Recovering disk space in Win7

[I.M.O.G.]

So I have recently been running out of disk on my OS drive. I still run a 36GB raptor in my daily rig, bought the drive off a forum member here over 8 years ago.

This was what I did:

1. Check size and location of pagefile
-I have an 8 GB static pagefile, min/max set to the same size to prevent fragmentation, stored within my 10TB storage setup. This was not affecting my OS drive space
2. Uninstall programs I don't use
-There were a couple, but 36GB on the OS drive has kept me well disciplined in this department.
3. Run disk cleanup
- This got me back less than 1GB
4. Disable Hibernation
-I never hibernate, as my daily rig is an HTPC with automated searches and downloads for TV/Movies, and I use it regularly to stream media when I'm away. Hiberfil.sys was taking up about 8GB. Looking in power options I had hibernation set to "never"... But hiberfil.sys was still hogging about 20% of my OS drive. The only way to turn it off that I found was at the command line: "powercfg -h off". When I rebooted after that, I had much more space available.
5. I turned off system restore
-It was already off, but not completely. This didn't save me any space.

I also deleted a bunch of installer backup files windows was hanging onto in the system directory.

Any other easy stuff I missed that can save space? Disabling hibernation was the big win, and is probably also useful for anyone else that doesn't hibernate and is on a smaller SSD. I doubt many dinosaurs are still around running 36GB raptors.

 

[Knufire]

Have you tried running WinDirStat? I found it really useful in figuring out exactly what was taking up space on my SSD, maps out all the files on your HDD in a very useful visual interface.

WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics

 

[orion456]

treesize <--- maps out folders according to size

In win7 its usually the backup system file that remembers every update and install you ever made. There is a way to clean it.........

 

[I.M.O.G.]

I have not used that, but I have used treesize. Have you used that? I'll try windirstat to compare.

 

[c627627]

When you treesize C drive what does it say, how big is your Windows and Program Files folder?

Go to
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\

There may be a huge Windows.edb file there you can delete and maybe a file that is named something like 00010001.ci you can also delete.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Thanks for that tip. My windows.edb file was only 42MB or so, nothing too big so I left it.

My Windows folder is 15GB.

The users folder is the next big one. Its about 16GB. I have an XBMC appdata folder that is 1.5GB - just for thumbnails for my media, but with the amount of stuff I have that isn't too bad. The bad one is Plex Media Server, which does my remote streaming to my phone - it is taking up 10GB in metadata and cache files. I'll just live with that as well, as I use Plex all the time.

My program files is 1.7GB.

I did find some old bluray conversion files with treesize that were taking up a couple GB that should have been deleted.

So far I've gone from 500MB available, to about 7.5GB.

 

[dejo]

have you tried to empty the recycle bin? seen that one before

 

[I.M.O.G.]

hah! I got that one.

 

[dejo]

if you have recently made any changes you might try a reboot and then check

 

[orion456]

I assume you have run ccleaner already, it sometimes find piles of useless things to delete.

 

[wagex]

i think the best advice for glorious leader, take one of your ssd drives, clone, bam

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Looking at Treesize, I'm pretty much at my min drive size now so I think I'm good. There are 27GB of disk used, and thats pretty much all consumed by HTPC components and windows system files. I don't install any additional programs or save anything else on the OS drive, so 7GB of breathing room is plenty.

As for the SSD drives, I don't have any spares to toss in currently. And for the price of an SSD, I could get a couple modded GPUs for benching.

 

[Neuromancer]

Sounds like an instruction thread for getting a drive ready for SSD

disable hiberfil
static (small) pagefile ?
recycle bin and system restore tweaking

Only thing missing, is the NTFS tweaks (which do not save any space just writes)

Just curious why you need the mondo OMG I think I will pass out pagefile size? I have 8GB mem in my HTPC cum daily grinder and 256 MB pagefile set.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

I probably don't need the pagefile size really. I've found the pagefile size may help prevent lockups in certain situations, though mainly I have it set to that because I have the storage available. I have a lot of automated stuff going on in my HTPC, so I could be decoding a binary download, converting a bluray, and extracting a rar archive, while streaming a file to my phone while I'm out of town... With 10TB of storage, an 8GB pagefile placed on my storage array isn't a problem in exchange for a little extra assurance that I'm not running out of working memory.

