Windows System Partition Running out of Space

Hey people,
I am no where near having the internal HD configuration I envision. Nevertheless, I have tried to optimize the temporary cramped 320gb using into various partitions. I put windows 7 on a 20gb partition. I will be fixing that (realizing it's too much of a headache and unfortunately too small). I'll prob increase it to 40. good to know it is possible to install and use windows 7 on such a small partition. However, I installed some programs onto it instead of apps partition and that pushed it over.

THE QUESTION:
I continually run out of space. If I have 2-3gbs left weird things like
user/appdata/temp fills up. What's with that? Can I prevent that?

The outcome I would like is windows 7 more or less STATIC in hard drive utilization space. It seems to fluctuate greatly. I think when downloading files some of those go to temp folders.

I will increase system partition, but I would really like to have cease "mysteriously swelling" in temp folders or whatever.

Anyone who has insight onto where temp folders exist and most usefully how to relocate them to another partition or redirect various applications to saving all data (including temp files) to another partition would be helpful and illuminating. Cheers thanks

Check this WSF thread for more information.

How to change appdata/temp folder from C drive to D drive

A 40 GB drive will soon become too cramped when you consider as the recycle bin and other folders monitored by Disk Cleanup rapidly fill up.

Also, 40 GB is really 39 GB as 1 MB is actually 1024 KB, not 1000 KB.

seavixen32 said:

Check this WSF thread for more information.

How to change appdata/temp folder from C drive to D drive

A 40 GB drive will soon become too cramped when you consider as the recycle bin and other folders monitored by Disk Cleanup rapidly fill up.

Also, 40 GB is really 39 GB as 1 MB is actually 1024 KB, not 1000 KB.

well I'm using 20gb now .

And therefore 40 would be significantly less cramped. all this is temporary until get proper internal hd lol.

I'm aware of the conversion of kb to mb to gb to tb. thx.

Bare Foot Kid said:

Hello John.


Have a look through the information presented in these tutorials linked below for some ideas and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

How to Free Up and Recover Hard Drive Space

How to Speed Up / Optimize the Performance of Windows 7

Disk Cleanup : Extended

Hey seavixen and bare foot kid. Thanks for those (4) links. Will give a few gander. cheers.

cluberti said:

Agreed. The minimum requirements for installing Windows (according to Microsoft) is 20GB HDD space, but that's just to install Windows. Minimum requirements are there to let you know how much space Windows will likely need to install and run, but not to maintain or use - you want at least 64GB (assuming you're being careful with what you install, and you move the paging file, appdata, and user data to another drive) to be able to install programs and patch Windows over time, and at least 100GB if you want to store all of the additional data (that you would otherwise be recommended to move on a small volume) on that same OS volume. Note that even 100GB may not be enough depending on what volume of data you keep in your user profile (pictures, videos, etc).

unfortunate the os balloons to so much.

all apps and files (docs, audio, photo, video media) are on their own separate partitions. The system partition is literally as barebones as possible.

It's only really a few programs that push it over (the 20gb). audacity for exmaple, uses some kind of temp files that get written to the system folder. When I reboot and/or quit audacity have more space, but that's unacceptable b/c I do a lot of audio editing and like that app a lot (i.e. using diff audio app is out of question).

The best solution is just more hd space lol xD.

But yeah, I guess I have been mainly looking for details on what precisely is using up the hd space and when. I will likely gather some of those ansers from observing and those links.

Hey guys, thanks again. Used links and wrote a blog article emphasizing utilizing disk cleanup, putting program files on separate partition, having hiberfil.sys deleted, ensuring TEMP and TMP are relocated, and having the user folder relocated to a separate partition.
still running windows with lots of apps on a 18.6gb partition.