How do I free up space on my C drive.

[FishAk]

Duplicate

 

[alanwest09872]

Sorry I'm unable to use paragraph brakes, which will make this hard to read. Many of the suggestions here are good- but not all. Your SSD is plenty big enough for your OS. No need to disable hibernation- if you use it, but with an SSD, the benefit of hibernation should be minimal. Don't disable the page file, but restrict it to 3 or 4 Mb to avoid problems. Most importantly, go to your User folders, and change the location of your Desktop, Documents, Music, Videos, etc. to your HDD. Next, download a copy of GetFolderSize or an equivalent free program, and see what else is taking up space on your “C” drive. You can utilize junction points to move things like your Google Earth cache, or game saves that don't allow you to chose their location through their settings. Indexing can also be moved to another drive, though with an SSD you may not see much benefit from indexing, and can probably disable it without a noticeable difference. If you move your Temp folder to another drive, don't forget that you did. Some programs won't install if you move the Temp folder, and you need to move it back to troubleshoot a failed install.

Ok how do you move those important folders from one drive to another?

 

[FishAk]

Edit--> I found out how to insert paragraph brakes here, so I'm fixing these instructions.

To change a user folder location-->

Log in as the user --> go to C --> Users --> (the name of the user) --> Right click on the folder you wish to move --> Properties --> Click the “Location” tab --> Change the drive letter (in this case “C”) to the drive letter you wish to move the folder to.

Click OK a couple times, and the folder will appear under-- (the drive letter you selected) --> Users --> (the user name).

Note that the Location tab only shows up when you are logged in as the user, and only in the actual directory (ie not under Libraries, or some other symbolic link).

To move a folder for a program that doesn't provide a method in it's options- (in this case Google Earth cache)

1. Create a directory on the disk where you want to move the cache to. (ie-- Drive > Some Folders and Sub-folders --> The Folder to Contain the Moved Folder.)

2. Navigate to the folder you want to move, and copy it to the folder made in step 1.

3. Copy the path (shift rightclick --> copy as path) of the original folder, then delete the folder (it's safe to delete since you now have a copy already in your new location- If it is an important folder, you should also have a backup).

4. In notepad, type--> mklink /J “(Paste the path from the original location from step 3 including the parinthasis if there are any spaces in the string.)”

5. Copy the path of the new location, and paste it into your notepad document following the path of the original location.

Notepad should now look something like this--> mklink (one space)/J (one space) “the path to the original folder in parenthesis” (one space)“the path to the new folder location in parenthesis”{ie--> mklink /J "C:Users\Non-Admin\AppData\LocalLow\Google\GoogleEarth" "E:Users\Non-Admin\Documents\Moved Program Data\Google Earth Cache\GoogleEarth" }

6. Open an elevated command prompt, paste in the string you just made in Notepad, and hit enter.

When you next open the program, it will think it's placing data in C, but it will actually be working from the drive or partition you specified.

Note that the: is supposed to be a colon, and not a frowny face. .

 

[FishAk]

Edit--> merged with above post.

 

[Slugbait]

Ok how do you move those important folders from one drive to another?

You should figure out the problem before you start tweaking system configuration.

I have 500gigs worth of installed games on my gaming drive. Does this matter at all.

Absolutely. It does not matter that applications or games are installed on a different drive, many of them must install certain files on drive C. You do not get a choice in the matter. So yes, a large chunk of your drive space on the SSD may be consumed by certain game files. But 50 or 60+ gigs worth?

Originally posted by FishAk:
No need to disable hibernation- if you use it, but with an SSD, the benefit of hibernation should be minimal.

Except that hibernation will consume 12Gs of OP's drive space...considering space after format, that's over 16% of his SSD...that's a massive chunk. Hibernation was designed primarily for laptops (close lid, hibernation engages, battery drain is a drip). Unless you have frequent power outages while the machine is asleep with critical docs open, you should instead use S3 and disable Hibernation.

Don't disable the page file, but restrict it to 3 or 4 Mb to avoid problems.

You will still have problems. There are a ton of myths about the "best" way to tweak virtual memory, leaving only a few tweaks that actually work. This is because developers code for the lowest-common denominator, and because the vast majority of users let Windows manage their page file size, developers code their apps with the assumption that you have virtual memory space (hint: 3 or 4 MB won't be enough). Some developers are smart enough to code in such a way as so that if you don't have proper virtual memory settings, the app will tattle on you to Windows and you will suddenly have a standard dynamic page file again, thrust upon you without your explicit permission. Some apps (such as Outlook) will politely inform you that you have run out of virtual memory, and that it will increase it for you...your only option in this scenario is to click the OK button. For those developers who aren't so smart, your game or app crashes on launch or during use. Best advice: don't mess with the page file.

 

[FishAk]

As Slugbait says, “You should figure out the problem before you start tweaking system configuration.”, which is why I recommended GetFolderSize to see what is taking up all your room. Most likely, the file system is precisely the system configuration that needs tweaked, and it's simple to do or undo. I stand corrected concerning the pagefile. I gave a generic number that may be inappropriate. To find your own actual usage requirement, set your pagefile to Min 16Mb, and Max to some higher number. The page file will only grow, and it will never shrink until you reboot. By looking at the size of the pagefile after a session, and before shutting down, you can determine the proper size for your own system. Personally, with 12Gb memory, I have never seen my pagefile go above the minimum allowed- hence my arbitrary maximum allowed is 300Mb.

 

[Samick]

You should try Folder Size program. It lists your files by size and you can comfortably remove the files that uses much space and that you do not need.