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How to save space on my SSD

Nvidiaguy07

Nvidiaguy07

Platinum Member
I try to install huge programs on a different hard drive to conserve space, but i end up seeing parts of the install on my SSD anyway.

-I deleted my hiberfile.sys by turning off hibernate, since i dont use it anyway.
-my pagefile.sys is 8GB, but i do go nuts with tabs, so maybe I need it? (I have 8gb of memory installed)
-winsxs is 7.2GB
-in system32/driverstore 1GB
-windows/assembly = 1GB
-windows/installer =1GB
-I have autodesk inventor installed, and that puts shit all over my C drive, even though I have it installed to my E drive ~8GB
-chrome has about 1GB in the appdata folder


what can i get out of there? and how can i keep all program data saved on my E drive?
 
Many programs are designed in a way that certain files are installed to the C: drive, regardless of which drive you selected to install to. Adobe does this with many of their progs, too. There is no way around this.

Yes, you need your pagefile. Do not move or split it to a different drive, as some tweak sites recommend...pagefile performance is vastly superior on the SSD, so moving it or splitting it to a mech drive will slow your machine down significantly.

After running Disk Cleanup, launch Windows Explorer. Go Tools->Options->View and select to show hidden files/folders, then unhide extensions for known file types, and protected OS files. Then drill down to c: \windows\softwaredistribution\downloads, and delete the contents (don't delete the downloads folder itself).
 
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Also, not sure if it's the same with NT6.x, but I believe that Recycle Bin reserves 10% of drive space for itself...reduce or eliminate.

Might want to reduce the amount of drive space that System Restore reserves as well.
 
Slugbait said:
Also, not sure if it's the same with NT6.x, but I believe that Recycle Bin reserves 10% of drive space for itself...reduce or eliminate.

Might want to reduce the amount of drive space that System Restore reserves as well.
Click to expand...

Thanks, That got me back a few GB of space.
 
Based on the replies to this post and my experience these are what I would recommend.

Disable system restore. It takes so little time to reinstalll on an SSD why not? Plus, you can keep everything you need for the reinstall on the secondary drive.

Pagefile at 8Gb? I would go much lower. Even with tons of tabs open 4Gb. is way plenty. I'm running Win7 64 bit with 4Gb and I have mine set a fixed 2 Gb. And I use IE9 without tabbed browsing, and have lots of IE windows open. No problems.

Deleting the contents of the SoftwareDistribution folder is also an excellent way to free up space.

As to a Gb in your Chrome appdata folder, I don't know enough bout this, but I assume Chrome lets you determine how much internet history to keep stored? If so, perhaps you could lower the amount? I do know that in Internet Explorer you can easily move this folder, in Internet Options-Browsing History-Settings-Move Folder. Perhaps Chrome has something similiar?
 
techs said:
Disable system restore. It takes so little time to reinstalll on an SSD why not?
Click to expand...

Because several days is not "so little time". What, you think anybody is ready to go after an OS install? It's just an OS, it can't do anything until you install chipset and other drivers, install your apps, install patches for your apps, install your utilities, configure your utilities, install your games, install your game patches and configure settings, customize your shell and OS settings, etc, etc.

Even if you image your boot drive, disabling System Restore can result in taking you offline for an extended period of time just because you got hosed by a driver update or something. It happened to me long ago. Won't happen again.

Reducing the size of System Restore is a much better alternative.
 
really takes me less than 20 minutes to do a full restore to the ssd. from the ssd i backup to. system restore is lame compared to a full bare metal backup.
 
Emulex said:
really takes me less than 20 minutes to do a full restore to the ssd. from the ssd i backup to. system restore is lame compared to a full bare metal backup.
Click to expand...

But to do those backups you have to periodically shutdown and create the image which is a PITA. I like to leave my systems running for weeks or months at a time. System Restore is automatic and painless, much more convenient.
 
Emulex said:
really takes me less than 20 minutes to do a full restore to the ssd. from the ssd i backup to. system restore is lame compared to a full bare metal backup.
Click to expand...
...also finding it hard to believe that you can back up your PST file, docs, pics, music, Firefox profile, etc, and still be finished in just 20 minutes.
 
For me, Using macrium reflect on a laptop usually doesn't take more than 20 minutes to make a complete backup and this is with a normal HD.
 
Nothinman said:
But to do those backups you have to periodically shutdown and create the image which is a PITA. I like to leave my systems running for weeks or months at a time. System Restore is automatic and painless, much more convenient.
Click to expand...

Err, why would you shutdown? Macrium (like any disk imaging program AFAIK) does not require a shutdown.

Macrium can do a full backup for me in less than 20 minutes no problem. I've had them go as fast as 7 minutes.
 
Scouzer said:
Err, why would you shutdown? Macrium (like any disk imaging program AFAIK) does not require a shutdown.

Macrium can do a full backup for me in less than 20 minutes no problem. I've had them go as fast as 7 minutes.
Click to expand...

I've never heard of Macrium, but I'd still be leery of trusting something like that even if it uses VSS because of how Windows handles open files.
 
I uninstalled a lot of programs from Win 7 like the enhanced DVD authoring stuff. Saved a few hundred megs there.
Had to completely disable hibernation and wipe the file. Had to move the swapfile to my bulk drive (sucks but its NOT bad despite what people may claim).
I got a 30 gig SSD and now wish I had spent a little extra for the 32. That may not sound like much but after formatting it would have been a lot. Next one will probably be 256GB or so. Then I can install almost all my stuff.
 
I've been using Macrium for a year to two years and so far it has had no issues restoring from backups. I just last week reimaged a new windows xp machine after installing some test software on it and it took less than 15 minutes!

Nothinman said:
I've never heard of Macrium, but I'd still be leery of trusting something like that even if it uses VSS because of how Windows handles open files.
Click to expand...
 
Anybody using the smaller SSD's with Win7 should seriously consider using Win7 32 bit. Its installed size is quite a few GB smaller than the 64 bit version.
 
OS said:
i've had my swap file shut off for years and never had a problem
Click to expand...
That might be because you have a page file.

Years ago, I tried moving my page file to a secondary hard drive for optimization, and made it a permanent size. A few weeks later I launched Everest and found that there was an active, dynamic page file on my boot drive. Verified in TaskMan. Went into Performance->Advanced, and verified it said "None" for the C drive...but the page file was definitely there, and definitely being used.

Did some googling around and found that I wasn't alone. It's generally accepted that you have a page file, regardless of your expressed settings change. I think MS decided after all the complaints during NT5 that completely disabling the page file shouldn't be honored...so beginning with NT5.1, the shell will just smile at you while the system does the correct thing.
 
i just assumed it was gone...if i had too many browser windows open, like over a dozen, the pages would start dropping pictures and content.
however nothing would crash.
 
OS said:
i just assumed it was gone...if i had too many browser windows open, like over a dozen, the pages would start dropping pictures and content.
however nothing would crash.
Click to expand...

If you mean IE, that's just a browser issue from running out of GDI handles IIRC. You used to be able to just hold Ctrl+T and once it got to a certain point it would start losing menus, icons, colors, etc.
 
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