Windows 7: What is using my harddisk space?

I had to do a clean reinstall of Windows 7 as my PC was getting slower and slower and really bloated. After the OS install I also installed FF, Thunderbird, Alibre Design (170Mb installer), MoI (16Mb installer) and Avira. Not a lot, right?

It seems though that only 129Gb of my 148Gb harddisk is still available. 19Gb for an OS and a few piddly programs?!

Don't know if this is the reason but installers are usually much smaller than the actual program. Just as an example, the free Nitro PDF reader says the installer is 28MB, but the installation footprint is 106MB, and it can use up to 335MB of available hard drive space.

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If you go into control panel > programs and features it may show the size of each installed program, app, etc. And don't forget to include other things like Windows Updates, whether or not you've installed IE9 or some other browser, your anti-malware suite, etc.

Hmm ... not sure, but here what I always do on a clean install once everything is up and running well. (all drivers and updates installed)

Hiberfile
if you do not use or need the Hibernate feature, you can disable this and gain a good portion of space back.
from elevated cmd prompt: powercfg -h off ((powercfg -h on -- to turn it back on))


Service Pack Clean Up
I assume you have done all your Windows updates, and upgraded to SP1?
If so, run a advanced disk cleanup and delete the SP backup files if everythings OK.

from elevated Cmd Prompt
cleanmgr sageset:50 (checkeverything)
then..
cleanmgr sagerun:50 (to execute advanced disk cleanup)

If you install disk has SP1 integrated there may not be any extra backup files for it. But it wouldnt hurt to run the cleanup anyway.

Temp file Cleanup:
In serach box type:
%temp%
Click the temp folder and delete all thats in it.


You may also have a lot of system restore points taking up space too. I have mine disabled, BUT ...
I also use Acronis that does daily differentials, keeping a months worth of dailies on hand at any given time.
So, I would not rtecommend disabling this if you do not have some other form of backup in place. The space it saves isnt worth it otherwise.




My OS drive is 25GB ATM, but I do have almost all of my hardware and games installed now.

perhaps these will free up some more space for you. Ive found after a clean install and installing a few programs, these things start eating up alot of space fast. Once cleaned up everything settles down.

You've also got any Restore Points that Windows may have created. Thing with RP's is that Windows creates a new 1 every time so they can take up an enormous amount of space.

You can clean up RP's and Shadow files by opening Disk Cleanup as administrator (Start -> All Programs -> System -> Disk Cleanup, right-click).

Under "More Options" you'll have the option to clean up all but the most recent RP's and Shadow copies

Bear in mind that 1GB = 1024MB.

Divide 149Gb by 1024 and your hard drive size drops to 144GB approximately.

Allowing 15GB for the operating system you've used up the 19GB you quote. I'd say you've nothing to worry about.

Windows 7 system requirements - Microsoft Windows

With Windows 7 x64 and 71 programs I'm using 65GB hard drive space.

WinDirStat will give you a neat graphical view of your space usage. The link is in my sig.

The OP is already going by the actual drive size as reported by Windows - this doesn't apply here.

149GB is actually what a HD sold as "160GB" comes out to. I know, I have a 160GB HD too.

Get this: "You do not have permission to disable this feature"

That happens when you aren't running as an admin with an elevated command prompt.

Either right click your icon for command and choose run as admin, or
start, run, cmd, hit CTRL-SHIFT-ENTER

Fair comment.