 

[c627627]

What is inside users folder that is taking more than a few hundred MB at most?

If it is stuff you use, then it sounds like you need to switch to SSD.

Most SSD space for least amount of money July 2012 is:
180GB for $107, a deal similar to this one:
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=712236

120 GB SSDs are now the $70 to $90 range, get a good one if gong for 120GB since at that size, you can choose the brand but above that, OCZ Agility 3 is the only choice price-wise, July 2012.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

users/imog/appdata/plex is taking 10GB in metadata and cache files. Plex is like XBMC, except it creates a library on the server, and then you connect to that library with a client on whatever system you ant to watch/listen to stuff from (android, OSX, windows, linux). XBMC is also taking up 1.5GB in another folder in appdata - thats where it saves its database and image thumbnails and stuff.

Thanks for the rundown on the prices, let's me know my options on a budget.

Space isn't a problem for me now though - I have over 7GB of space available after the cleanup, which is more than I've had on my OS drive for the past couple years I'd guess (been a while since I've done any cleanup). For the price of a $70 SSD I can get 2 video cards I'd have fun with benchmarking, so I probably won't replace this old raptor until it goes belly up. I actually tried a revodrive in it before, but I couldn't tell the difference for what I do on it so I went back to the raptor.

 

[c627627]

I know you have a raptor but with my 4GHz i7, it was night/day comparison b/w 7200 RPM vs Gen 1 60GB SSD.

To make room for a Win7/WinXP/Win8 multi-boot, two weeks ago I got a Gen 3 180GB SSD and it is faster still.


I am pretty sure these new SSDs would smoke the raptor in a way that you can really 'feel'. Are you looking for 60or120or180 GB SSD?
$65 is what I have see after rebates and coupons for a good 120GB one. I mean there's this for $35 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820118004 but imo it's not worth the $35.

 

[nd4spdbh2]

the difference between a raptor (especially a 36gb one) and standard current gen hdd is nill... in fact the standard current gen hdds are probably faster.

That said, even the cheapest ssd will be a NIGHT AND DAY difference than ANY hdd.

And with ssd prices the way they are theres no reason not to.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Budget is a reason not to! I've got regular $80-160/month in LN2 costs, and about $50/month in benching hardware costs (new GPUs, or replacing killed parts)... The last thing I really want to do is "waste" even $50 on an SSD for the HTPC. I could sell off one of my 2TB drives to pay for the SSD, but I'm using 90% of my 10TB of storage and already deleting stuff as needed. I was lucky to get the 10TB of storage before the floods hit.

As for performance advantage... I've put a Revodrive in the HTPC before as the system drive, and I couldn't tell the difference - XBMC is always running (I don't have to wait for it to open), and it loads all my media from 2TB rotational drives (where the SSD/Revo doesn't help). The raptor really isn't used except to run background services (sabnzbd, couchpotato, sickbeard, plex media server, XBMC)... All that stuff does work when I'm not at the system, and its always running as services. By the time I sit down to use the HTPC, all the media is downloaded, extracted, renamed, and placed in its proper storage folder - all that is left to do is find it in XBMC and hit play. In the very limited, specific way my HTPC is used - an SSD doesn't provide a benefit. If a Revodrive 3 X2 480GB doesn't give me a tangible benefit, a bottom dollar SSD isn't going to give me anything in my situation. I have put an SSD in my laptop before, and work is thankfully getting me another one now - that gives a night and day difference - so I know the difference an SSD offers in the right situation. My HTPC just isn't it... It's got a 36GB raptor, budget ram, and an i3-2100 and it suits its purpose great.

My budget is tighter than ever, so I'm cutting back on my LN2 intake for the next few months - that is the last thing I really want to cut, because I don't do much for fun but that is one thing I've got to blow off steam. I'm still ranked #5 in the US on hwbot, and I'm still targeting #2 currently which isn't that far off. I've got a couple OCN guys breathing down my neck currently, and the last thing I'm going to do is stand still and watch one of them overtake me. So despite the budget tightening, if I'm prudent about my buying decisions I can stay competitive in the US rankings until my budget frees up again in a few months.

 

[medo145]

I just wanted to say, try windirstat if you haven't tried it. I just tried out treesize since this was the first time I heard of it. I really feel like it is not as helpful as windirstat.