Vista 64-bit: OS disk full(!), any tips on cleanup?

[tigerstyle]

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/reduce-system-restores-disk-usage-in-vista/

I did this on a laptop and regaind 17gig, but it sounds like you've already fixed system restore up

 

[CaptainCrash]

Thanks all (well, most of you ), a combination of those helpful tips has yielded an additional 1.2GB

It's not really a spectacular improvement though... did you run one of the disk usage utilities mentioned above to find out what's eating the space?

BTW, assuming you installed SP2 at some point, have you tried running compcln.exe (from an elevated command prompt)?

 

[Sin_Chase]

sxs strikes again... I bet that folder takes up at least 20GB of your HDD...

stupid thing! (Sorry nothing productive to say)

I spent a long time researching winsxs out of curiosity and the OS mis-reports it's size because it contains A LOT of hardlinks to 'real' files elsewhere.

Yes it does use some space, but not as much as Windows reports!

 

[CaptainCrash]

I spent a long time researching winsxs out of curiosity and the OS mis-reports it's size because it contains A LOT of hardlinks to 'real' files elsewhere.

Yes it does use some space, but not as much as Windows reports!

That was originally my understanding, but it might not be that simple... even Microsoft's own people can't seem to agree on exactly what's in the WinSxS folder. This guy says that it's mainly hard links to files physically situated elsewhere, whereas this one says that WinSxS actually contains the canonical data, which is referenced by hard links elsewhere.

My own feeling is that the second explanation is more likely to be the correct one, and that WinSxS does actually contain (at least mostly) real data - I downloaded this, which measures the "true" size of a folder, and got this result for my WinSxS folder (notice that it's a German app, and therefore doubtlessly frighteningly efficient):

C:\Windows\winsxs>ctts

ctTrueSize v1.1 - Zeigt die wahre Größe von Ordnern an.
Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 c't Magazin für Computertechnik
Geschrieben von Hajo Schulz (hos)


Brutto:
42909 Dateien, 10620 Ordner
6.40 GB (6.876.719.549 Bytes)
Hardlinks:
788 Dateien
111 MB (116.500.940 Bytes)
Total:
42121 Dateien, 10620 Ordner
6.29 GB (6.760.218.609 Bytes)
Inklusive Cluster-Verschnitt: 6.37 GB (6.845.493.248 Bytes)

The "Brutto" (gross) amount is the same as reported in Explorer, but of that total only 111 MB is represented by hard links to other files, leaving 6.29 GB of "real" data.

It's my main working PC, which I've tried to keep uncluttered with unnecessary software installs, maybe a system with different usage patterns would show different results.

Either way, there doesn't seem to be much you can do to shrink WinSxS without the risk of breaking things, so it's mostly of academic interest I suppose.

 

[gizmoy2k]

Do you need me to PM you my PayPal address so you can send me the money for the license?

Upgrade version can be had for £19-39 if you shop around, clear the space sure but youll be doing it again in 4 weeks time,
Vista is a real skid mark on microsoft

Its amazing how many laptops and pcs ive fixed that had vista running on them like a dog, With windows 7 most are reborn into something useable

 

[Blair]

Does the upgrade actually completely wipe out all prior existence of Vista?

I've always been a bit circumspect about it, but if it really does kill it off once and for all then it sounds more attractive...

TBH I've never done an OS upgrade - does it manage to maintain all existing programs, shortcuts etc. or does it totally wipe everything out and you have to reinstall all apps?

And no CaptainCrash it's not spectacular, I haven't run one of the analysis tools mentioned yet but had already cleaned out a lot of junk with CCleaner and TuneUp, although the biggest problem is that Vista just bloats to occupy all available space - every time I clean it up, it just ends up eating up the space again. It's really annoying. And it's not as if I have any progs or data on that drive either.

 

[CaptainCrash]

I haven't run one of the analysis tools mentioned yet but had already cleaned out a lot of junk with CCleaner and TuneUp, although the biggest problem is that Vista just bloats to occupy all available space - every time I clean it up, it just ends up eating up the space again. It's really annoying. And it's not as if I have any progs or data on that drive either.

Well, there's no denying that Vista bloats over time, but even so, just shy of 60GB seems excessive, at least if you're actively taking steps to reign it in.

I've just got a suspicion there might be something else going on, which would result in a facepalm moment... if you install an app which gives you a treemap view of the drive, you should be able to spot anything unusual quite quickly. Worth a shot, anyway, if only to rule out the possibility.

 

[Blair]

I'll give it a go... 60GB is nuts just for an OS...!

 

[Amp34]

I spent a long time researching winsxs out of curiosity and the OS mis-reports it's size because it contains A LOT of hardlinks to 'real' files elsewhere.

Yes it does use some space, but not as much as Windows reports!

I'm a little confused now then because when I add up all the folder sizes and other things like system restore it comes about right IIRC. I may download that filesystem thing and see what that says.