F drive for videos & music - 350GB

From my perspective, we should allocate as much space as possible to save beautiful memories like the current high-definition videos and casual snapshots. Of course, you can also divide several parts as per your own needs to store photos of every family member or of different times.

G drive for software & others - 100GB

It is necessary to allocate some space to store purchased and downloaded software.

H drive for personal private files - 100GB

This is a partition for storing personal privacy data, encrypted with BitLocker and accessed with password, resulting in a high security. Even the computer has multi-user, you do not have to worry about your private data being seen or leaked by others. This is a partition that I highly recommend to you all. See how to setup bitlocker for a drive.