Windows 10 Back to DriverStore again?

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I'm still questioning why the driver store folder is so large.
On my computer it's 25 Gigabytes of the total 36.9 Gigabytes of my Windows install.

While I still have enough free space, I wonder why some people can have such small Windows installations.
Obviously they don't have this folder in this size.

Anyone know why mine is so large?

Mike

 

[Saltgrass]

On my clean install system I am showing it less than 400 MB and the File Repository has 689 folders.

If you really have that much in those folders, possibly you have nested folders or some cache or archive being kept.

 

[Trouble]

Obviously they don't have this folder in this size.

That's correct Mike.
Mine is pretty consistent with what Saltgrass is reporting

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I've gone through the folders looking to see what's using all the space, most of the folders have only one of two files, using very little space.

The exception are the folders whose name start with HDX, there are a zillion of them and they each have a lot of files in them, some used over 250 megabytes just for one folder.

I believe these are all AMD drivers.

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It seems like a place that Windows looks for drivers if you add new hardware that Windows detects, and supplies a driver for.
I can get along with the space I have I'm down to about 45 Gigabytes for my total install.

I'm just curious about why this folder is so large on my computer?

In researching this I do see a lot of other people complaining about the size of their DriverStore folders.
I was looking for a way to clean this down to the basics?

I can look to see if there are duplicate files I guess, but they probably have the names slightly changed.

What would happen if I removed (I have no idea if it would let me) some of these HDX folders.
I don't have an AMD video card.

Mike

 

[Trouble]

What would happen if I removed (I have no idea if it would let me) some of these HDX folders.

Good question.
So as an experiment I decided to delete everything that the system would let me from my file repository folder (I am not recommending this, just saying).
Not an easy task but easy enough.
I had to Take Ownership of the File Repository folder and cascade that down to all subfolders and files.
Then I had to grant myself NTFS (security) permissions to that folder and cascade that down to all subfolders and files after blocking inheritance from the parent folder.
Then I just selected all folders in the FileRepository folder and deleted them. Some of which would not delete as they were being "used by another program".
Anyway, I then shut down the system "cold", give it a beat or two and then restarted, without issue.
Now instead of the previous 599 items I have 29 items remaining.

AGAIN: I am not recommending that you try this. I did this on a clean install of Windows 10 build 10130 running in a Hyper-V Virtual Machine (with a current CheckPoint) so I could afford to be semi-fearless, as it's a relatively easy recovery process.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I may try removing only the AMD drivers folders once I have a system image file created for 10130.
That should be reasonably safe.

I'll watch here for a few day let me know if you see any issues related to removing the files.

I am using Windows 10 as my real OS so I have to be a little careful.
I probably should have left it dual booting with Windows 8 but I did it this way when testing Windows 7 and Windows 8 and survived.

I'm finding it really hard to believe that we are only 6 weeks away from Windows 10 going live, I still see a lot of bugs and glitches.
When they hit the next major upgrade I'll do a clean install again, if their schedule is right then it should be close to the final build.

I keep wondering it what they are releasing to us, is really where they are at in the refinement process of the OS or they are just giving us versions that are behind where they really are?

Mike

 

[Trouble]

I've noticed that the "real" insiders at Microsoft refer to these builds as "flights" not sure exactly what they mean but I think of them like flights of stairs.
Starting in the basement where the code jockeys are kicking ass and taking names. When the outcome of that process looks useable it proceeds up to the first floor where, who knows what goes on. Maybe some more tinkering with stubborn glitches and so on and is then past along to the second floor and so on.
In the mean time the guys in the basement are busy beating up on a product that was handed back down from one of the upper levels (probably not us) and the process on the upper floors continues on until it reaches us in the fast ring. It obviously gets side tracked and rerouted occasionally, so.....

I think you're correct in that we don't actually get to see very much of what may be, being worked on. We know that 10134, 10135, and reports of 10136 are leaked builds in the wild and I would venture a guess that neither of those will be seen by we "insider" consumers in the next offering. At least not slow ringers and probably not even fast ringers.

This is a 7 day a week 24 hour a day process involving thousands of cooks stirring the pot. The management of which alone has to be daunting. I think 6 weeks is a lot of time but still, like you, my concerns are growing.