Can I move windows\winsxs off boot drive?

[bbinnard]

Can I safely use a Junction Point to move the Win7 windows\winsxs file off my SSD boot drive onto a separate hard disk? I've got all my temp/page/swap files over on the HDD, along with all the My Doc stuff, but the windoews\winsxs file keeps getting bigger and bigger. I'd like to get it off my SSD and onto my 500GB HDD where I won't have to worry about it.

 

[logicearth]

No. The size of WinSxS is not what you think it is anyways.

 

[bbinnard]

OK - but why why won't a Junction Point work? And if the size of winxsx is different from what Win7 says it is, what is the real size?

 

[Mombodog]

See this link, heed the warning

WindowsFixUp – WinSxS Folder Taking Up Too Much Disk Space: Fix



More info on winsxs folder

The Secret Of Windows 7 / Vista Winsxs Folder.

what is winsxs folder - Google Search

.

 

[logicearth]

Winsxs contains a bunch of hardlinks, moving this folder copies the data from those hardlinks however moving it has not freed any space but a few MBs (less then 500). This is because those hardlinks have multiple references unless you remove every reference it will still be on the HDD.