Windows 7 installation size and SSD

[FievelGoesPostal]

I just built a new system with an Intel 40 gig x-25 SSD. I use the SSD as my boot drive and I have a secondary 1TB HD for programs.

My issue is this. I only have Windows 7, Steam and Counter Strike Source installed and I only have 8 GB of the 37GB available. Windows 7 is only using 11 Gb and Steam and Counter Strike Source are using 5gb . Where is the other 13 Gb? What am I missing?

 

[skittle]

hibernate file, pagefile, temp files, trash... suggest moving these to your other drive.

 

[sminlal]

You can't move the hibernation file, the best you can do is to disable hibernation. That file takes up almost as much space as you have RAM in your system.

You can move the pagefile to a hard drive using:

- Start -> right-click "Computer" and select "Properties"
- Click the "Advanced System Settings" in the left pane
- Click the "Settings..." button in the "Performance" section
- Click the "Advanced" tab
- Click the "Change..." button under "Virtual Memory"

In the "Virtual Memory" dialogue box you select the SSD click the "No Paging File" option, and then click the "Set" button. Then you click a hard drive and click either "System Managed Size" or "Custom Size" and click the "Set" button.

It's also possible that restore points are consuming a lot of space. You can check this as follows:

- Start -> right-click "Computer" and select "Properties"
- Click the "Advanced System Settings" in the left pane
- Click the "Settings..." button in the "Performance" section
- Click the "System Protection" tab

In this dialogue box, click the SSD to select it and then click the "Configure..." button to see how much space is being used. If necessary, adjust the slider to reduce the amount of space allowed for restore points.

 

[Wamphryi]

Better still sell the SSD and get a Velicoraptor. That lack of space will cause you a great deal of drama over time and the performance difference is minimal in terms of real world computing. I finally gave in and bought a 60 GB SSD and found it was rather over hyped. I am looking at putting it into my laptop for it is there that drive will shine.

 

[rebelwith]

You will never get the full amount of space on the 60gb drive. I have a 120gb SSD and i only have WIN7 on it but i installed Steam on another drive as it takes up so much room.

 

[geofelt]

Do you by any chance a file called windows.old? If you installed via upgrade, your old windows files are there, and can be safely deleted.

 

[jaguarskx]

You can delete the Hibernation file (Hiberfil.sys) by disabling hibernation then run the Command Prompt and type the following...

powercfg –h off

I deleted Hiberfil.sys from my HTPC which has Win 7 installed.

 

[sminlal]

Do you by any chance a file called windows.old?

Yeah, that's a good point. It's actually a folder, and if the OP has one it he'll be able to find it in the root folder of the C:\ drive (or whatever drive the OS is on).

 

[FievelGoesPostal]

thanks for the replies! both the ssd drive and the 1tb drive are brand new. i didnt bring anything over from my old system so i dont think i will have the windows.old file. i moved the pagefile over to the storage drive which gave me 8gigs back. now i will have to deal with the hibernation issue. t

 

[geofelt]

If you have adequate ram like 4gb, the page file will not need much space. Set the page file to a minimum, and let windows expand it automatically if necessary. Some apps will want to use a page file, and there is nothing faster than a ssd.

You bought a ssd for performance, so use it.

 

[welshmousepk]

I have to disagree with geofelt. Make a RAMdisk, and put the page file on that. Even better performance than SSD, and assuming you have adequate ram, it essentially has the best possible performance, without the possible program failures that can be caused by removing the page file altogether.

I have the same SSD, and have 27gb free, after installing all my programs.

 

[daship]

I never use a page file on any sytems I run.

 

[sminlal]

Make a RAMdisk, and put the page file on that.

I can see why you might do this if you have an older program that won't run without a pagefile (I've found this to be true of Photoshop 6, for example). But in the absence of that I can't imagine a reason why you'd want to. Just disable the pagefile altogether and eliminate the overhead of the paging system. If your system will run with the only pagefile on a RAM drive, it will run just as well or better with no RAM drive and no page file.

 

[welshmousepk]

Surprisingly, there are a lot of systems that can fail without a pagefile. Most notably, firefox can have serious issues. Removing the page file would have the same performance effect, but can cause issues in those programs that require it. A RAMdisk pagefile solves both issues nicely.

 

[geofelt]

Why get bent out of shape over a small amount of space? If the system needs an access to the page file, it needs to do it quickly; the system will wait until it gets done. A ssd is the best way to do it quickly. Set it to 400mb initially, and your ram size as max.
If an app fails, you have lost any small advantage you got by deleting it.
------------------bottom line------------------
Don't complicate your system for small gains.

 

[sminlal]

Surprisingly, there are a lot of systems that can fail without a pagefile. Most notably, firefox can have serious issues.

I've been running Firefox with several plug-ins on my 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate system with no page file for over a year with no issues whatsoever.

I'm aware that older programs sometimes have a mysterious dependency on a page file. I was never able to run Photoshop 6 without a pagefile - I never did figure out why but my theory is that it looks for the page file drive in order to figure out what the default location for its work files would be.

But I haven't yet run into any programs released within the last couple of years that are pagefile-dependent.