One of the national characteristics of Runet users is the tendency to allocate a small partition for the system. Today we will talk about where this tradition came from and analyze the main mistakes of this strategy. You will also learn my approach to work on each point.
For many years now I have been reading all the forum threads that discuss the modern Microsoft operating system. And I very often see people with a small system partition. Whether it's Windows XP, Vista or 7, the same picture is observed over and over again - the system is unjustifiably squeezed into tight confines.
Why is the system placed on a separate partition?
Once upon a time, back in Windows times 98, one of my friends (the same one who got me hooked on Total Commander) amazed me with his layout of the disk partitions. He proudly showed me how everything was clearly optimized for him - one partition for the bootloader, the second for the system, the third for the swap file, the fourth for programs, the fifth for movies, the sixth... He probably had about 10 of them, and all of them one physical disk!
Let not everyone reach such insanity, but in fact it has become a rule to allocate its own section for the system. And I did this, guided by simple logic: if I have to reinstall Windows, I won’t have a headache about where to put my files and documents. At the same time, the system wanted to allocate as little space as possible so that it would not be wasted.
Please note that the convention is If will have to reinstall! But this does not apply to those who know how to configure the system in order to do without reinstallations. Are you afraid that Windows 7 will crash? 
photo credit: Capture Queen™
Meanwhile, at Microsoft, taking into account the interests of business first and foremost, operating systems are designed for the use of one partition. This is due to the established strategy for managing user data and settings, which is to place the profile on the system partition.
This approach makes it easier to move and backup user profiles in the organization. As a consequence, many system functions are built on this foundation. Thus, backing up files in Windows 8 (and in Windows 7 too) is set up as quickly as possible when using libraries that contain documents, music and videos stored in the profile.
System requirements…
When it comes to system requirements, you need to clearly understand what they indicate minimum parameters that are sufficient to install and start the system. For long-term and comfortable they are not suitable for work.
Windows XP did not make serious demands on disk space - a modest figure of 1.5 GB was announced for “Gold”. This, of course, was not enough for normal operation, but a partition of 15–20 GB made it possible to freely accommodate the system and programs.
Over time, hard drives have become increasingly larger, and the price per gigabyte of space has continued to decline (the Thai floods are a temporary exception). On change Windows XP has arrived Windows Vista , which already needed 40 GB. Let's skip it, as many users have done, and go straight to Windows 7.
Here Microsoft made a knight's move and stated that the system needs at least 16 GB of disk space, although Windows 7 required no less space than the previous OS.
But at that time they just began to gain momentum solid state drives(SSD), then still small and terribly expensive. Redmond couldn't afford for the latest operating system to be incompatible with current storage technology, so it had to mislead users. You can, of course, install Windows 7 on a 16 GB partition, but this is akin to installing XP on a 1.5 GB partition.
... and user habits
And then it turned out that many users who skipped Windows Vista are trying to squeeze Windows 7 onto the same partition where XP was installed, or a similar one in size. But after installing the system, it suddenly turns out that there is very little space left on the partition!
Of course, because the size of the distribution has grown 3-4 times, from 600 MB Windows XP to 2.1 - 2.4 GB Windows 7, depending on the bit depth. But that's not so bad! Volume random access memory grew from the “luxurious” 512 MB for XP to 2-4, or even 8 GB, which immediately affected the size of the paging files (1.5 RAM volume) and hibernation files (0.75 RAM volume).
Paging and hibernation are usually dealt with quickly, but very soon they discover that there is still not enough space.
The operating system is constantly updated, increasing in size to the point of obscene size. People's anger turns to the winsxs folder, which for particularly indignant users is punished through castration (and some of the executions occur on a system that has been cut off by someone else's hands).
But this doesn’t help either! Distributions of your favorite programs have grown fat over the years from Big Macs, and after installation they eat up precious space. Office 2003 made do with a modest 400 MB of disk space, while Office 2010 requires 3 GB for itself, brazenly preserving setup files in the gigabyte folder MSOCACHE.
It would seem that in such a situation the idea arises of allocating as much space on your disk for Windows as it needs, fortunately terabyte drives allow this!
