Windows 7 What ARE all these files on my system drive?

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dkperez

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My system drive is 63GB - yes GB... All that's on there is Windows 7 64-bit, and my applications. Data is elsewhere, cache files are elsewhere.....

At this moment there's 420KB free on the drive...

So, I started looking for what honking big bunch of garbage is eating this thing. Searching just for files larger than 10MB. There's most likely some other stuff going on, but the first thing I found was a LOT of files in a couple places... Can I delete any of these without causing problems?

c:\Windows\Installer\ has A LOT of files. With useful names like 68b8p.msp, which is 335MB by itself. There are 300 files in here, and it's taking better than 5GB... Anything in here I can delete? How about what's in the $PatchCache$ directory tree?
 
Solution
R
..Windows\Installer contains information after most of the software installations on your computer. This information is needed, in most cases, for uninstalling. You can delete the entire contents, but will run into difficulties when, and if, you need later to uninstall something. You may find you need to take ownership of the folder/Files first. Simplest way to do that is with the reg fix. This will give you a right click option to "Take Ownership" I have attached the file.
The hibernate file will expand to the amount of ram you have present. You cannot get rid of this, unless you turn off the hibernation feature. If you want to do this, it is quite simple. You can always turn it on again if you are unhappy with the situation.

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I wouldn't normally recommend a program in this kind of situation, but download CCleaner - Optimization and Cleaning - Free Download and give it a whirl. Check the appropriate categories and click "Start" (Or something to that extent).
See how much free space that gives you.
Also, you may want to consider turning OFF system restore or making less reserved space for Restore Point Creation.
Post back
 
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CCleaner bought me about a Gig......

It appears my BIGGEST users on the system drive are

pagefile.sys - about 7 gig
hiberfil.sys - about 5 gig
windows/winsxs - almost 7 gig
windows/Installer - almost 5 gig

After that things drop off to around a gig..... I can't do much about pagefile, but
this system is never allowed to hibernate. Not sure why it keeps creating the file.

The biggest bunch of files, though, is in the two windows directories. Anything I can do to get back 10 or 12 GB from those?
 
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You can change the page file size. Open start, and type "edit the sys" and click "Edit the System Environment variables"

Under performance, select "Settings">>Advanced>>"Virutal Memory>>Change.
Here you can set your own custom sizes. It's recommended to have a page file about 3/4 of your amount of system RAM, assuming you've got over 1 GB.

Is the hard drive supposed to be 63 GB? Perhaps it was once larger but got partitioned?
 
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Go into system restore and check the space allocated for that. Is this a clean install or upgrade? If it is an up grade there may be old files left behind.
Joe
 
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Actually System Restore is OFF... Zero bytes.....

And it's a clean install. Completely cleared the system and did a new installation.
 
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Did you try looking for hidden files and partitions? It acts like something got left behind in the install. Go into control panel, administrative tools, computer management, disk management. And see if there are any unnamed partitions showing. Unless you loaded on a big bunch of audio and video!
Joe
 
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If you don't use hibernation as an power saving feature you can get rid of the hiberfil.sys file, If you have plenty of ram you don't need a huge pagefile.sys reduce it's size windows likes to recomend 2.5x the amount of ram as the pagefile size max and thats simply wrong i have 4GB ram but my PF is only half that works alright for me so far..
don't touch the winsxs folder unless your sure you'll never need whats in there, mostly backed up system files from updates but also it's the place windows looks for hardware drivers first befor going to windows update or the install disk ....
Windows/installer folder contains files used in the installation process of programs and updates cryptic names don't help but every update and every program you install will usually place some files in here and all i can say is at 5GB you must have a heck of a lot installed as mine is only 756MB
 
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use the Windows DiskCleanup tool and check deleting old windows files - it will help you!
 
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I don't think I have a lot installed here, but this machine is heavily used for image processing, which is why the page file is large. I routinely use anywhere from 6GB to 10GB when I have Bridge, Lightroom, and Photoshop running.

I'm also a database designer so I've got SQL Server installed as well as XAMPP for php, MySQL, and so on...

Those, and Office 2007 are the major software.... What I've noticed in the installation and patch folders are a LOT of copies of all the Office programs, in some cases a dozen. It appears that Windows 7 is still doing a lot of updates and Office is getting hit regularly.

I have no hidden partitions or unnamed partitions on this drive, and the system is configured to show the hidden and system files...

I've clearly done SOMETHING that's caused a huge lump of space to get used, but I suspect it's been a process over time. I'm just going to have to keep looking 'cause
something is going on.
 
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There's no option to "Cleanup System Files" in the disk cleanup. And YES, I'm an administrator and I've run it as an administrator.
 
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..Windows\Installer contains information after most of the software installations on your computer. This information is needed, in most cases, for uninstalling. You can delete the entire contents, but will run into difficulties when, and if, you need later to uninstall something. You may find you need to take ownership of the folder/Files first. Simplest way to do that is with the reg fix. This will give you a right click option to "Take Ownership" I have attached the file.
The hibernate file will expand to the amount of ram you have present. You cannot get rid of this, unless you turn off the hibernation feature. If you want to do this, it is quite simple. You can always turn it on again if you are unhappy with the situation.

To Disable Hibernate -
In the elevated command prompt, (Command Prompt - run as Admin) type
powercfg -h off and press Enter.
Close the elevated command prompt.

and to turn it on again:
Elevated Command Prompt.
In the elevated command prompt, type powercfg -h on and press Enter.
Set your Power Plan settings to the correct settings for ON/OFF Hibernate
 
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Solution
Then they're apparently gone..... It appears some 60+ GB is actually being used by the O/S and a dozen or so applications. Interesting. W7 appears to be a new high in bloat.

Probably be easier to give the system partition another 20GB or so than to continue wasting time trying to clean up the massive amount of redundant files sitting out there from updates and such.
 
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I thought your first post said the HD was 63 G. If it's partitioned just increase OS partition to 100G. With all the video editing programs they are probably creating their own swap files.
Joe
 
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Just to clarify. 32Bit Ultimate (The largest of the team) needs 16Gbs for it's software. 64Bit needs 20Gbs.
The space you need for your own anticipated software is your decision.
 
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Yes, I'm aware that applications use some space.

BTW: Cache files, swap files, temp files, and all that are going on a completely different spindle. The 250GB drive the O/S is on, is the small drive... The other 6 drives in the box are all 1TB drives.

My question was, and continues to be, not concerned about user files, application files, or any of that. It's just about what, if any, files and/or folders can be deleted from

windows/winxsx which is using just under 7GB
windows/installer which is using almost 5GB

and so on...

Windows may ONLY use 16GB total, but I've got four windows directories that
are using almost 20GB by THEMSELVES.....
 
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