Windows 7 disk space hog??

[larryq22]

I just did a clean install of Windows 7 Pro to replace Vista Home Premium. Before the install, my hdd was using 58G of disk space. I had heard so much about Win 7 being leaner than Vista, that I figured the disk space would go way down after the clean install. However, it looks to be about the same or even more after I reinstall all programs and files.

Why?? Where did the space go?? How can I tell and fix it??

 

[deanj20]

Where did the space go??

Looks like you answered your own question:

it looks to be about the same or even more after I reinstall all programs and files

.
Windows 7 requires:

16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

Windows Vista requires:

20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space

I think when people say "Windows 7 is leaner than Vista," they mean it uses less resources, runs more efficiently. And you don't have all the extra crap starting up by default like in Vista (God, what was up with the UAC? Most. Annoying. OS. "Feature". Ever. And who the hell needs Widgets? More crap cluttering up desktop!? Seriously!? </digressive rant>)

Still - you said you had 58GB to start out with, so what did you install to take up all your space? You still had 35GB left to play with.

Make a list of everything you installed, and I'll tell you how to get by without it.
Seriously though, I'll take a look and see what we can slim down on.

 

[Aastii]

They use about the same hard drive space, as deanj said. IF you have installed everything again, but with win7 instead of vista, download and install ccleaner and run it. It will get rid of temporary files and un-needed files, which may be where you are getting your lost space from.

also, download defraggler and defragment, it can "create" space simply by cleaning it up a bit by defragmenting your hard drive.

Ccleaner download

Defraggler download

and deanj, UAC and sidebar can be disabled so ren't really problems, just minor annoyances when windows is first installed and they are activated

 

[larryq22]

Thanks guys. A couple questions:

Deanj20, if Win7 takes 16G of space, why was there 42G used up before re-installing ANY programs (except Microsoft Security Essentials)? I can't believe a few programs take up gigs and gigs of space.

Aastii, I've run Ccleaner already and it just cleans up in the MB range. I did Disk Cleanup and removed restore points and shadow copies which bought me about 10G but I still need to reinstall my backup document files (6G) and other programs.

I'm thinking there's some hidden place taking up tons of space.

Ideas?

 

[xzimppledink]

possible hijacked computer

If you have 58 gigs I would advise that you consider your computer may have been hijacked. This assuming a computer savvy person would do a clean up before posting. I found a similar problem, deleted the offending files, and watched them reload as soon as I started up again. Nothing would stop the reloading. I did a killdisk, the only way I could start fresh. Doing large video files could load your HD to this extent but you already know that. Typical movies use about 8.5 gigs and shrink down to just enough to fit on to a DVD.

 

[larryq22]

Xzimppledink, to tell you the truth this hadn't occurred to me. I'll check it out.

 

[deanj20]

Deanj20, if Win7 takes 16G of space, why was there 42G used up before re-installing ANY programs (except Microsoft Security Essentials)? I can't believe a few programs take up gigs and gigs of space.

I don't know. I haven't had an opportunity to install 7 yet. I just posted the specifications I found on Microsoft's site.

Did you completely reformat before you installed 7? Or did you install it over the top of your Vista installation. I found a thread on a Microsoft forum posted by a user who had a problem similar to yours. Turns out, the files from his old OS were in a folder called Windows.OLD Check it out: http://social.answers.microsoft.com...7/thread/e654cce7-b634-4147-90af-e27afe449b01

I'm assuming this is what has happened on your system. If not, please go into C: and make note of each folder size (Windows, Program Files, Documents and Settings, etc etc) and post back here.

 

[linkin]

Personally i disable system restore and shadow copying, as well as search indexing and remote registry. All these services can and have been used to hack into people's computers (well not searching...) and are hard drive HOGS!

And I don't like my comouter doing things unless i tell it to. For example, power saving features. I hate them.

 

[larryq22]

SOLVED. I was doing a routing Disk Cleanup and instead of clicking OK I scrolled through the list of files to be cleaned. Lo and behold, there was an entry called "Old OS" which was 38.1 G. Pardon the French, but holy crap. I cleaned it off and am now humming along. Thanks everyone for your help.

 

[Itanda]

SOLVED. I was doing a routing Disk Cleanup and instead of clicking OK I scrolled through the list of files to be cleaned. Lo and behold, there was an entry called "Old OS" which was 38.1 G. Pardon the French, but holy crap. I cleaned it off and am now humming along. Thanks everyone for your help.

Quick Side thought.

For some reason this still doesn't make sense? if win 7 and vista use same ammount rougly for install then why did he say it was the same usage when it had all the programs + win 7 + old os when compared to just vista + all programs? Did you possibly not reinstall all the files and were simply accessing them the whole time from the old os folder and didn't realize it?

 

[larryq22]

This is what happened. Vista + all programs = 58G. Win7 + Old OS + some programs = 52 G. There were a lot of programs and backup files I didn't install.