Solved Abnormally large Windows folder, size reduction possible?

[ProfPepper]

Hi,

For a while now my Windows folder has been taking up more space on my 60GB SSD than I think it should. The size breakdown goes like this:

C:/Windows - 28 GB

- winsxs - 11.65 GB
- System32 - 8.45 GB
- Assembly - 1.63 GB
- SysWOW64 - 1.30 GB
- Installer - 1.17 GB
- Microsoft.NET - 1.03 GB
- SoftwareDistribution - 0.85 GB

I do regular registry fixes and temp file cleans, and I do regular inspections on my drives to remove unnecessary files and programs. However, the large increase in my Windows folder which happened about 6 months ago is really bothering me.

Is there any way get rid of some excess files? Or is this just a case of Windows inaccurately showing the actual amount of free space due to hard links?

Help is appreciated, thanks

 

[paul1149]

Have you run disk cleanup?

 

[ProfPepper]

Yeah I do it often, and I also remove the old windows updates.

 

[ProfPepper]

Is system32 supposed to be that big?

 

[paul1149]

I have a fully updated, but minimal, home premium x64 system here. Only bare windows updates. System32 is 3.1GB. WinSxS is 9.8gb.

 

[ProfPepper]

So do you reckon the fact that I've installed every windows update available to me has caused both folders to expand?

 

[paul1149]

If you've installed Recommended updates, that's going to affect it. Peripherals will affect it. And if the install has a long history of program installations, that's going to affect winsxs. Depending on the shell version, Disk Cleanup may offer system file cleanup as a separate function. This can add up to 3GB to the slimming, when it includes the service pack files, etc. But it sounds like you've hit that.

 

[ProfPepper]

Yeah I've done all Disk Cleanup can do.

I'm just a bit annoyed, as somehow the windows folder has grown about 6 GB in 6 months.

 

[UsernameIssues]

...I do regular registry fixes...

Why?
Let me know if you ever come across this situation:
computer was working fine
cleaned? fixed? registry
computer now works noticeably better


Including the patches/updates offered yesterday, the Windows folder is 19GB (17.2GB after disk cleanup). This was gathered from a W7pro64bit virtual machine that has very little else installed:



As you mentioned, these values are impacted by hard links.

There are tools that let you see the size of folders as a column in a explorer like view. I just don't use tools like that - so I cannot suggest one. If you find one that you like, let me know and I'll see about installing it into that same virtual machine. Then we can locate which folder is abnormally high. That said, the Windows folder on this laptop is 27.8GB.

 

[ProfPepper]

I use Folder Size (Folder Size - Free download and software reviews - CNET Download.com) to see the usage of my folders.

As for the registry files, it's just something I've always done thinking that it maintains optimal performance.

 

[nev]

My Windows folder is 24.1 GB. I'm not far off from yours and I have a large backlog of updates.

 

[UsernameIssues]

Here is the System32 folder that you mentioned:



How large is your DriverStore folder?

 

[ProfPepper]

Sorry for the late reply. DriverStore is around 7 GB for me, is that unusually high?

 

[Ztruker]

One possibility: How to get free disk space back after installing Windows 8.1 Spring Update 1 (Feature Pack)

Rats, never mind, that is for Windows 8. I don't think Windows 7 DISM has that capability.
http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-get-...ing-windows-8-1-spring-update-1-feature-pack/

 

[ProfPepper]

Disappointing. There should be a way to reduce DriverStore right? I feel most of the space is from old Nvidia drivers or something.

 

[UsernameIssues]

Sorry for the late reply. DriverStore is around 7 GB for me, is that unusually high?

The 3 computers that I checked were around 1GB.
C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository seems to have the most files.

 

[ProfPepper]

Yep, FileRepository is what holds basically the entire 7 GB.

I downloaded a DriverStore explorer to take a look at what drivers are actually stored there, and I found a lot of old Razer and Nvidia drivers.

I can apparently delete these old drivers but I'm not proficient with messing around with system32.

I have a .csv file of all the drivers if you'd like to see that.

 

[UsernameIssues]

I don't know of a way to safely clear out old files from there.

 

[ProfPepper]

All good, I made another thread in the Drivers forum. Thanks for helping me diagnose the problem though!

 

[Layback Bear]

Read through this tutorial by Brink.
A lot of good ideas but you probable won't need to do all of them.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/129976-hard-disk-space-free-up-recover.html

60 gig ssd is very small. Not much room to work with. Windows 7 needs about 10% free space to work properly. I wouldn't use anything smaller than a 120 gb.

These days 120, 240 and 500 gb ssd's are priced right.