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Windows 7 install on SSD

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I just installed w7 pro x64 and when I checked my available space it seems the installation has taken up 36 GB?! I read that W7 x64 full install is 20 GB. What gives here? My 128 GB Samsung 830 only installed to 119 GB and now I'm already down to 80ish gigs with nothing installed but drivers. Additionally why did the SSD install to 119 gigs but the system file partition was tiny?
 
As above. Page file, hibernation and system restore combined will take up a lot of space. Page file can be reduced and hibernation can be disabled. System restore, well...
 
Your samsung only installed at 119 GB b/c ssd's take a small portion of the available nande (typically 7-10&#37😉 and reserve it for swap space. Trust me, you'll be happy it works that way when you start filling up your ssd and it keeps performing the same way over time, and also helps the nand to last significantly longer.

BTW, standard spindle drives SHOULD reserve swap space as well, they get significantly slower as you get closer to the middle of the drive. Realistically on a spindle drive you want to keep 20-30% available to keep the performance at an acceptable level. On an ssd you want 10-20%, but most of the newer drives reserve a bit for you automatically, and intel actually just throws in some extra nand on some of their drives. I don't know about the other sizes, but the intel 320 series 160gb drive has 176gb of nand and only 149gb of usable space for the end user.

Edit: and your experience with win 7 pro isn't too different from mine with win7 home x64. I think I was at 32gb used out of 57gb total available before I even got started installing other programs.
 
All of the above plus Volume Shadow Copies, and Temporary Internet files. They can grow like topsy. My rule of thumb is to allocate 50GB to the OS and not worry about it.

Keep your data files on a fast spindle drive and enjoy life.

P.S. - and don't forget NTFS's overhead - metadata, etc.
 
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Thanks guys, got the install down to around 24 GB which is plenty trimmed down for me. SSD has officially changed my life! I will never run an OS off of a spindle drive again... if this was any faster applications would open before I thought about it. The Samsung 830 seems to be a very nice drive but I only have experience with one other SSD which was an older Intel forget the series.
 
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Nice to hear. I picked up a 128gb Samsung 830 and am literally just taking a break from my new build.

Did you install the ssd magician and or are you using any other software for the drive?
 
The magician software actually doesn't seem to gimmicky which surprised me. I ran its performance tool and it allowed me to disable dog fetch, super fetch, and de-frag with one click. I am very much enjoying the drive and I think you will too. I went with the 830 because although its not the single fastest SSD I was scared away from the sandforce controllers just from reading about the problems some of the users are having. Based off the previous generation Samsung drives they seem to put a lot of emphasis on reliability. Plus I'm all about getting a free download of batman, looks like one of the better free games I've seen bundled with hardware
 
Hi,

It’s great that you were able to reduce the footprint of your installation to 24GB. Just as an addendum, the following is to be considered additional information which could be useful for those who also utilize an SSD and space is a very relevant concern. As stated, disabling the use of hibernation is one method of increasing the available disk space. You may also have chosen, or would like to choose to change the size of virtual memory (paging file). It is not recommended to eliminate the use of the paging file but you can most definitely reduce the size.

In general, Solid State Drives perform very well within a Windows 7 environment. There is also a great MSDN blog post discussing the Support and Q&A for Solid-State Drives that may prove beneficial.

In addition, Microsoft has a Microsoft PowerPoint deck detailing the Windows 7 Enhancements for Solid-State Drives that you may also find interesting.

Although the below is not advised nor is it recommended, there are a few additional steps one can perform in an effort to reduce the disk footprint of Windows 7.

As you will see in the second reference link, Debbie, a Microsoft Answers Support Engineer, does state, “Changing permissions on or compressing the WinSxS folder can cause problems when installing an OS hotfix and installation/un-installation of any Win32 assemblies.” Please keep that in mind when making any unsupported alterations to your Windows 7 system configuration.

• Reducing the Disk Footprint for Windows 7

• "Windows 7 - How do I cleanup winsxs folder to free up space on SSD drives?"

• "I want to delete the hiberfil.sys to save some disk space."

Jessica
Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro
 
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