Even netbooks from one and a half to two years ago already had 320 GB disks installed. What can we say about the market of drives for desktop systems, where the “1 TB and above” segment is dominant for 7200 rpm drives (the offer of the leading American online seller newegg.com is shown)
Common mistakes and how not to make them
But for some reason, a number of users feel sorry for the space for the system, and begin to limit Windows in every possible way so that life does not seem like raspberries to it. Next I will describe typical mistakes, to which this leads greed or simply illiterate approach to work in Windows. You'll also learn how I prefer to use the system in each of these cases.
1. Disabling system protection
Error: Windows stability is reduced.
You know this is my favorite topic! My system is installed on an SSD with a capacity of 120 real gigabytes, and I don’t mind giving up 5% of the space to guarantee its stability and the ability to pull it out accidentally deleted files from shadow copies.
Reading the forum, I see many people who have deprived themselves of an alternate airfield. Don't be one of them!
2. Disable Windows Update
Error: Reduced security and reliability Windows operation.
By preventing the system from updating, you can save several gigabytes of disk space. But exactly until the next reinstallation caused by the exploitation of an unpatched vulnerability.
Believe me, this is the most convenient approach I have tried. I know it's possible:
- do not update the system and it will work, but I find this unprofessional and extremely unsafe
- download updates manually from the Microsoft website or immediately in sets from folk craftsmen, but I don’t want to waste time on this or trust this intimate process to the wrong hands
- set up notifications and install updates selectively, but I don't want to mess with that because I'll select all the required updates anyway
I spare no disk space to ensure the security and reliability of my system.
Fully automatic updating saves me time and has worked flawlessly since I first installed Windows 7!
Yes, I have seen other people have problems applying updates, but it is extremely rare that the cause is way installations.
3. Disable hibernation
Mistake: Inefficient use of your time and reduced battery life.
Failure to use hibernation does not lead to tragic consequences, but it is fraught with ineffective use of Windows.
When working from the network, my home laptop goes to sleep after half an hour, and after another hour and a half - into hibernation. When running on battery power, these modes activate even faster.
Slower Windows speed
By enabling hibernation, you will be able to start working with the system faster compared to normal startup. I note that with a very large amount of RAM, a reboot may take less time than exiting hibernation.
However, the acceleration occurs due to the fact that hibernation allows you to immediately get the system in exactly the same form as it was at the time of termination.
This means that not only are all your programs already running, but you can also resume them immediately, for example:
- document editing
- watching a movie or listening to music
- web surfing
Reducing battery life
Applying hibernation to mobile devices, you can manage power more efficiently and thereby increase battery life.
Unlike sleep, power consumption in hibernation is minimal, and the system can remain in this state for weeks.
But it's not only that. Launching the system and programs is always accompanied by a load on the processor and HDD, which results in the consumption of precious battery power.
4. Disabling the page file
Error: difficulty diagnosing during failures
With a large amount of RAM, it seems logical to completely abandon the use of a page file in favor of faster RAM. However, if your tasks require a lot of memory, it's best to let Windows breathe deeper. If necessary, the system will be able to write rarely used data to disk, freeing up memory for more important tasks.
One way or another, completely disabling the paging file makes it impossible to create a dump of memory occupied by kernel processes if a failure occurs (example | ). In other words, you will not be able to determine the driver that caused the BSOD.
Instead of disabling the page file, it is enough to reduce it, at least to the size necessary for recording dumps.
I have 8 GB of RAM, of which I rarely used more than five before. I didn’t need the 12 GB swap file recommended by the system the old fashioned way, so I set it to 200 MB for recording mini-dumps.
Now I'm already hitting the ceiling, so I created two swap files on different drives for maximum performance. Let me remind you that it makes sense to transfer AF. As for solid state drives, then if you don’t have too much memory, like I do in my netbook, the best place for the page file is on the SSD.
5. Transferring the Program Files folder to another partition
Error: meaningless action and reduced system security.
Let's start with the fact that moving the Program Files folder to another partition cannot be completely correct. This folder contains hard links that do not support communication between different sections. But I won't focus on this, since you are unlikely to run ancient Windows programs.
The meaninglessness of action
What's more important is that the transfer simply doesn't make sense. It is much more correct to keep programs on the system partition, since this simplifies backing up the system and restoring a familiar environment.
