Vista/Hard drive space

Froggitt

Have Vista PC with 45Gb drive. Over 20Gb is used by c\windows\winsxs directory.....hundreds of directories there from 1Mb upto 300Mb.

Can it be cleaned up/deleted at all?

Giant_Space_Lizard

take a look here ww.mydigitallife.info/2007/12/19/tips-to-slim-down-vista/
although i think you should consider an additional hard drive (although it sounds as if you are using laptop perhaps?)

santer_2

You can run Ccleaner, though avoid installing the toolbars with it, the Windows folder should be left intact

http://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

If the PC is running well you could delete all but the most recent restore point

googler

Lots of specialised forums out there with more Vista 'experts' than you can shake a stick at - google 'deleting winsxs folder' or similar for sites like;

http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/105445-can-i-remove-c-windows-winsxs.html

closed

Have you got another empty partition somewhere, sitting unused.

Froggitt

No. Its my old lappy about 4 years old, but Ive had to resurrect it as my daughters lappy that her GCSE notes were on died, and Im trying to transfer all her stuff onto it. It has a D partition of 10Gb of which half is used.

I just didnt remember the Windows winsxs directory being so large and cant understand why it is. I am now thinking once Ive restored all her stuff from the external hard drive that we all backup onto, of doing a Windows Easy Transfer, reformatting the hard disk in the 45Gb PC, and installing Vista/Office etc from scratch.......will that free up the space in the winsxs directory? Id also incorporate the D drive that doesnt seem to be particularly well used......any thoughts on this as a plan?

free4440273

could be a possible file corruption/ no way should Windows occupy such a huge chunk of space/ yes, a reformat and reinstall should replenish the space/ a mere reinstall will not however /

closed

It will just grow again as soon as you apply windows updates