Help! (Free) disk space required to run Windows 7?

[Onno]

Hi,
I'm new to Windows 7, I need some help with a disk space issue.

I installed Ultimate on partition of 30gb. Based on my experience with Windows XP I thought it would be enough. Now I think it is too small.

Anyway free space seemed allright after initial installation but now after few months it is pretty full. I can't figure out what happened to the space. Because when I clean up some directories I notice that Windows 7 quickly starts to consume the free space.

What I'm trying to find out is what is taking up space. I don't know how.

I have unhidden all files/folders on the disk. When I select all files/folders and then access the properties I can see that the folders and files are taking op 13 GB.

So it seems there is other 'hidden-hidden data' on the disk than files/folders and that 'data' is taking up the remaining 17GB!

Any ideas on what it using this space and why? I'm not using system restore btw.

Is there a tool/utility you can recommend that can help manage disk space on Windows 7? I tried installing WinDirStat but that doesn't seem to work on Windows 7. I couldn't install it.

As a side note: too bad that Windows 7 didn't improve on utilities for managing disk space. It seems I cannot be done without third party tools?

Thanks in advance,
Onno

 

[gregrocker]

Hi Onno. Welcome to Seven Forums!

Perhaps you have the windows.old folder which is created when you clean install Win7 over XP or Vista. It resides in the root (C?) drive of the OS, stuffed with the entire prior OS including all your files.

We help people remove dual boots, rearrange their partitions, copy partitions and HD's, etc. every day here.

If you would like more specific advice please post back a screen snip of your full Disk Management map, using the snipping tool in Start Menu, attaching file using paper clip in reply box. Tell us what you would like to accomplish, and we'll give you the steps.

We've had good results using free Partition Wizard bootable CD to do almost any reconfiguration of HD. It has a great graphical interface with slider buttons to move partitions.

But there are very specific steps to be followed since if the boot critical files are moved, they need to be recovered using the Win7 DVD repair console which is also fully automated.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

The likely candidates for taking up a lot of space include hibernation functionality and system restore points.

You can get rid of hibernation entirely and you can control how much space is devoted to system restore.