Windows 7: Too much space on OS drive being taken up by WinSxS

w7user78 · 08 Dec 2011

This may be an old one but couldn't find any ready answers to fix it. I am running out of disk space on my OS drive and having run TreeSize, I discovered that the WinSxS folder is taking up over 11.5 GB. Has anybody ever found a solution to this problem?

ignatzatsonic · 08 Dec 2011

What problem specifically?

Have you done a disk cleanup to get rid of temp and other unneeded files?

Winsxs is not where I would try to generate space.

How much space do you have devoted to System Restore?

Have you turned off hibernation if you don't use it?

seavixen32 · 08 Dec 2011

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

Have a read here: Windows 7 How do I cleanup winsxs folder to free up space on SSD - Microsoft Answers

It would appear that if you try and compress or delete files from the WinXsX folder you can render some of your applications unworkable.

With today's large spinning drives, allowing this folder to grow doesn't cause a problem, but with much smaller SSD's it obviously does.

Other than getting a larger, more expensive SSD, I'm not sure what the answer is, if indeed there is one.

One of our experts is sure to have the solution if one is available.

Corazon · 08 Dec 2011

I'm with ignatzatsonic here.
Although possible, somehow it's doubtful that a 10GB WinSxs folder can really be much of an issue when the smallest decent SSDs on the market start at 30GB, and most people go for 60GB to start out with.

Biggest culprits for gobbling up space:

Hibernate file (hiberfil.sys)
System Restore
cached downloads in C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download (these are completely safe to remove)
an excessive large pagefile that wasn't manually configured to remain at a fixed size
Backed-up files left over from installing SP1 after installing Windows

Windows 7: Too much space on OS drive being taken up by WinSxS

Too much space on OS drive being taken up by WinSxS problems?