How can I free up space on my SSD?

Marty999

I built my first ever PC last year, and have been really pleased with it. I have a 60 GB SSD for Windows 7 and programs, and a 500 GB hard drive for data. I now wish I had bought a 120 GB SSD though, as it is almost full (it is showing just 3.34 GB free out of 55.7 GB).

I have used the Folder Size program to identify what is hogging the disk space and the biggest culprint is C:\Windows\winsxs
This folder is 11.7 GB and is holding lots of tiny folders, 13,439 items in total. I'm not sure what this folder does, can I clear some of the contents out?

I have already uninstalled all the programs I no longer need and emptied the Recycle Bin. I have also run CleanUp. Can anyone suggest any other tips please?

Knarf44

Windows 7 has a built in disk clean up tool. See this info:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/818-disk-cleanup-open-use.html

Item 5 is the one usually missed out on. I am assuming you have SP1 already installed.

bluesnake

there are a few tools like treesize or http://windirstat.info/ which will show you where the space has gone.

closed

ccleaner, wiztree,

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=63417577&postcount=3

set page file to 128 min, 4GB max or move it altogether to d:, disable hibernation, move temp to other hard disk, leave winsxs - it's your updates/version control, turn off system restore, then back on, move photos etc to d

Mr_Toad

Do not delete that directory!!!

It contains all manner of OS info from service packs to hotfixes, patches and updates.

You cannot move this directory off the SSD and on to another drive, it must reside on the system volume because of the NTFS hard links.

The above suggestions will clear out some of the rubbish elsewhere on the drive but they won't make much difference to the winsxs directory.

My personal opinion is that 60GB is too small for Windows, as you are now discovering. Get yourself a bigger drive, even SSDs are a lot cheaper than they were.

There is a way to recover some of the space from winsxs and that is to make any service pack installations permanent which will then allow you to reclaim the space used by the service pack files. However, this means that the SP can no longer be removed.

Also you will only get so much space back on a drive that really needs to be bigger.

There is a Microsoft knowledge base article about winsxs I'll see if I can dig out the reference.

dogmaryxx

Useful guide

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/129976-hard-disk-space-free-up-recover.html

Marty999

Thank you folks for your advice, but TBH the tips have hardly made any difference. All photos and docs etc are already on my hard disk. I am thinking of replacing my 60 GB SSD with a 120 GB model and am considering the easiest way to do this. I use Acronis True Image and already have a full backup of both drives so I guess I should be able to restore my C drive to the new SSD, but how does this work? Is it an image file that copies over in its entirety? If I do this, would the new SSD think it still has a 60 GB partition or would it show up as being half full, which is what I what?

closed

Windows7 shouldn't use up anywhere near 60GB, so where has the space gone

anotheruser

If you have an SSD, make sure you move the "indexing" to the hard disk.
Search "SSD indexing file" or something for more information. If you leave it on the SSD, the indexing files will eventually kill it due to the frequent read/write state.

As others have suggested, CCleaner is good, but run it three or four times in a row.

As you have Windows 7, make sure the system is fully updated. Then right click on the C:\ drive and chose the "Disk Clean Up" option. The last set of updates from Microsoft enables you delete all but the last System Restore point with one click.

Also, make sure you turn "sleep" mode off. Half of SSD owners think it ruins SS drives, the other half think there is no difference but SSD speeds should be quick enough to shut down properly and boot up in no time.

closed wrote: »

Windows7 shouldn't use up anywhere near 60GB, so where has the space gone

I am a power user.
I have 60Gb allocated to Windows (I think. It's less than 100 anyway).
Mine is over 80% used.
I have all programs (except Office) on a different partition.


If you're thinking of upgrading... do a fresh install.
You won't need another key, just input the one you already have. Yes it means you will have to re-install programs and such but you will get a nice fresh install of the OS rather than copying over all the junk from the one you are running now.
A little price to pay for a big improvement in my opinion.

closed

anotheruser wrote: »

I am a power user.
I have 60Gb allocated to Windows (I think. It's less than 100 anyway).
Mine is over 80% used.
I have all programs (except Office) on a different partition.


.

Then you must have quite a lot of crud under your windows directory

custardy

dont know about 7,but on my 8 install
it was the config folder

http://www.eightforums.com/general-support/20778-windows-8-config-files-taking-up-24gb-3.html