Windows 7 getting fat

[whs]

If you installed a lot of programs, it could also be a growth of the winsxs folder ( in C:>windows>winsxs). Mine is already 4GBs and I have installed hardly anything yet.

 

[zigzag3143]

If you installed a lot of programs, it could also be a growth of the winsxs folder ( in C:>windows>winsxs). Mine is already 4GBs and I have installed hardly anything yet.

Greets WHS

My winsxs is currently 11 gigs. Im constantly installing and un-installing. there isn't much that you can do with it except not install.

Good seeing you here

Ken

 

[whs]

Ken, thanks for the warm welcome. Yes, the winsxs can really grow and it is often forgotten in the count. My Vista winsxs is 15GBs now. The total imaging footprint of that Vista is 60GBs.

 

[zigzag3143]

Im about due for a clean install anyway so... Guess I gotta bite the bullet and install 7600, and vista sp2 on another box.

I have tried deleting the backup in winsxs and it doesn't affect anything UNLESS the current is corrupted. Since I do daily backcups a resotre from true image or win 7 takes maybe 30 minnutes.

Ken

 

[CreepinJesus]

My Windows folder is 15GB, so 17GB doesn't seem too adnormal to me... The winsxs folder takes up 5.75GB of that on my system.

 

[rangerevo8]

Right-click your WINDOWS folder and select Properties.
Is there any shadow copy under PREVIOUS VERSIONS tab?

To remove shadow copies using the command line..

1) Open an elevated command prompt ("cmd" + ctl-shift-enter)
2) At the command prompt, type "wmic", after some time "wmic:root\cli>" will appear
3) Type "shadowcopy", 4) it will display a list of existing shadow copies
4) Type "shadowcopy delete"
5) one by one, it will give a "Y/N" style prompt, confirming the deletion of each individual shadow copy.
6) Type "exit" to get back to normal command prompt

Too see a list of "shadowcopy" command options, type "shadowcopy /?"

WARNING: This will delete all your previous shadow copies permanently..

 

[GordonNT]

Hi Adeon,

mine is as fat aus your system. If you have a 64bit installation, a complete 32bit system is installed, too. Windows needs all these files to run properly (e.g. 32Bit applications, DirectX 9 and 11 together, ...)

I advice you not to touch any system files or folders (excluding temp).
I think we have to accept that this Windows eats up our computers.
If you want a light-weight performance-system coose Win XP

Greeting

 

[Dinesh]

Hi Adeon,

mine is as fat aus your system. If you have a 64bit installation, a complete 32bit system is installed, too. Windows needs all these files to run properly (e.g. 32Bit applications, DirectX 9 and 11 together, ...)

I advice you not to touch any system files or folders (excluding temp).
I think we have to accept that this Windows eats up our computers.
If you want a light-weight performance-system coose Win XP

Greeting

Would you mind giving 40-50 GB to Windows if you have a 320 or 500 GB HDD?
If you are so much conscious about the size, use Windows 98, it will be happy in a 10 GB partition also.

 

[pparks1]

You guys might want to take a look at this link to see if your WinSXS folder is really taking up as much space as you think or whether your tools to evaluate disk space usage are really just misrepresenting the facts of the WinSXS folder:

WinSxS Disk Space Usage: It’s Not What You Think (David's Blog)

 

[whs]

Right-click your WINDOWS folder and select Properties.
Is there any shadow copy under PREVIOUS VERSIONS tab?

To remove shadow copies using the command line..

1) Open an elevated command prompt ("cmd" + ctl-shift-enter)
2) At the command prompt, type "wmic", after some time "wmic:root\cli>" will appear
3) Type "shadowcopy", 4) it will display a list of existing shadow copies
4) Type "shadowcopy delete"
5) one by one, it will give a "Y/N" style prompt, confirming the deletion of each individual shadow copy.
6) Type "exit" to get back to normal command prompt

Too see a list of "shadowcopy" command options, type "shadowcopy /?"

WARNING: This will delete all your previous shadow copies permanently..

This is good advice for removing the shadows. Problem is, they come back and after a few days you are back to square one. If you really want to suppress the writing of shadows, you have to rezise the shadowstorage with the VSSAMIN RESIZE command. Note that you have to allocate at least 300MBs though.

 

[zigzag3143]

Hi Adeon,

mine is as fat aus your system. If you have a 64bit installation, a complete 32bit system is installed, too. Windows needs all these files to run properly (e.g. 32Bit applications, DirectX 9 and 11 together, ...)

I advice you not to touch any system files or folders (excluding temp).
I think we have to accept that this Windows eats up our computers.
If you want a light-weight performance-system coose Win XP

Greeting

Would you mind giving 40-50 GB to Windows if you have a 320 or 500 GB HDD?
If you are so much conscious about the size, use Windows 98, it will be happy in a 10 GB partition also.

