SSD HD fills fast - BSOD - restart/chkdsk - passes but FREES UP 30GB?!

[LEVAMDG]

Windows 7 Pro, hard drive is a 250gb "Samsung SSD PM830 2.5" 7", and its a Dell Latitude E6530 that I have had since the beginning of 2013.

Especially over the last year (possibly before that), I have noticed that my hard drive's free space decreases drastically, and despite my best efforts to monitor my free space and what takes that space up, I have been confused and frustrated as the decreases often don't match up (in both space size and timing) to whatever I save/install/etc. to the hard drive. That said, I use Steam for computer games, so I have sort of assumed it was just game updates that I didn't notice, forgot about, etc.

Then, about 2 months-ish ago, while uninstalling a few softwares, I get a BSOD with error messages. I restart, run the full chk dsk that requires the restart, restart again, the chk dsk doesn't reveal anything "bad," but then my drive's free space goes from about 13-ish GB to 45-ish GB!!!! I was thrilled, and for a couple weeks the free space remained much more consistent with what was being updated/removed from the drive. Great!

Eventually, however, things began to revert back to before - multiple GB of free space just disappearing, etc.

Then, this morning, after merely removing the power cable from the pc and picking it up, I get another BSOD. This time, I wasn't uninstalling anything. I repeat the same process as before [one exception that I don't think I dealt with last time being that I had to restart the pc twice at first because after turning off the pc from the BSOD and turning it back on I got some sort of error about windows not being able to run. Turn off, turn on again, and that's gone and I get the standard safe or normal mode screen], and again the chk dsk report appears clean, but I again go from 13-ish GB to 41.5 GB of free space.

With apologies for the long explanation, can anyone explain to me what's going on with my pc and/or what I can/should do to resolve this? I will be backing up my pc immediately when I get home from work tonight, and I have run malware and virus scans that create restore points too.

 

[Arc]

Can you follow the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions and attach the resulting zip with your reply post?

 

[LEVAMDG]

It's attached now, sorry. I tried to attach it originally but I guess I pressed a wrong button or something. Let me know if anyone needs anything else.

 

[Arc]

There is no crash dump ... because ....

Event[2733]:
Log Name: System
Source: volmgr
Date: 2015-06-10T03:07:26.514
Event ID: 46
Task: N/A
Level: Error
Opcode: N/A
Keyword: Classic
User: N/A
User Name: N/A
Computer: Michael-E6530
Description:
Crash dump initialization failed!

We need at least some information about the BSOD so that we can attempt to troubleshoot it. If the BSOD occurs again, take a camera snap of the screen and upload it here.

In the mean time, take some precautionary measures. First, disable hibernate. Second, Free up the startup. Windows does not need any other program to auto start with it, but the auto start programs often conflicts and causes various problems including BSODs.

1. Click on the Start button
2. Type “msconfig (without quotes), click the resulting link. It will open the System Configuration window.
3. Select the “Startup” tab.
4. Deselect all items other than the antivirus and the touchpad driver Apoint.
5. Apply > OK
6. Accept then restart.

 

[LEVAMDG]

I appreciate your help with this! A few questions:

1. Do you have any idea why the crash dump initialization failed, and/or is there anything I can do to resolve it?

2. Can you explain why I should disable hibernate? And is there a more recommended "non-shutdown" mode I should be using instead? For my last couple laptops, I have used hibernate as my default "non-shutdown" mode since I use the laptop all day and have to close, transport, and re-open the laptop between locations, (from home-work, maybe once or twice during the day, then from work-home). In addition to reading about how hibernation is better than sleep, I stopped using sleep on my pcs as the hds would get messed up during transport, though this is my first ssd so I guess I don't have to worry about the disk spinning and being bumped while in my bag as I'm driving? Is it that hibernation is bad/unnecessary for ssds?

3. I'll do what you recommend re: startup, but in case it helps, the BSODs did not occur during restarts/power-ups. But since I had startup issues post-BSOD, I'm guessing that's why you recommend this right?

Thanks for your help and patience - I'll try to not ask too many stupid questions but I want to learn from whatever mistakes I've made.

 

[Arc]

1. most probably for the disc space related reasons. Before releasing that said 30 GBs, there were not enough space for doing the required operations.

2. Disabling hibernate will salvage a good lot of disc space for good. Moreover, some SSDs dont like to go to hibernate, and, roughly it appears to be the hiberfile.sys that is eating up that 30 GB.

3. Startup items not only open alongwith windows but run in the background over all the time. They can cause conflicts, over usage of memory and oversizing the hiberfile. As they are just garbage, there is no reason to keep them and take those risks.

If we could come to know the bugcheck code, we could tell more about the issue; but apparently it looks like an issue caused by storage/space/hibernate combination. And all those two suggestions are to minimize those possibilities only.

 

[LEVAMDG]

sounds good - thanks so much!!

 

[DavidE]

What anti-virus do you use ?
Avast has a known problem where it can set System Restore disk space to 50%.

Try using WizTree to see where most of your space is used.
They have a portable version available, no installation needed.
Antibody Software - WizTree finds the files and folders using the most disk space on your hard drive

 

[LEVAMDG]

I do use Avast. Started using it within the last year after I saw Lifehacker's article about MSE not being as good anymore and recommending Avast more. Anything I can do about that Restore 50% thing?

I'll take a look at Wiz tree. I have Revo uninstaller which shows all programs and their sizes, but if WizTree does something different/better with respect to space usage monitoring I'll give it a try.

 

[DavidE]

WizTree will show more than Revo about where space is used.

As you have Avast, check your System Restore max space setting, and lower it if it's too much.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/335-system-protection-change-disk-space-usage.html

 

[LEVAMDG]

Happened again - not sure if the file will be helpful or not - I see the crash dump initiation failed thing again.

Ran the full chkdsk again, and went from 9.5-ish GBs to 30.8, which makes more sense for the games I've installed recently.