Saex_Conroy Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Hello, until few days ago I've had an 80GB hard disk from 2005, that was from my first computer. Ive used XP, because the OS size in C:\ wasn't bigger than 5GB, so I could partition C:\ to be ~14GB and leave the rest to D:\. Now I bought a new one - 500GB and I partitioned 50GB for C:\ and the rest to D:\, installed Windows 7 x64 and over the last couple of days I've noticed that used space in C:\ is growing rapidly. The installation image of Windows 7 was already with SP1, so I would expect that my winsxs folder will be 3GB at best, but it's 7GB. I haven't installed many programs and the size of the two Program Files folders is 1.30GB. What could explain this thing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_dandy_ Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 One word: windirstat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Veteran Posted December 1, 2013 Veteran Share Posted December 1, 2013 After you upgrade and everything is working ok it's usually a good idea to run Disk Cleanup and remove the upgrade files. You'll have to click the "system" button with the UAC shield on it to see the leftover upgrade files option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saex_Conroy Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 WinDirStat identified two culptints - pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys http://s15.postimg.org/us7bkj6q3/Untitled.jpg I read on a forum that pagefile.sys is a "thing from the past" and should be disabled, I have 4GB DDR3 RAM. hiberfil.sys reminds me of hibernation, that can be disabled, and I always do that, because I don't use it. According to my calculations, getting rid of those two files will free me up about 5GB which is acceptable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xendrome Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 If you don't use Hibernate, go to elevated command prompt and type in "powercfg -h off" to disable it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Veteran Posted December 1, 2013 Veteran Share Posted December 1, 2013 I wouldn't recommend turning off the page file. It is definitely not legacy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BudMan MVC Posted December 2, 2013 MVC Share Posted December 2, 2013 "I read on a forum that pagefile.sys is a "thing from the past"" What forum was this - it for sure wasn't here ;) Where do these people come up with this nonsense.. I am really curious to this setup with a 500GB drive, is this a SSD or HHD? Is this still your computer from 2005, or a completely new computer? snaphat (Myles Landwehr) and +LogicalApex 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flynempire Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 The Winsxs folder gets big over time with all the updates installed. Recently the disc cleanup tool was updated with an option to clean out the majority of the contents of that folder to save space.You should see this after some recent updates. I did and it clean out about 1 gigabyte of space from that folder. You will find the disc cleanup under the accessories -> System Tools Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Top Qat Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 Found this http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn251565.aspx Might be useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PGHammer Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 WinDirStat identified two culptints - pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys http://s15.postimg.org/us7bkj6q3/Untitled.jpg I read on a forum that pagefile.sys is a "thing from the past" and should be disabled, I have 4GB DDR3 RAM. hiberfil.sys reminds me of hibernation, that can be disabled, and I always do that, because I don't use it. According to my calculations, getting rid of those two files will free me up about 5GB which is acceptable. pagefile.sys is "virtual memory" - it's where programs swap to when real RAM is lacking; it's been present in every version of Windows 9x/NT, and programs expect it. Hiberfil.sys is of more recent importance, but another long-present "stalwart" - if a program, or the PC, hibernates, anything that was running when the sleep/hibernate state triggers swaps to the space under control of hiberfil.sys. (In Windows 8.x, ModernUI programs make rather extensive use of hiberfil.sys when they are moved to the background.) The two programs both use boot-drive space, and can share free space - however, they don't share the same space heap, even on the hard drive. You can change where the two files point to - in fact, you should, if you have a boot drive with a small partition size, or an SSD. However, before doing that, you should increase physical RAM, just to reduce any possible lag induction from changing how the two files act by changing their point-to locations (such as to a non-boot drive that may be on a slower interface). Don't get rid of either - bad effects tend to happen - even, if not especially, in Windows 7 or later - when you get rid of the virtual-memory swapfile OR the hibernation-related swapfile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haggis Veteran Posted December 11, 2013 Veteran Share Posted December 11, 2013 System requirements for windows 7 in relation to Hard Drive space is 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit) If you have a 500gb drive there then increase your partition to 100gb, this will allow you plenty space to install applications and such and still have 380gb ish for a data partition :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sc302 Veteran Posted December 11, 2013 Veteran Share Posted December 11, 2013 I never understood partitioning client systems. It isn't like you are going to get a performance increase because you are using the same head(s) for all of the partitions. It isn't like you can define this platter is for this partition and that platter is for that partition and the heads associated to those platters. As for keeping things neat, that is what folders are for, no? If the drive dies, all of the partitions die with it...so it isn't a case of saving data incase of drive failure. On a server where you can specify different drives for different partitions, great, on a pc with a single drive I see absolutely no benefit to it. I know this is a side topic and you do it for what ever reason you do it for, I personally see no reason for it and don't understand the logic behind it. snaphat (Myles Landwehr) 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haggis Veteran Posted December 11, 2013 Veteran Share Posted December 11, 2013 I know this is a side topic and you do it for what ever reason you do it for, I personally see no reason for it and don't understand the logic behind it. The reason i did it was i have my windows partiton and a data partition It meant i could format the windows partition and reinstall without losing my data or having to back it up to an external :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BudMan MVC Posted December 11, 2013 MVC Share Posted December 11, 2013 It meant i could format the windows partition and