Reduce Win7 Ultimate RAM requirements and disk usage

nitrous · 06 Mar 2010

Hello. I am running Windows 7 RTM build x64 Ultimate on my PC and I am concerned about the memory usage and disk space requirements. At the moment, with almost no programs running on startup, the OS consumes at least 900MB of RAM. Is there any way to reduce its memory requirements to like 400-500MB?
Second question - disk usage. First when I installed the OS on my drive, I decided to give it 25GB disk space, thinking that it will be more than enough (I was running XP on 15GB partition), however it was a mistake - at least 50GB is required. I've turned off hibernation, moved pagefile to another drive, enabled NTFS compression on system drive and installed all huge apps on another partition. However the OS still consumes 20GB of the 25GB partition. Is there any way to reduce the size of Windows\WinSxS folder and the disk space requirements?
Thanks

severedsolo · 06 Mar 2010

900MB is about right... this is why the minimum requirement is 1GB, same with the hard drive space... those numbers are there for a reason :)

nitrous · 06 Mar 2010

Yeah, but how would you run this OS on old computer with 1GB of RAM for example? I have 4 gigs, however it's weird... It's like I'm running 32bit OS.

Pichu · 06 Mar 2010

For your RAM, it is normal for a 64 bit operating system to consume approximately 700 to 1000 megabytes of ram on idle. Do not worry, because this RAM is being used to improve your system performance. 64 bit operating systems are smoother and faster because of this.

As for your hard drive, go to your start menu and type in SYSTEM. Click on system. On the left hand menu, click on "advanced system settings". Go to the system protection tab. Click on the drive that you lack space in. Then click on configure. Press delete. Now, all of your system restore points are deleted. SYstem restore points take a lot of disk space so you should get at least 7 gigs back. Without any restore points, the os should take only around 13 gigabytes of space.

After doing this with system protection, you might want to create a system image to restore your computer should there be any problem. All you need to do is go to backup and restore on your control panel and click on create system image, not on your os drive of course =).

BTW, if you are truely concerned about the ram usage, I would suggest you use a 32 bit os because they idle around 300-500 megs of ram. However, the performance won't be as good and the os is slower and laggier (in my experience^^)

Edit: I wouldn't suggest that you move the pagefile around. That could be very dangerous.

nitrous · 06 Mar 2010

Okay, I see about RAM usage.

System Restore is turned off - there are no restore points to delete.
Why I shouldn't move pagefile?

Pichu · 06 Mar 2010

Pagefile is where the operating system writes important data to. If you move the pagefile without careful consideration, there could be an error, that would results in a blue screen.

Now, to save you some more space, why don't you first go to your os partition and find the disk usage of your program files folder? Also, do the same with your windows files folder. report back your results.

unifex · 06 Mar 2010

Hi nitrous,

may I ask, why are you concerned about the memory usage? Are you experiencing any performance issues? Or you just find it strange that the OS consumes that much memory?

By the way, your memory usage seems totally normal. And with 4 gb of RAM you've got plenty left. As for your question, how does one run Windows 7 on 1 gb of RAM? I see no reason to do so.

The hard drives these days are cheap. I see no reason to break them up into small partitions less that 100 gb. For comparison, on my C:\ drive, which is dedicated to the OS and installed software - i.e. no user files there (with the purpose of not having to back up anything in case I need to re-install) - right now about 45 gb are in use.

If by some reason you want to minimize hard drive usage, then you need to cut down on Windows components installed or maybe look into light versions, there is a big discussion on that here in the forums.

Pichu · 06 Mar 2010

You should follow unifex's suggestion :) perhaps, partition your disk so that your os partition is bigger...
WHy don't you post a screenshot of your disk management? Perhaps, we can help you organize your partitions and make your windows 7 experience better =).

nitrous · 06 Mar 2010

Pichu, I'm changing the pagefile location from System properties - Performance options - Virtual Memory. It's working pretty well, I have no issues with it. Here's disk usage statistics: http://i46.tinypic.com/2rqzwc2.png

unifex, there are no performance issues at the moment, however I'm working with Adobe After Effecs and the more RAM I have free, the faster it will work (think about RAM preview), so every megabyte RAM is welcome :)
I know that hard drives are cheap, however I don't have money atm to buy one :)

nitrous · 06 Mar 2010

Pichu said:

You should follow unifex's suggestion :) perhaps, partition your disk so that your os partition is bigger...
WHy don't you post a screenshot of your disk management? Perhaps, we can help you organize your partitions and make your windows 7 experience better =).

http://i50.tinypic.com/f1k21x.png
there you go :)
I'm thinking of merging both C:\ and D:\ into single partition, where I can store all files, however I am a little concerned, because the hard drive is 3-4 years old and I am afraid that I can lose some data.