New SSD drive says it is using more space than the folder-properties show

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Tor Eivind

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Dec 14, 2015
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My new 120GB SSD comes with 111 GB free storage space when new, I installed it in my computer and installed Win7, Battle.net and World of Warcraft on it. That should be around 46,72 disc space used leaving approximately 65 GB left, but mine says I have 46 GB left to use.

WHY?
 
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JackNaylorPE

JackNaylorPE

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1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Right Click on C:\
3. Select Properties
4. The amount of space used and space left will be indicated.

The reason you drop from 120 GB is that the bean counters / marketing departments redfined what a GB is in the late 90s. When ya look at RAM having 16GB means you have 16,384 MB of RAM. In order to make their products look better, the storage guys redfined a GB as 1,000 MB instead of 1,024 MB which had existed as the sole definition up till that point in time. When you apply this to KB, MB and GB, this 2% exaggeration goes to 7%

But 46 GB is small for a windows footprint, the typical Win 7 footprint is about 80 GB after a few months of usage.

If you wanna see what's talking up what space use WinDirStat
http://windirstat.info/
 
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drtweak

drtweak

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Sep 17, 2012
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How much RAM do you have? There is probably a Hiberfile (For hibernation) and a Page file.

If you have a regular Hard drive you can move the page file to that. if you don't use Hibernation we can turn that off real easy.

Open up an elevated Commad Prompt and type in

powercgf -h off

and it will remove the hiberfile.sys which is usually the Size of your RAM (Hibernation saved your RAM to your hard drive so that is why it is that big) and then Pagefile is my default 1.5 times the amount of your RAM. So if you 8GB of ram you have a 8GB higerfile and a 12 GB Page file which is 20 GB which looks to be the missing 20GB you are looking for.
 
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drtweak

drtweak

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46Gb small? Um no that is actually quite large.

A windows 7 full updated office and some other programs is only about 20GB or so not 46. Maybe after some games but if you ONLY talk about office suites, things like Antivirus, other programs, maybe 40GB max. It is more than likely Pagefile and Hiberfile that is the issue.

And yes they see 1000MB as 1Gb but when you click and go to properties it will show 1GB as 1024 and he even said he knew it formated it as 111 which is what it comes out to with 1000MB being 1GB for the 120 SSD.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Actually, no.
~45GB for a fully updated Win 7 install, with nothing else, is not excessive.
I've measured several of my recent Win 7 installs, and after all the updates are run...that's about it.

As far as 120/111/100GB...no
An advertised 120GB drive will show in Windows as 111GB.
GB vs GiB.
It has nothing to do with 'formatting'.
 
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drtweak

drtweak

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Really? I have a * ton of stuff installed on my work PC and it is only a 80GB ssd for my OS and I have 52 filled up with Pagefile and a ton of programs and my Outlook PST files as well and a few ISO's on the desktop. I've never installed windows even with some programs and have it be bigger than 20-25GB
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Over the last 18 months or so, I've carefully watched what each OS does on the install.
After all upgrades are run:
Win 7 - ~40-45GB
Win 8.1 - ~35-38GB
Win 10 - ~27GB
 
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JackNaylorPE

JackNaylorPE

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The number comes from looking at over 100 Win 7 Professional real installations with "OS / Drivers / OS Utilities only" on the C:\Partition. That is no page / temp files, no hibernation file and looking the properties tab. These are real world Hard Drives in general usage by astute users, after about 6 months of usage. Be aware that Windows is not just what is in the Windows Folder.

Windows Folder - Just looked at my Windows Folder only on my lappie and it's 39.8 GB.

"User Files" - This generally grows to 20GB within the 1st year, just for application data

"Program Files" - includes OS programs like IE and Media Player

"Common Files" - installed by software vendors to C:\ regardless of where you put the program.

"Os related Files" - Log Files, Windows Uninstall Files, Program Data, etc.

"Backup Files" - Do a *.* search and you will find several large files in the 100s of MB which Windows like to keep for whatever reason as backups... like the last 3-4 versions of your GX drivers.

On the size issue, no, nothing in the computer sees it as 1000 MB, they just sell it that way so they can put a bigger number on the advertising.
 
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JackNaylorPE

JackNaylorPE

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That's day 1, what happens after ya actually start using it ? I find that within a year, the footprint at least doubles in size. I started paying attention to this when users who wanted us to install SSDs 120 GB and less as their OS drives and then were back within weeks / months at best asking us to free up space. And when they left here, there were no page, temp or hibernation files and no one using "My Anything" folders.

I do install all drivers and any OS utilities as for troubleshooting purposes (WinDirStat, Ccleaner, etc)

 
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drtweak

drtweak

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Ok Well RATHER than us fighting over it which yes we can can go on ALL day about real world this real world that after 1 year this 1 year that lets just wait till the OP comes back after reading us fight and argue XD i mean this is also a "New Install" with minimal stuff as well as it seems.

And btw. I am running a fully updated Win 7 and with Pagefile and Hiberfile (Ram is only 2GB) everything is only use 15GB with just OS and updates on a VM that i'm using for testing right now as we speak lol. Just though I'd toss that out there XD
 
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