When the system is fully synchronized with the installed programs, you begin full operation immediately after restoring from the backup image.
I create incremental system images using Windows once a week. Since I have an established set of programs, the differences between them usually lie in the installed updates.
If there is no image, having programs on another partition means that after reinstalling the system you will have to reinstall many applications that require:
- registering libraries and components (example: Microsoft Office)
- installing drivers (example – Alcohol)
- association with file types and protocols (example - Opera browser, and no, manually will not be faster)
And don’t forget that you are separating programs not only from the system, but also from their data, which is stored in the %UserProfile%\AppData folder.
Reduced security
It would seem, what does this have to do with it? It's all about folder permissions! Only administrators can write to the Program Files and Program Files (x86) folders. Rights to a folder created on another partition are inherited from its root. At first glance, the Users group does not have write permission, but it is granted to the Authenticated Users group.
In practice, this means that normal permissions are sufficient to make changes to program files.
In other words, malware, having penetrated your system, can do anything with your applications, even without administrator rights.
For example, it can modify the code of executable files or replace dynamic libraries(DLL), and User Account Control will not warn you about this.
By the way, this is precisely the flaw in the security model that the browser uses Google Chrome, whose folder is located in the user profile. In this case, Google chooses, in its opinion, the lesser of two evils, since this location of the browser allows you to quietly update it without your participation and quickly close vulnerabilities.
Are you still moving the Program Files folder to another partition?
Of course, you can configure access control lists for a folder with programs located on another partition. But in reality, few people are puzzled by this. Do not bother yourself with unnecessary actions and arrange programs as standard - along with the system.
6. Inefficient use of disk capacity
Mistake: Lack of space negatively impacts productivity.
When the system is installed on hard disk (which was true for 92% of my blog readers at the time of writing), for proper defragmentation At least 15% free space is required. The less space you have allocated to the system partition, the more likely you are to pass this threshold, leading to ineffective defragmentation.
I worked for almost three years on a laptop with a 120 GB HDD, and it was not easy for me to keep 1/7 of the disk free. An external USB drive helped solve the problem.
As the proud owner of an SSD, you don't have to worry about fragmentation. But for solid-state drives the issue of free space is also relevant! And if you transfer personal files and documents to another disk partition, you simply slow down your work with them. After all, this way you lose the ability to quickly navigate through folders, as well as instantly find files and open documents.
All my personal files, with the exception of movies and the music library, are stored in a profile on the system SSD. After all, I bought it in order not only to speed up the operation of the system and programs, but also to increase my productivity.
Poll and discussion
You have seen typical errors that result from allocating too small a partition for the system or simply from a misunderstanding of how Windows works. To counter these mistakes, I have outlined my approach. Now you!
Since the survey (results lost) doesn't give the full picture (for example, the overall disk size is left out), I'm really looking forward to seeing it in the comments! Write how things are going for you:
- indicate the size of the partition with Windows 7 and the total volume of the disk on which the system is installed
- add a link to a full screen screenshot of the Disk Management snap-in (diskmgmt.msc)
- explain why you have this particular section breakdown
- admit which of the following mistakes you make (and if you don’t consider them mistakes, prove it!)
Tell us about other mistakes related to inefficient use of disk space, if you are aware of any. This will serve as a good precursor to the next entry and its discussion.
And I want to emphasize that the discussion would benefit greatly if we limited ourselves to technical aspects, without diluting them with a flame on the topic of increasing prices for discs. After all, your approach and the current situation were formed earlier!
You can mark fragments of text that interest you, which will be available via a unique link in address bar browser.
about the author
I still store the My Documents folder on another physical disk. This is really more reliable and also allows you to organize backup more flexibly. I back up documents every day, and the system partition once a week. If we take into account the large volume of both, we get a significant gain in the volume of the partition backup. Yes, and My documents can be painlessly transferred to another DSC using Windows itself.
Ivasilievich
on a two-year-old beech HDD 320 GB, divided into system C:\ 50 GB, everything else for other data, while the user profile folders my documents, images, music, videos, downloads, favorites, contacts, desktop are on another section (with data - D:\)
a9lex3
In the days of XP and an 80Gb HDD, I allocated 30 for the system. When Windows Vista arrived on my PC, the partition size was about 40.
