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Any more ways to recover valuable disk space on my 32 GB mSATA ssd running Win 7?

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  • Nov 3rd, 2012 11:29 pm
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Apr 21, 2004
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Any more ways to recover valuable disk space on my 32 GB mSATA ssd running Win 7?

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/GuideToFr ... dows7.aspx

I have a laptop with a 32 GB mSATA ssd used as the boot up drive and a 320 GB hdd.

I already removed the backup files for Windows 7 SP1 and have also migrated the MSOCACHE folder (while changing the registry information to match my hdd drive letter), Firefox and Chrome Cache folders onto the hdd and had moved my download folders to the hdd.

I had hibernate and system restore disabled when first prepping the sdd. Just downloaded WinDirStat last night and this was how I found out that the MSOCACHE folder is occupying a good junk ~ 600MB.

So far, the ssd is not slowing down but I only have 3.5GB of 29.7GB free. I know it's not optimal but buying another one doesn't make sense at the moment.

I checked amazon.com for mSATA ssd prices and they are mostly still hovering around $1/GB. Because I don't intend to install a lot more enormous apps in the future (and I don't game), I don't mind waiting until prices drop further before considering an upgrade. So far I have installed almost all application on the ssd though.

The one thing I know I may have not cleaned up are the cache/backup files for the Office 2010 service pack update but I have had no luck finding the right way of moving them.

Thank you.
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Jul 4, 2011
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Have you considered RT7Lite: http://www.rt7lite.com/ ?
This removes actual components that normally cannot be removed. However this can break the system and may prevent Windows Updates from installing or prevent service pack installations altogether.

There are some safe configurations out there that minimize the breaks, but you will have to search for those.

I have used something similar, nLite for Windows XP and it worked quite well.

or you could just wait until the Christmas sales start and hope that SSDs go down in price.
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Thanks Arclite. I was about to give up on the registry edits for MSOCACHE, glad I got those 30-40 entries done. I thought there were more. LOL.

I have the 320 GB for storage use. I've got a little over two years of warranty left and might as well use it seeing how this free space has been like that for months. If I get rid of this mSATA ssd, it's very hard to recover any cost in the used market because of the size, though remarkably, I've been able to make full use of it with all but one or two apps (some mapping application and the Nexus Root Toolkit) installed there.

Sometimes I wish I need more space, then I can just jettison the hdd and get a ssd. I had even installed my Intel 520's on older devices since I've got this thinkpad running on mSATA ssd.
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alanbrenton wrote: Thanks Arclite. I was about to give up on the registry edits for MSOCACHE, glad I got those 30-40 entries done. I thought there were more. LOL.

I have the 320 GB for storage use. I've got a little over two years of warranty left and might as well use it seeing how this free space has been like that for months. If I get rid of this mSATA ssd, it's very hard to recover any cost in the used market because of the size, though remarkably, I've been able to make full use of it with all but one or two apps (some mapping application and the Nexus Root Toolkit) installed there.

Sometimes I wish I need more space, then I can just jettison the hdd and get a ssd. I had even installed my Intel 520's on older devices since I've got this thinkpad running on mSATA ssd.
Can't you find any use for the mSATA SSD? If I had ever run out of space and had 2 SSDs I would put one SSD in an eSata enclosure and run my games off of that. I wouldn't end up wasting one by having it lying around. You could also use it as a large USB flash drive, just put it in an enclosure.
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Nov 19, 2010
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What about the pagefile? (Assuming you have enough RAM)
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wilsonlam97 wrote: What about the pagefile? (Assuming you have enough RAM)
4 GB right now and I have 4 GB RAM. In the event that I am about to run out of space, can I set the pagefile.sys to say 2 GB?

I don't run memory intensive apps on this computer and don't game so I always good with 4 GB RAM.
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alanbrenton wrote: 4 GB right now and I have 4 GB RAM. In the event that I am about to run out of space, can I set the pagefile.sys to say 2 GB?

I don't run memory intensive apps on this computer and don't game so I always good with 4 GB RAM.
Yeah set it to 2GB and reboot. Your only hope may be to format the SSD and reinstall windows to save on space. There seems to be something there that you can't find. I know that on my windows 7 drive on my other computer only takes up about 15GB (the HDD is only 40GB).
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wilsonlam97 wrote: Yeah set it to 2GB and reboot. Your only hope may be to format the SSD and reinstall windows to save on space. There seems to be something there that you can't find. I know that on my windows 7 drive on my other computer only takes up about 15GB (the HDD is only 40GB).
Yes, it was 12-15 GB on a clean install. I have a few applications installed for sure but would be pointless to run off the hdd and even the Google folder under Program Files was bloated to 600 MB.

Thanks for the tip Wilson. I forgot about the pagefile completely.
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Jan 17, 2003
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Delete your hibernation file.
Turn off hibernation in your Power settings under Control Panel.
Go to dos prompt in admin mode (right click, run as admin)
Type in
Powercfg -h off
Should gain back 6-8gb I think.

Go To explorer.
Tools, Internet Explorer Options, General Tab
Under Browsing History, go to settings.
Lower Diskspace use to 8mb and check every time I visit the webpage.
now to got Advanced Tab
Look for Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when Browser is closed, make sure that is checked.

