Solved Harddrive usage analysis software

[marykaymills]

I am looking for help in analyzing what is taking up space on my internal hard drive. I can't figure out why it is maxed out. When I delete things, I don't buy space back either. Please advise.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

TreeSize Free - Quickly Scan Directory Sizes and Find Space Hogs

Download the above tool and run it. It will tell you where the space is currently used.

Have you run Windows built-in Disk Cleanup?

Have you used any third party tools such as CCleaner?

I see you have a 500 GB drive. How much of space is used by these 3 directories:

C:\Windows

C:\Program Files

C:\Program Files (x86)

??

What's your free space now? I assume you have just one partition on your hard drive?

 

[marykaymills]

C:\Windows is 33.4GB, C:\Program Files is 3.18GB, C:\Program Files (x86) is 5.58GB. Yes, just one partition. Yes, I have run the built in cleanup; yes, I downloaded and ran CCleaner. I also disabled hibernation just now and went from 12GB free to 17GB free. I will download TreeSize Free and analyze further. Thank you so much!

 

[ignatzatsonic]

C:\Windows is 33.4GB, C:\Program Files is 3.18GB, C:\Program Files (x86) is 5.58GB. Yes, just one partition. Yes, I have run the built in cleanup; yes, I downloaded and ran CCleaner. I also disabled hibernation just now and went from 12GB free to 17GB free. I will download TreeSize Free and analyze further. Thank you so much!

If you now have only 17 free on a 500 GB drive, I would certainly try to gain more space.

How much of the space is your "personal data", broadly speaking? Pictures, videos, Word files, Excel files, whatever. It's typically video files that really eat up space. This stuff is usually somewhere under C:\users in a standard installation.

You may have an unnecessarily high amount of space devoted to System Restore, but that can be reduced to say 6 or 8 GB if needed.

Likewise, your page file may be larger than required. You could cut it down to 1 GB.

But if you have say 350 GB or more of personal data, I'd probably start to think about getting a larger hard drive.

My Windows, Program Files, and Program Files (x86) folders total about 30 GB compared to your about 40 GB. I run a fairly lean system, so your numbers aren't outlandish.

The "appdata" file can get large in some circumstances, but I wouldn't get excited about that yet, pending knowing how much personal data you have.

 

[marykaymills]

I need the usage analysis software to see what is eating my space. I have moved nearly all videos, pictures, backups, music, iTunes, and lots of documents to my 4TB external drive. I have deleted 1000's of emails and nothing buys back space. The hibernate file was the most space I have gained all at one time. From my crude manual analysis, I believe I am using only about 161GB for personal data AND Windows and Program files. That leaves 300+ GB unaccounted for. I have deleted software I don't need from program files, I ran CCleaners, I also made sure I only had 1 restore point. I defrag every week...it's just bizarre. I'm about ready to wipe clean and rebuild because I'm so frustrated.

 

[marykaymills]

Right off the bat, I have 292GB of ProgramData...

Found it: my cloud backups (CrashPlan) are storing data on my harddrive...confused, but at least now I can fix...Thanks!!!!!

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Right off the bat, I have 292GB of ProgramData...

Found it: my cloud backups (CrashPlan) are storing data on my harddrive...confused, but at least now I can fix...Thanks!!!!!

You found that with Tree Size Free?

Good job.

With your setup of only 161 GB used, after you get CrashPlan sobered up you should be able to keep Windows and ALL data on your 500 GB drive. Then back up all of it to the 4 TB external. Then use CrashPlan as a second off-site backup if needed.

You might want some sort of a plan to back up Windows itself through imaging, in addition to data backups. Or maybe you are already doing this in some way?

 

[marykaymills]

Yes, I did fine it with Tree Size Free - great tip! I can move things back to my local C:\ drive.

Crashplan does offer an image backup setup, if I choose to continue with it.

And with the disabling of the Mac backup going to my windows laptop, I need a way to get a Mac backup to my windows external drive now...or a cloud backup for that...ugh. So many backups, so little time.

I am actually a backup/archive admin for a major brokerage...will think of something.

Thank you your help!

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Crashplan does offer an image backup setup, if I choose to continue with it.

I'd try to keep images local if at all possible--why complicate your life with the cloud or CrashPlan, other than possibly as a second "last resort" backup.

Take a look at Macrium if you decide to go down the image path.