Solved Why is my OS installation so large relative to sum of files?

[colt]

I performed a fresh install of Windows 7 on a SSD. Added a bunch of apps, and moved some of the user folders onto a data drive.

Used space on the SSD shows as 65GB
Sum of files and folders (with operating system files unhidden): 51.5GB

1. What accounts for this difference? It's not the hibernation file or paging file because I can see those.
2. I can see hiberfil.sys is taking up 12.5GB. If I don't want to use hibernation, can I get rid of this?

 

[AddRAM]

65 GB is way too much.

Yes you can turn off the hiber file, how much is the page file ? How much is system restore taking up ?

It should only be taking up 20 GBs, depending on page file, hiberfile, system restore etc.

Was this a new ssd ? A clean install to a formatted partition or un allocated space ?

Post a shot of disk management if you like, fully expanded.

 

[colt]

65 GB is way too much.

Yes you can turn off the hiber file, how much is the page file ? How much is system restore taking up ?

It should only be taking up 20 GBs, depending on page file, hiberfile, system restore etc.

Was this a new ssd ? A clean install to a formatted partition or un allocated space ?

Post a shot of disk management if you like, fully expanded.

Yes, new SSD. Clean install to formatted NTFS partition that takes up most of the SSD (have a small partition for Linux).

hiberfil.sys = 12.5 GB
pagefile.sys = 16.6 GB
system restore looks like it's currently taking up 15 GB (which I suppose answers my original question as to the difference between sum of files/folders and total disk space occupied)

I have plenty of space on this OS partition, it's 200 GB. Just want to make sure it's optimized for performance, as Windows started switching to the basic color scheme, which is very odd because I'm barely running anything. On an immediately prior build on this system (with OS partition on HDD), I could run many apps simultaneously along with dozens of browser windows before having Windows switch to basic color scheme and disable Aero.

Disk space in use on OS partition:


Non-protected OS files/folders:


Including protected OS files/folders:


System restore disk usage:

 

[AddRAM]

Turn off the page file, you don`t need it.
Turn off the hiberfile if you don`t use it.
Turn off system restore if you don`t want to use it, make disk images instead.

Re calculate the space used.

With 20 GB for windows and everything else you list, it comes up right.

 

[colt]

With 20 GB for windows and everything else you list, it comes up right.

Yep, it sure does. Thanks for helping me figure out what was going on there.

Turn off the page file, you don`t need it.
Turn off the hiberfile if you don`t use it.
Turn off system restore if you don`t want to use it, make disk images instead.

Re calculate the space used.

I'm not worried about the space, as I have plenty of it on the OS partition. More interested in performance.

When I noticed Windows was turning off Aero and switching to basic color scheme, I was very surprised, so I started looking around and that's when I noticed how massive the OS had become. But now I get it.

Still not sure why performance dropped so much temporarily. I wasn't running much and have 16GB of RAM, with >10gb of free ram. So there was some other resource constraint, just not sure what it was.

 

[Layback Bear]

System protection at 50% is a big space eater.
I use Restore Points but keep settings a 5%

 

[AddRAM]

Ya, I thought that was extremely high too.

 

[Layback Bear]

On my system 5% give me 15 Restore Points. Two made be me and the rest made by the system. My thought are that should be enough restore point.
They can take me back about one month if need be.

Their should be no problem having Restore Points and Backups. One does not replace the other.

 

[whs]

1. most people do not need the hiberfile. To turn it off use this command: powercfg -h off

2. do not delete the pagefile all together. That may give you problems. But 1 or 2GB is enough

3. I would set the shadowstorage at 5GB. That gives you space for appr. 7 current restore points (it deletes the oldest when the space is full).

 

[Layback Bear]

I do agree with Wolfgang.
Hibernation is pretty much useless with todays fast booting system. Also todays systems like a fresh boot to start from a fresh start.

Some systems and programs will not work properly if pagefile is turned off completely.
I have tried it both ways, on and off. Now I just leave a little pagefile and things work just fine.

