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OS Drive always seems to be nearing "FULL"

Baasha

Baasha

Golden Member
Guys,

So my OS drive (2 G-Skill SLC SSDs in RAID-0) is only 64GB (total) and that is precisely why I used it as an "OS" drive.

I install all my programs and games on another drive (2 SAS drives in RAID-0) which still has quite a bit of space left.

However, the space available for my SSDs (OS drive) always seems to be getting smaller by the day. When I first built the system, I remember someone posted a guide on how to limit disk space usage for SSDs (like moving PageFile and turning off Hibernate etc.) and so I did that. I had about 30+GB available a couple of months back and haven't really installed too many new programs. I hardly install anything on the C:/ drive anyway! There are small programs like CPUID and other diagnostic programs on the OS drive but any big ones like games and/or programs like Adobe, AUtodesk are ALL on the SAS drives.

How do I clear up space on my OS drive? I can't defrag them because they are SSDs (or I was told not to). Are there hidden folders/files taking up space? How do I find out? For example, when I edit a movie in Premiere Pro CS5, does a cached version of the movie sit on the OS drive?

It's really pissing me off because I just want the OS, small programs (diagnostic and device programs like Creative Audio Sound Panel etc.). I mean, those programs are each like <100MB so why the hell is most of my OS drive hogged up?

I now have only 13.9GB left of 59.5GB! :thumbsdown:

How do you guys usually clear up space on your OS drive or any other drives?

I really should have gotten four SSDs for my OS drive when I built my system but it's a bit too late for that now. Once the new generation SSDs are out this year (end of 2011?), I will pick a few up and make the OS drive at least 256GB deep! The only lame thing is I will have reinstall EVERYTHING! It's really cumbersome to do that IMO.
 
Since you already mentioned hibernate & pagefile, i'd go with temp files & specifically, System Restore.

System Restore will eat up tons of space if you let it; i'd look into that.

Run Disk Cleanup & CCleaner to get rid of temp/crap files.
 
You can also move My Documents and the download folder to your data drive by right-clicking on the folder/properties/location.
 
tl60 said:
You can also move My Documents and the download folder to your data drive
Click to expand...

I would recommend this also, for smaller SSDs. Think about this... EVERYTHING YOU DOWNLOAD by default goes on the C: drive. Also, many games save to My Documents. Then there are My Pictures and My Videos and My Music...
 
RobDickinson said:
What OS?

Possibly be worthmoving the temp folder?
Click to expand...

I'm running Windows 7 x64.

I checked the Temp folder and it has no files in it ?? I found that very strange. Although, I do have my browser to delete browsing history (and clear cache) every time I close the browser so that probably deletes the temp files (?).
 
tl60 said:
You can also move My Documents and the download folder to your data drive by right-clicking on the folder/properties/location.
Click to expand...

My 'My Documents' folder is about 498MB. My Downloads folder is 1.16GB and when I tried to move it, at the very end it said some file cannot be found (it won't let me delete that file from the folder either 🙂()) and the process cancels. It won't let me move the Downloads folder to another drive!
 
I also noticed my iTunes folder in C:/ is 3.69GB! I have a separate Music folder on my data drive but I guess when all the songs are imported into iTunes, it creates another copy (?) in the OS drive? Can I change that and still have iTunes work properly? That would clear up some space for sure.
 
Baasha said:
My 'My Documents' folder is about 498MB. My Downloads folder is 1.16GB and when I tried to move it, at the very end it said some file cannot be found (it won't let me delete that file from the folder either 🙂()) and the process cancels. It won't let me move the Downloads folder to another drive!
Click to expand...

Those are smallish sizes for those folders. But still start with moving it, and then do everything people have said in this thread. You will discover that 64GB is plenty. Get a program that shows graphically which folders are using your space.
 
I'd download TreeSizeFree and get a good look at EXACTLY where your data is. I'm continuously amazed at how much space the Windows directory eats.

If you find that your Windows directory is indeed eating a lot of space (I've got machines with the Windows directory at close to 10GB!) then identify the folders that are the culprits (TreeSizeFree will show you) and do some googling. Some are ok to delete (or to delete their contents) and others you pretty much have to live with.

Symantec AV (and probably some others) are also often bad about keeping several iterations of Virus Defs that can take a boat load of space.

The place to start though is to download the program and get a bird's eye view at exactly where all your space is going.