Like the poster above stated, you can try to run with a 2gb page file. I've succeeded in running Windows with No Pagefile with 4gb. If no Pagefile doesn't work, you can always increase.

I also do not use the Windows Restore Options, as I have an Acronis backup to original state if I ever run into that problem (never have).
Control panel
Systems, Advanced Systems Settings, System Protection, Configure

Delete the current restore point, reduce the disk usage space down to 0, then disable restore.
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Thanks r1lee. I've done most of that except to clear browser cache but I remember moving them to the hdd. I'll do that for IE but I rarely use it, hehe. I followed many of flamenko's advice but skipped a few that are controversial.

Me too. I used Acronis and made images at various stages. I also set restore off. Goodness gracious, if I didn't do all that, I would be banging my head against the wall as I would have run out of storage space sooner.
r1lee wrote: Delete your hibernation file.
Turn off hibernation in your Power settings under Control Panel.
Go to dos prompt in admin mode (right click, run as admin)
Type in
Powercfg -h off
Should gain back 6-8gb I think.

Go To explorer.
Tools, Internet Explorer Options, General Tab
Under Browsing History, go to settings.
Lower Diskspace use to 8mb and check every time I visit the webpage.
now to got Advanced Tab
Look for Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when Browser is closed, make sure that is checked.

Like the poster above stated, you can try to run with a 2gb page file. I've succeeded in running Windows with No Pagefile with 4gb. If no Pagefile doesn't work, you can always increase.

I also do not use the Windows Restore Options, as I have an Acronis backup to original state if I ever run into that problem (never have).
Control panel
Systems, Advanced Systems Settings, System Protection, Configure

Delete the current restore point, reduce the disk usage space down to 0, then disable restore.
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Jan 17, 2003
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cool, well here are my last advice, but you won't get much back.

Empty Recycle bin? lol

right click on my computer, C drive.
right click, properties. Disk Cleanup

Go into control Panel, Programs. Now go through all the software that you no longer use.
On the left side, while still under Programs and Features.
Click on Turn Windows Features on or off.
If you don't use IE, then you can turn it off or any other programs there. Like I remove Media center.

Control Panel
Systems - Advanced systems settings - Advanced - Start and Recovery - Settings - Write Debugging Information (should say memory dump, use None)



That's all I have. Good job on getting almost everything.
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alanbrenton wrote: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/GuideToFr ... dows7.aspx

I have a laptop with a 32 GB mSATA ssd used as the boot up drive and a 320 GB hdd.

I already removed the backup files for Windows 7 SP1 and have also migrated the MSOCACHE folder (while changing the registry information to match my hdd drive letter), Firefox and Chrome Cache folders onto the hdd and had moved my download folders to the hdd.

I had hibernate and system restore disabled when first prepping the sdd. Just downloaded WinDirStat last night and this was how I found out that the MSOCACHE folder is occupying a good junk ~ 600MB.

So far, the ssd is not slowing down but I only have 3.5GB of 29.7GB free. I know it's not optimal but buying another one doesn't make sense at the moment.

I checked amazon.com for mSATA ssd prices and they are mostly still hovering around $1/GB. Because I don't intend to install a lot more enormous apps in the future (and I don't game), I don't mind waiting until prices drop further before considering an upgrade. So far I have installed almost all application on the ssd though.

The one thing I know I may have not cleaned up are the cache/backup files for the Office 2010 service pack update but I have had no luck finding the right way of moving them.

Thank you.
Go control panel -> programs and features -> on the right side turn windows features on/off. Turn off any features you don't use. Examples, windows media player, Internet explorer.

Also for MS office uninstall the apps you don't use for examples published, access, onenote.

I used a 40GB SSD as my only drive in a laptop for two years and had about 35GB full for those two years. You can do it!
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What sort of laptop is it? Perhaps it supports SRT and you can run the mSATA as a cache drive with the guts of the OS on the HDD?

Performance isn't bad.
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HandsomeRob wrote: What sort of laptop is it? Perhaps it supports SRT and you can run the mSATA as a cache drive with the guts of the OS on the HDD?

Performance isn't bad.
It's a thinkpad x220 Rob.
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In XP you can compress your volume, it is transparent and everything looks and acts like a normal uncompressed volume, I am sure win7 has something similar.
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toalan wrote: In XP you can compress your volume, it is transparent and everything looks and acts like a normal uncompressed volume, I am sure win7 has something similar.
Thanks -- disabled all those features I didn't need and I'm still left with 3.65 GB. Definitely didn't make much of a difference.

I think I will survive just awkward to see I only have that much room.

Compression does make sense and I will look into it further.
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HandsomeRob wrote: QM67 supports SRT if you want to give it a try, don't think it can be done without re-installing though.

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ ... video.html

I had it for about a week, 5400 HDD + 32 Gb mSATA SSD, performance was better than desktop 7200 rpm drive, supposed to get better with time.
Yeah, I've had this setup since around February, still doing okay. Just read that for many ssd's, it's best not to use up the entire capacity but it seems I've got no choice. By the time I will need more storage space, hopefully we are talking $0.30/GB :) I've only been buying 32-80 GB ssd's as we typically don't need too much space. We keep many other stuff on our HTPC/microserver.

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