Solved 21.3 GB Just for win7 x64 system files?

[charlie23bg]

Is that normal? I have a 40 gb drive for the OS, it's almost full- obviously I have to buy a new hdd just to handle the OS now, but is it possible I'm overloaded with hidden temp files or something ?

 

[zigzag3143]

21 gigs is a little large. Did you update from a prior OS. There may be a windows.old folder if you did.

 

[charlie23bg]

no, it was a clean install but I've kept it updated...

 

[Area66]

don't forget the "page files" take a part of the 21.3 gb, mine take 16gb because I have 16 gb of RAM, by default the amount of space of the paging files = the size of your RAM

how much RAM you have in this PC ?

 

[DavidE]

If Hibernation and/or System Restore are enabled, they could be using a fair amount of space.

 

[charlie23bg]

8gb RAM, no paging file on C:
The 23 gigs is ONLY C:/Windows -doesn't include /Program Files or anything else on the drive.
Hibernation is disabled, Sys. restore is on but I clear old points regularly.

 

[DavidE]

My Win7 x64 C:/Windows is 23.5 GB - I installed the OS over 2 years ago.

 

[fseal]

My current c:/windows is about 32 gig.

It will grow with updates and when installing programs.

We just had a discussion about weather 64 gig was enough for a boot drive and the consensus was that it was just barely adequate. Doable but could be troublesome as time goes on.

40 Gig is going to require extreme measures to keep it from filling up unfortunately

 

[charlie23bg]

so just update bloat then I guess... thanks for the info, guess it's time for a shutdown and an extra 450 gigs.

 

[Area66]

8gb RAM, no paging file on C:
The 23 gigs is ONLY C:/Windows -doesn't include /Program Files or anything else on the drive.
Hibernation is disabled, Sys. restore is on but I clear old points regularly.

So if I'm right you move the pages files from the C: to the other drive,.

Now I remember, when I install an SSD in a build like you did, after the install , the Windows is huge like in your case, I then move the pages files to the mechanical drives and I make the usual SSD tweak, but the size of Windows stay the same even after a reboot, I continue to make the update and install software and I don't know at what moment it happen, but the size of the Os partition shrink . It’s like the page files stay there for a wild or something else from the Windows installer.

Hope you get what I mean; English is not my first language. Try it, install your stuff and check when the shrinking will happen, I will do so next time.

Edit : just check , my C:\ drive use 20gb and C:\windows 16,7gb , it' s a fresh install only a week old.

 

[whs]

Delete the Hiberfile. The command is powercfg - h off. That will save 8GB in your case. Then reduce the pagefile to 2GB. That will save another 6GB.

 

[charlie23bg]

So if I'm right you move the pages files from the C: to the other drive,.

Now I remember, when I install an SSD in a build like you did, after the install , the Windows is huge like in your case, I then move the pages files to the mechanical drives and I make the usual SSD tweak, but the size of Windows stay the same even after a reboot, I continue to make the update and install software and I don't know at what moment it happen, but the size of the Os partition shrink . It’s like the page files stay there for a wild or something else from the Windows installer.

Hope you get what I mean; English is not my first language. Try it, install your stuff and check when the shrinking will happen, I will do so next time.

Edit : just check , my C:\ drive use 20gb and C:\windows 16,7gb , it' s a fresh install only a week old.

I understand, but I have 3 other (big) drives on this machine and already use them for the page files. And it is an old installation - I guess about 2 years as well... so a lot of updates in there.

 

[whs]

Another problem you encounter after a while is the growth of winsxs. That happens when you install and then uninstall programs very often because the uninstaller cannot delete the .dlls that each program drags along.

 

[charlie23bg]

Delete the Hiberfile. The command is powercfg - h off. That will save 8GB in your case. Then reduce the pagefile to 2GB. That will save another 6GB.

WHOA... NICE CALL on the hiberfile there !!!
Pagefile is disabled on C: though... but I'm back in the blue
winsxs is indeed taking up 7.5gb, but following the instructions at http://www.iishacks.com/2011/06/23/reduce-windows-7-winsxs-folder-size/
didn't change it.
http://www.iishacks.com/2011/06/23/reduce-windows-7-winsxs-folder-size/

 

[Sardonicus]

I just recovered about 10Gb's just by deleting some downloaded .flv files. I didn't know they were being stored after I converted them. I also deleted some WMC .wtv files, but I had to restart my PC to regain the space for the WMC files.

Thanks for the post.
It got me thinking and checking folder properties. I'm now at 30Gb, with 20Gb to spare, which sounds more like it!