Hard Drive Space far exceeds total count

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Karl Zhao

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Apr 4, 2013
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Hey everyone,
My laptop has a 128 GB mSATA SSD (along with a 750GB HDD). When I received it, 64GB were already filled up, although supposedly only the operating system was installed. (My laptop came completely free of bloatware, which is nice) I was already confused enough, since Windows is only 16 GB and should only take up 20-30 even with all of the drivers and tools. Counting in the fact that about 13 GB were allocated to a factory reset image, it seemed like my Windows was taking up 50 GB. I didn't pay much attention to solving it back then, because I planned on installing everything to HDD. I did, however, install some software such as Java to take advantage of the SSD speeds when loading up a program in Java.
Recently it's become a problem, as I've noticed that everything I put on the drive takes up almost twice the space that it's supposed to. As of now, the My Computer window shows that I have used 80GB. When I selected all and clicked on Properties, which I did for the first time on this computer, it listed the total of all the folders and files as 40GB. (I have all of the hidden files and folders shown). This has become a problem because I'm trying to install Autodesk Inventor 2014, which for some reason takes up 6GB in my OS drive even if I choose to install to my secondary 750GB drive. Since it will probably take up some of my space in AppData too, I'm looking at more of 10GB to work with in the future.
Does anyone have an idea why this is so, and if it's a problem with some setting in my system, how to fix it?
 
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jackson1420

jackson1420

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May 10, 2010
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How much RAM do you have? Hibernation and your Page File is going to be the size of your RAM or larger. I forgot exactly at the moment. With an SSD I would set the page fle to be 800-1500 but others recommend disabling it completely. I have had no issues doing either of these, but in businesses I do 800-1500 on SSD drive systems. Windows fully updated shouldn't take more than 22-25 GB. Depending if you get all the bells and whistles. I haven't seen a 30gb Windows 7 directory myself.

Hibernation can also be disable as I usually sleep my system or turn it off. Depends how "On the go you are"

If you want open a command prompt with Administrator privileges.

Type: powercfg -h off

You can disable that. Additionally you can remove the win cache that can free up some space. In goto "%Windir%\Software Distribution\Downloads" - Remove all these files

Here is a script for that I use (Save in a notepad as "purge_cache.bat" - the type set to 'All Files')

CD \
CD %Windir%
CD SoftwareDistribution
DEL /F /S /Q Download




Edit: Sorry I didn't see the Autodesk Inventor thing. Are you sure its not just the install files that are taking up that 6gb? Once you have installed it to your 750GB drive you can remove or backup the files to where you keep software
 
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Karl Zhao

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Apr 4, 2013
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I have 16 GB of RAM. The thing is, I have never hibernated with more than 5 GB of RAM being used, so that shouldn't be much of a problem. I don't know about the page file, but on my previous laptop, which also had 16 GB, I didn't get this problem. However, seeing that I have it here, is it OK to set my paging file on my 750GB HDD instead of my SSD?

I actually don't hibernate very much, as I primarily use it as a desktop(connect it to a monitor).

Thanks for the win cache tip. Unfortunately, it only removed 480MB. Also, it seems as if Autodesk did only use 6GB for the install files. I can delete those now. :)
Once again, thanks a lot. That was pretty helpful.

 
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jackson1420

jackson1420

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Happy to help.

One last bit to clarify for you. Hibernation will eat up the full amount of RAM as it is pre-allocated (So it makes no difference if you have 5GB used or 16GB as the point of hibernation is to be quick... if this space needed to be allocated when you hit hibernate then all sanity goes out the window). Using that command powercfg -h off will free up 16 GB straight away. Your page file is also taking up 16 GB too if you have not set it manually. (Windows is typcially ~18GB + Hibernation (16GB) + Page File (16GB) = 50 GB gone)

I know this because when I installed my OS on a 60GB drive I wanted to install Starcraft 2 (16GB when installed & patched) and I ran out of room before it could install fully. About 48/55.8 GB was taken up by updating Windows and having hibernation & page file enabled. Very mind boggling at first when you expect the 60GB of SSD flash storage you just purchased to actually be usable. Next time I am buying a 256 GB SSD.
 
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Karl Zhao

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Apr 4, 2013
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10,530


Whoa! using that command did immediately give me 16 GB more. I didn't expect it to be so fast. Thanks! :)

Well, something else I wanted to ask is, will setting the page file to the secondary drive do anything to the performance? Should I just keep it on the SSD?
Finally, there's still around 20GB that's unaccounted for, factoring in the SSD format, page file, and the factory restore partition.
Thanks for everything!
 
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jackson1420

jackson1420

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Awesome happy to hear you could free up that hibernation file.

As for the page file - if you have it at all I would only put it on the SSD. You will feel like your Achilles heal has been severed when and then you hear the sounds of that mechanical HDD spin and grind. Sorry for the over-exageratted expression but that is a bottleneck to avoid. I set my page file to

That is interesting 20GB still unaccounted for. 16 of that may be the page file. I set my page file for my C: drive (Windows drive) to 800-1000 (Min. and Max. size) as shown in this pic:

9vfklc.png


If that doesn't free up the space then I would drill down each folder and record on paper what is taking up what space and by process of elimination you will find the extra mystery data. It has to be in there somewhere - just make sure "view hidden files" is turned on
 
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