reinstall without losing my data or having to back it up to an external :) While this is good in theory, to be honest it is flawed logic.. Guess it could save you time if your dicking up your OS all the time or have WRS (windows reinstall syndrome). You know these WRS people, they are the ones that reinstall every X months/weeks - or oh I lost my IE icon the desktop - better reinstall ;) But lets think about it for a few minutes. When should I have to reinstall my OS.. Virus maybe - if your machine is gets infected, are you 100% sure your data files did not get infected.. Maybe virus look to to anything on the machine be it C: D: Z: to hide themselves to comeback or spread when you open your resume or letter to santa for example. Wouldn't it be safer to restore your files from your non connected BACKUP? Another reason might want need to reinstall, your Disk dies!! So just the C partition bites it, while D is fine - yeah don't think so ;) Again having that BACKUP on non real time connected media saves you, and your good! So lets say going to just upgrade or change my OS.. Lets say windows 9 comes out, or Maybe I want to run linux now.. If I had a valid "BACKUP" I might at most might have to worry about a few files I created since my last backup. So I run a backup before I wipe and redo my OS. I can not really think of a valid reason to partition a disk in a home setup - all it does is cause the user more complication with something they don't really understand most of the time and think they need some 3rd party tool to even work with partitions, etc. What users should be worried about - which creating a 2nd partition for data comes no where close to accomplishing is BACKUP!!! of their files that they would want to keep in case of HDD loss, redo, etc. etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haggis Veteran Posted December 11, 2013 Veteran Share Posted December 11, 2013 While this is good in theory, to be honest it is flawed logic.. Guess it could save you time if your dicking up your OS all the time or have WRS (windows reinstall syndrome). You know these WRS people, they are the ones that reinstall every X months/weeks - or oh I lost my IE icon the desktop - better reinstall ;) But lets think about it for a few minutes. When should I have to reinstall my OS.. Virus maybe - if your machine is gets infected, are you 100% sure your data files did not get infected.. Maybe virus look to to anything on the machine be it C: D: Z: to hide themselves to comeback or spread when you open your resume or letter to santa for example. Wouldn't it be safer to restore your files from your non connected BACKUP? Another reason might want need to install your, Disk dies!! So just the C partition bites it, while D is fine - yeah don't think so ;) Again having that BACKUP on non real time connected media saves you, and your good! So lets say going to just upgrade or change my OS.. Lets say windows 9 comes out, or Maybe I want to run linux now.. If I had a valid "BACKUP" I might at most might have to worry about a few files I created since my last backup. So I run a backup before I wipe and redo my OS. I can not really think of a valid reason to partition a disk in a home setup - all it does is cause the user more complication with something they don't really understand most of the time and think they need some 3rd party tool to even work with partitions, etc. What users should be worried about - which creating a 2nd partition for data comes no where close to accomplishing is BACKUP!!! of their files that they would want to keep in case of HDD loss, redo, etc. etc. just to clarify this was in the Window 95/98 days lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member Posted December 11, 2013 Member Share Posted December 11, 2013 I never understood partitioning client systems. It isn't like you are going to get a performance increase because you are using the same head(s) for all of the partitions. It isn't like you can define this platter is for this partition and that platter is for that partition and the heads associated to those platters. As for keeping things neat, that is what folders are for, no? If the drive dies, all of the partitions die with it...so it isn't a case of saving data incase of drive failure. On a server where you can specify different drives for different partitions, great, on a pc with a single drive I see absolutely no benefit to it. I know this is a side topic and you do it for what ever reason you do it for, I personally see no reason for it and don't understand the logic behind it. It would be interesting to know the OPs reasoning though (perhaps D is encrypted?) :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devHead Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 I read on a forum that pagefile.sys is a "thing from the past" and should be disabled, I have 4GB DDR3 RAM. hiberfil.sys reminds me of hibernation, that can be disabled, and I always do that, because I don't use it. Pagefile.sys is not a thing from the past, it's your virtual memory, which Windows uses (very efficiently) to manage your memory. Don't delete it. Your best bet would be to make your C drive a bit larger. For Windows 7, it would be good to have about 150 GB. That will be plenty for the OS and any programs you install. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devHead Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 I never understood partitioning client systems. It isn't like you are going to get a performance increase because you are using the same head(s) for all of the partitions. It isn't like you can define this platter is for this partition and that platter is for that partition and the heads associated to those platters. As for keeping things neat, that is what folders are for, no? If the drive dies, all of the partitions die with it...so it isn't a case of saving data incase of drive failure. On a server where you can specify different drives for different partitions, great, on a pc with a single drive I see absolutely no benefit to it. I know this is a side topic and you do it for what ever reason you do it for, I personally see no reason for it and don't understand the logic behind it. I have a 3TB and 1 TB drive for storage, and a SSD for my OS and Apps. The reason I partition the 3 and 1 TB drives is basically for the sake of organization. I have one partition for my Audio, one for Video, one for Pictures, Documents, and Downloads, and another for Everything Else. To me, it's better than simply having 20 folders or so off the root of one gigantic partition. I don't do it for performance, but just for personal data organization. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sc302 Veteran Posted December 11, 2013 Veteran Share Posted December 11, 2013 Like I said, you could do it with folders and if you understand how folders are organized you can keep the more used folders up top. For all intents and purposes, you can call a folder partition 1 and and another partition 2, it would result in the same as having multiple partitions, changing the heirchy from drives to folders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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