dll files taking up too much space on my C drive

[richardperks95]

I am running the minimum of apps on my Toshiba laptop but the C drive is almost full and over 50% of the drive is taken up with many many small dll files. Can anyone please advise me on how to safely remove this clutter if its possible. Many thanks - Richard

 

[RolandJS]

Download and run Speccy, save the logs on your hard-drive; if somebody here wants you to post a piece of it, s/he will advise. What Windows and what 3rd party programs are installed? Also, if you have Windows Backup on auto-pilot, I'm wondering if your hard-drive contains many many date/time/modified versions of all the DLLs used by Windows and 3rd party programs. I've never used Windows Backup/Restore - so I'm only guessing about DLLs being saved over and over.

 

[richardperks95]

Thanks for responding Roland JS. I downloaded and ran speccy and have saved the result as a text file on my hard drive. The 56 programs (nothing special) that are installed only add up to 1.47 GB and I have a 40 GB drive. The vast majority of space is taken up with DLL files and I dont have Windows backup on auto pilot. From what I have picked up elsewhere it appears to me that there is no way round this DLL clogging up issue on Windows 7 it is something you just have to put up with. Can any one else out there correct me and offer up a way to reduce the DLL clutter please ?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

My C partition (Windows plus applications) takes up 39 GB.

Of that, 17 GB is dll files.

So it appears your situation is normal--somewhere around half of your C is dll files.

I don't know much about dll files, but I suspect if you start deleting them, you will be in a jam sooner or later.

You can get a brand new 120 GB SSD for somewhere around 50 to 70 bucks and transfer your current C to it.

That's what I'd do.

I'm assuming your current hard drive has only that C partition and that C cannot be expanded.

40 GB drives are rare nowadays and it's very tough to run Windows and a bunch of apps on 40 GB.

Have you done these things below? All of them will save space

Got rid of the hibernation file

Minimized the size of your page file

Reduced the space devoted to System Restore--or decided not to use it at all.

Deleted any program you can live without or have not used in a long time.

Run Windows Disk Cleanup, including for system files.

 

[richardperks95]

Many thanks Ignatzatsonic - Actually I have a partitioned drive with 40 GB for C: and 40 GB for D: but the D: has only got 10GB left. I have cleaned up and used AVG Tuneup to optimize as best I can. I dont use hibernate and the page file is set OK. At the moment the laptop is functioning OK but I dont like being close to maxing out on the C: I think your advice re drive upgrade is the only way forward but I've never done an upgrade before. Have you got a step by step approach ? When I try to create a system image I get an error 'The backup failed - The RPC server is unavailable (Ox800706BA)' - If I try to do a backup then again I get problems whereby it just doesn't do the job and doesn't give me an error message.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I'd advise you to give up on Windows Backup and instead use a simpler and more flexible imaging alternative, such as Macrium Reflect Free Edition or Aomei Backupper.

There are many many threads on the backup section of the forum about Macrium.

There are also Macrium tutorials on this site. I'm not sure about Aomei tutorials.

You'll have to choose between cloning and imaging. Most would recommend imaging.

If you buy a new drive, it may include cloning software which may or may not work well for you. If it doesn't, try Macrium or Aomei imaging.

If you choose imaging, you will need to have a separate drive on which to store the image--most likely an external drive. The image file would take up perhaps 20 GB in your case.

The steps briefly:

1: install Macrium

2: make "recovery" media within Macrium. That would be either a burned DVD or a bootable USB flash drive. Confirm it will in fact boot your laptop. If it won't, you are dead in the water.

3: make a Macrium image of all the partitions required to boot the laptop and save it onto the external.

4: remove old drive and install new drive.

5: boot from the recovery media.

6: navigate in the interface to your previously made image.

7: tell Macrium to restore that image to the newly installed drive.

8: boot from the new drive to confirm all is well.

 

[richardperks95]

Thanks very much for your help ! I really do appreciate it. It's the first time I've had a go with a Forum - man they're good I've printed off your advice and will give it a go. Have a great weekend and good on yer !

 

[AddRAM]

A 40 GB partition for windows and programs

Time to buy a new drive.

If you got another drive you could

A) Copy whatever you have on D to the new drive, then delete D and extend C into the other 40 GB

B) Get a new much larger drive and reinstall windows on it.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

If you got another drive you could

A) Copy whatever you have on D to the new drive, then delete D and extend C into the other 40 GB

Richard:

The above suggestion from AddRam would certainly work if you think you can get by longer term with an 80 GB C drive for Windows and applications.

You'd either have to store data purely on an external D unless your laptop can accommodate 2 internal drives.

If you did it that way, you would not have to get involved with imaging and transferring Windows at all. All you would be transferring would be whatever is on D---which is presumably just your personal data files.

You could do that transfer with mouse and keyboard.

It's your choice, depending on your circumstances and frame of mind.

 

[RolandJS]

+1! 1-3 TB HDs are not that expensive anymore. And, using Macrium Reflect [or anything similar] to make a full image of C partition, make a full image of D partition, make full images of any hidden partitions [such as System Reserved, factory recovery] onto any reliable external media. Then, one can restore first the hidden partitions, especially System Reserved, then C partition, finally the D partition -- in that order. I think it's best the new larger HD has the partitions in the same order as found on the original smaller HD.