Joe
 
tl60 said:
There are more than one temp file. Are you checking C\Users\(your account)\AppData\Temp?
Click to expand...

Yea I just had to enable "view hidden files/folders" in the Control Panel and it showed that AppData folder.

There were some Premiere Pro movie files there that were eating up like 5GB! I instantly Shift+Deleted them. The AppData folder is still about 1.6GB but the Temp folder there is only about 40KB!

What do I do about the iTunes folder? That thing is almost 4GB as well.
 
Netopia said:
I'd download TreeSizeFree and get a good look at EXACTLY where your data is. I'm continuously amazed at how much space the Windows directory eats.

If you find that your Windows directory is indeed eating a lot of space (I've got machines with the Windows directory at close to 10GB!) then identify the folders that are the culprits (TreeSizeFree will show you) and do some googling. Some are ok to delete (or to delete their contents) and others you pretty much have to live with.

Symantec AV (and probably some others) are also often bad about keeping several iterations of Virus Defs that can take a boat load of space.

The place to start though is to download the program and get a bird's eye view at exactly where all your space is going.

Joe
Click to expand...

I'll give that a shot. I tried the trial version of SpaceMonger and it showed everything but I was not sure what I could delete(?). For example, as stated above, my iTunes folder is almost 4GB. I have a separate Music folder on another drive with ALL my songs that I "import" into iTunes if I get any new songs. So I'm not sure why those songs (iTunes version) are stored on the C:/ drive? My "Windows" folder is also 18.9GB but I'm afraid of touching anything inside there because most of those files are system files aren't they?
 
Baasha said:
What do I do about the iTunes folder? That thing is almost 4GB as well.
Click to expand...

I haven't used iTunes for awhile but there should be a settings tab to choose where your downloads go. It used C drive by default. Change it to your data drive, then move your files.
 
Netopia said:
I'd download TreeSizeFree and get a good look at EXACTLY where your data is. I'm continuously amazed at how much space the Windows directory eats.

If you find that your Windows directory is indeed eating a lot of space (I've got machines with the Windows directory at close to 10GB!) then identify the folders that are the culprits (TreeSizeFree will show you) and do some googling. Some are ok to delete (or to delete their contents) and others you pretty much have to live with.

Symantec AV (and probably some others) are also often bad about keeping several iterations of Virus Defs that can take a boat load of space.

The place to start though is to download the program and get a bird's eye view at exactly where all your space is going.

Joe
Click to expand...

Symantec AV lol. Get rid of that hog. Microsoft Security Essentials is the way to go.
 
hal2kilo said:
Symantec AV lol. Get rid of that hog. Microsoft Security Essentials is the way to go.
Click to expand...

You must be pulling my leg! Are you seriously saying that a "free" anti-virus program.. that too from Microsoft is better than Norton? I paid money for Norton! LOL...
 
hal2kilo said:
Symantec AV lol. Get rid of that hog. Microsoft Security Essentials is the way to go.
Click to expand...

Norton isn't all that much of a hog anymore; they've streamlined it significantly.

Baasha said:
You must be pulling my leg! Are you seriously saying that a "free" anti-virus program.. that too from Microsoft is better than Norton? I paid money for Norton! LOL...
Click to expand...

In my experience with infections these days, Norton is pretty much useless. It's been useless for quite a long time now though, since most infections are installed by the user [unknowingly].

I'd say Security Essentials is a bit more effective overall.
 
Baasha said:
You must be pulling my leg! Are you seriously saying that a "free" anti-virus program.. that too from Microsoft is better than Norton? I paid money for Norton! LOL...
Click to expand...

P.T. Barnum must be lolling over in his grave right now.

The 120-day Microsoft security suite test drive

The gist of the article is that Microsoft has finally gotten RIGHT the holy trinity of Windows security: firewall, antivirus, antimalware

Not only that, but each product actually works.

Here's another article on Microsoft Security Essentials that found it a worthy antivirus.

You can find reviews of Windows Defender (Microsoft antimalware) all over the net. Generally they are positive. Windows Firewall nets similar reviews.

Basically Microsoft offers antivirus, antimalware and firewall all free to activated Windows machines. They are all reasonably secure and functional, and are FREE. The major quibbles of all the reviewers are typically along the lines of not being able to configure much (no settings to fiddle with). The major accolades are usually that the software is lightweight (both size/install and few resources running in background).
 
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