If I remember correctly pagefile is also needed for memory dumps just in case you ever do get a BSOD.

At the present time my shadowstorage is at 6 gb. 5%.

 

[gregrocker]

Hibernate is a perfected feature in Win7 that allows the user to walk away for a day or a month without concern about shutting down or saving one's work, because once it times out to Hibernate it saves everything left out on the desktop to the hard drive and shuts down. Then it starts up twice as fast. It's absolutely needed if one sets Sleep timeout too becuause otherwise Sleep is going to wear RAM for as long as you're away from the PC, and I've heard of that being over a year before. So I would not turn off such a useful and popular feature any more than I'd change the theme to Classic to look at ugly file-cabinet grey Win2000 graphics on an OS with elegant transparency.

How did your System Restore slider get set at 50% of the drive? :shock: Have never seen it more than 5-10% before.

As Wolfgang says don't turn off the paging file but set it around 2gb to have a virtual paging file. Without space constraints there is of course no reason to do this so it should be at System Managed by default.

Other tips here for Clean Reinstall Windows 7 explain how drivers are best handled in the first driver-complete OS, the tools and methods that work best in tens of thousands of installs we've helped directly with here, and has been used by over a million people without a single complaint or return with problems by those who stick with them.

 

[DavidE]

How did your System Restore slider get set at 50% of the drive? :shock: Have never seen it more than 5-10% before.

Some people have reported Avast 2015 sets the System Restore slider to 50%.
If the OP is using Avast, that might be the culprit.

 

[colt]

Hibernate is a perfected feature in Win7 that allows the user to walk away for a day or a month without concern about shutting down or saving one's work, because once it times out to Hibernate it saves everything left out on the desktop to the hard drive and shuts down. Then it starts up twice as fast. It's absolutely needed if one sets Sleep timeout too becuause otherwise Sleep is going to wear RAM for as long as you're away from the PC, and I've heard of that being over a year before. So I would not turn off such a useful and popular feature any more than I'd change the theme to Classic to look at ugly file-cabinet grey Win2000 graphics on an OS with elegant transparency.

I'm inclined to agree; it has it's uses. I just need to figure out how to enable hibernate. The hibernate file is there obviously, but I don't have access to hibernate from the Start menu.

As Wolfgang says don't turn off the paging file but set it around 2gb to have a virtual paging file. Without space constraints there is of course no reason to do this so it should be at System Managed by default.

Yeah, I'm not space constrained on the OS partition as of yet, so I'm happy to let Windows set the page file to whatever it desires.

How did your System Restore slider get set at 50% of the drive? :shock: Have never seen it more than 5-10% before.

Some people have reported Avast 2015 sets the System Restore slider to 50%.
If the OP is using Avast, that might be the culprit.

No Avast. Not sure how it happened. I dialed it back to 20%, which is still massive at 40gb, but again, I'm not space constrained, so why not.

 

[DavidE]

Hibernate is a perfected feature in Win7 that allows the user to walk away for a day or a month without concern about shutting down or saving one's work, because once it times out to Hibernate it saves everything left out on the desktop to the hard drive and shuts down. Then it starts up twice as fast. It's absolutely needed if one sets Sleep timeout too becuause otherwise Sleep is going to wear RAM for as long as you're away from the PC, and I've heard of that being over a year before. So I would not turn off such a useful and popular feature any more than I'd change the theme to Classic to look at ugly file-cabinet grey Win2000 graphics on an OS with elegant transparency.

I'm inclined to agree; it has it's uses. I just need to figure out how to enable hibernate. The hibernate file is there obviously, but I don't have access to hibernate from the Start menu.

Hibernate is enabled/disabled from an elevated command prompt.
Here is a tutorial by Brink:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/819-hibernate-enable-disable.html
Also note the related tutorials in this tutorial ...

Using Hibernate is controlled in Control Panel > Power Options.