Dinesh you are right as always. In any of my machines but the laptop I will gladly give up whatever space is required as long as it doesn't slow the computer. I have2.5 TB of local space and more if I need it. Media folder .75Tb. app storage 500Gigs, laptop 80gig drive. I have to be more stingy on this laptop.

I have already palyed with the winsxs folder deleted the backup safely, tried and failed to move it off to a different drive, and yes killed OS'es several times

K

 

[pparks1]

This is good advice for removing the shadows. Problem is, they come back and after a few days you are back to square one. If you really want to suppress the writing of shadows, you have to rezise the shadowstorage with the VSSAMIN RESIZE command. Note that you have to allocate at least 300MBs though.

You no longer have to use the command line utility in 7. It's built into the GUI now.

 

[pparks1]

As a side note, out of curiosity based on these hard links I set up a Windows 7 RTM virtual machine and gave that virtual machine a 12GB hard drive. I installed just Win7 RTM, logged in, loaded TreeSizeFree and analyzed what my disk space looked like.

Windows explorer shows 7.14GB used, 4.75GB free and 11.8GB in total.

But a quick scan of my hard drive with TreeSizePro shows that my drive has used 9,788.7MB of space in the following areas;
--7,502.3MB Windows (of which WinSXS folder is 3,989.0MB)
--1,791.7MB [Files] Hiberyfil.sys and pagefile
--395.3MB Program Files
--90.2MB Users
--9.2MB Program Data.

So, the tools like Windows Explorer and TreeSizeFree are reporting nearly 10GB of stuff on my hard drive...however the free space showing up on my hard drive under the Properties of the C drive is actually 4.75. If I truly had 10GB of stuff on the machine, I would only have 2GB of free space...rather than 4.75GB. Therefore, it's not possible for my C:\windows folder to actually be 7,502.3MB...it must be smaller. (basic math says around 5.3GB)


Point of my post: You cannot effectively judge/clean-up your C:\windows directory using these tools as it's inaccurate regarding the amount of space actually being consumed. It's actually possible that you could have a 30GB hard drive, and a 40GB Windows directory on that drive.

Edit: I took my VM and shut off system restore, hibernation and moved the page file to another drive. Look at the screenshot below......on the left you can see that I'm only using up 5.4GB of disk space, but yet on the right it says my C:\Windows folder is 7.22GB. Proof that Windows doesn't use at much space as it appears that it does.

 

[whs]

This is good advice for removing the shadows. Problem is, they come back and after a few days you are back to square one. If you really want to suppress the writing of shadows, you have to rezise the shadowstorage with the VSSAMIN RESIZE command. Note that you have to allocate at least 300MBs though.

You no longer have to use the command line utility in 7. It's built into the GUI now.

Aha, thanks for the hint. Have not yet found it but will scout around. Although to tell you the truth, I like cmd.

 

[whs]

pparks1, did you ever run WinDirStat to see what IT says?

 

[logicearth]

...So, the tools like Windows Explorer and TreeSizeFree are reporting nearly 10GB of stuff on my hard drive...however the free space showing up on my hard drive under the Properties of the C drive is actually 4.75. If I truly had 10GB of stuff on the machine, I would only have 2GB of free space...rather than 4.75GB. Therefore, it's not possible for my C:\windows folder to actually be 7,502.3MB...it must be smaller. (basic math says around 5.3GB)...

To add to this, Drive Properties shows the correct amount because it doesn't go though the File System Enumeration functions. Instead it talks to services under the File System functions, like the MFT for example.

 

[Dinesh]

Hi Adeon,

mine is as fat aus your system. If you have a 64bit installation, a complete 32bit system is installed, too. Windows needs all these files to run properly (e.g. 32Bit applications, DirectX 9 and 11 together, ...)

I advice you not to touch any system files or folders (excluding temp).
I think we have to accept that this Windows eats up our computers.
If you want a light-weight performance-system coose Win XP

Greeting

Would you mind giving 40-50 GB to Windows if you have a 320 or 500 GB HDD?
If you are so much conscious about the size, use Windows 98, it will be happy in a 10 GB partition also.

Dinesh you are right as always. In any of my machines but the laptop I will gladly give up whatever space is required as long as it doesn't slow the computer. I have2.5 TB of local space and more if I need it. Media folder .75Tb. app storage 500Gigs, laptop 80gig drive. I have to be more stingy on this laptop.

I have already palyed with the winsxs folder deleted the backup safely, tried and failed to move it off to a different drive, and yes killed OS'es several times

K

Lol thanks Ken. This month i m planning to upgrage my hdd frm 160gb to 320 gb and RAM from 2gb to 4 gb.