A way to make room on HDD c:?

[topeira]

hi guys.

i used to have only one HDD and i split it into 2 partitions. c: has 35gb and e: has around 225GB.
windows 7 was installed on c:, obviously.

i am really really doing my best no to install anything on c: but i reached a full HDD just now with merely 300mb free.

is there a way to see what's taking the most amount of room on c: so i will know what i can and can not delete? (control center doesnt seem to help that much because i dont know WHERE each of my million softwares is installed).
also games and softwares tend to create save files or temp files in places that im usually not fully aware of.
i just have a feeling there must be a way or even a tool that allows browsing folders to see how much they contain faster than the default windows options of clicking properties for each and every folder....

so, any way to help me clean up my C: easily?


p.s - yes, i emptied recycle bin. yes, i didnt scan disk and freed as much as it let me.

 

[ForumMaster]

i suggest you try any on of these disk space analyzers.

An example is spacemonger/windirstat and so on.

I assume that the problem is either restorepoints that windows 7 automatically creates (which you can tell it to delete), or the winsxs folder.

what's the winsxs folder? basically, ms and users grew tired of "DLL hell." and so because
storage is cheap nowadays, since vista, windows will store a copy of every important dll in that folder, just in case you need to go back.
And no, you cannot move or delete these files. do that, and your os is toast.

i suggest giving windows a bit more then 35gb. this isn't xp and more. give it atleast 80.

good luck!

 

[topeira]

thanks mate.

i will give the tools u suggested a try. see if it helps.

u said that it may be restore points, but where do i find them and delete them?

besides, i wish i could give it 80GB, but i creted partitions back in the day before i had my new tera HDD so im kinda stuck with it until i format, which im going to do. if there was another way to refer windows to a ddifferent HDD (or partition) to let it do it's thing than i'd do it. im open for suggestions.

 

[GaryJohnson]

Windows has a built in Disk Cleanup utility.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_Cleanup

It's also possible to extend a partition using the Logical Disk Manager.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_Disk_Manager

However, this would probably require that you delete your E: parition in order to extend the C: partition. There is an option to shrink a partition, but I think it only shrinks from the right and you can only extend to the right. So that wouldn't help you if you free up space right of E: because you couldn't extend C: into that space.

There are third party tools that don't have that limitation like GParted, Acronis Partition Manager, etc. My experience with those has not always been good - I think it's generally accepted that it's "better" to reformat, resetup the partitions, and reinstall if you have that option. Or that you should make a full image backup of the disk before you go moving the partitions around.

 

[0roo0roo]

As said you messed up using xp size for win7.

Easy and cheap, get a 1tb drive off amazon for ~50 shipped.
make new partitions on that, give win7 150-200GB and call it a day, rest on second partition, use a imaging program like clonezilla or another to simply copy partitions to each other, c: -> c:, e:->e:, it doesn't matter as long as the partition is large enough it will process it fine. It is non destructive and no risk unlike other ways like trying to resize on the old disk.

 

[Phynaz]

Run Ccleaner.

Also read this:
http://www.ghacks.net/2010/07/24/the-winsxs-folder-explained/

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/...and-windows-vista-and-why-is-it-so-large.aspx

 

[0roo0roo]

fun, yea xp used to have cleanup wizard setting where it could compress files after a certain amount of days without access, but sadly it is missing from win7/vista, lots of those files could prbably be compressed.