Now on a PC with a 2*250Gb HDD, 150Gb is allocated for WDP, and on a laptop with a 320Gb HDD - 100Gb (also WDP).
Previously, I allocated about 50Gb on a PC running Windows 7, but in certain moment the size of free space reached ~200Mb and had to be increased at the expense of an adjacent partition.
freetushkan
I have WDP now, Windows along with all the files are always located on one partition. Auto-update is disabled, I regularly launch it manually, I always avoid installing anti-malware tools, because why - I don’t allow malware? I back up files only when reinstalling (if there is a stable system, then this process occurs no more than once every two years; reinstallation is often carried out by me in order to get rid of a cloud of junk - too radical and unprofessional, I know, but I’m a pathological lazy person). I don't touch hibernation with paging. Sometimes I disable UAC, at times it gets in the way terribly.. Windows lacks such a feature as in Linux, with directories placed on different partitions (there is, of course, the ability to connect a volume as an ntfs directory, but this is a crutch and is fraught..).
maxx
System partition 100GB, disk 1TB, when reinstalling Windows 7 I stupidly delete the partition and create it again, all the data is on drive D. Example - Steam, after reinstalling the system and installing Steam in the old place on drive D: it automatically picks up all the old settings and gets rid of from a lot of trouble.
The only mistake I made was disabling the swap, I lost a little, to be honest, because in those bsods that occurred, I still could not overcome the reason. By the way, some are very smart programs require a swap, and no less than a gig, which is very annoying (if memory serves, the game Warhammer dawn of war 2 is an example).
Sergey
Vadim, hello.
From your article, I didn’t quite understand whether it is necessary to place the system on a separate disk partition?
And if it’s not necessary, then if I store the system image on the main disk partition, then how can I restore the system if it crashes?
Andrey
I knew people who once created a small system partition because they installed a pirated system, which crashed with enviable frequency or simply began to glitch and slow down to such an extent that it was impossible to work. For them, reinstalling the system was a mandatory ritual several times a year, without even delving into what was wrong and whether it could somehow be fixed without reinstalling. I think there were a lot of such people at one time, so this universal tradition began of making a small system partition and storing everything else on a separate partition.
DreDa
The system is on a separate 120 GB SSD, everything else is on 2 HDDs.
Vladimir
I have a 7x86 - a working one, on which programs and other things are installed, 70GB are allocated for everything. also 7x64 - gaming, only what is needed for games is installed, located in the root of the 300GB partition for games. only 1TB screw.
Alexander
There are not so many professional users, more and more systems with store installation on the entire disk. I allocate an average of 50-60 GB to the system. This is enough for me + I don’t have licensed Windows 7 x64 Professional, I don’t need most of the updates, and I download drivers from the manufacturers’ websites, since the seven still partially has the whist disease,
the system has determined that driver updates are not required
since drivers from Microsoft are installed, which is not good. I never I don’t put toys in the system partition. Well, I don’t think it’s wise to store music, photos and videos in documents; after completely installing the system, drivers and programs, I still have about 50% of the volume free hard drive for temporary files, and the music I listen to in FLAC format takes up about 40 GB. And for drawing in Photoshop, I allocated space in another section, since processing a drawing with a resolution of 30000x40000 pixels also takes up a good chunk of the section.
Thanks everyone for the answers. I will comment on some of them. So far, no one has really admitted to making mistakes - apparently, everything is done according to science :)
Nikitin Lev, and what is the more flexible organization of backup when storing documents outside the system drive?
maxx, so you still have to rearrange Steam. Isn't it easier to keep it together with the system and make a backup image?
Sergey, and the article was not intended to answer the question of whether the system needs to be placed on a separate partition. It was about its size being too small.
We'll talk about this in future posts, but in general it's obvious that your system backup will be smaller if you don't include video and music. And backup is a must.
Andrey, that's right, this is convenient for those who regularly reinstall the system. But among my readers such people are in the minority :)
Sphinx114, my posts spark discussion, and my polls help me understand how my readers are doing.
Sphinx114(deleted comment): I voted 8 (or more) times for the option “I don’t have Windows 7,” and then I ran out of IPs: (Apparently now you need to use a proxy...
Your manipulations with the survey distort its results, thereby depriving me of a valuable opportunity to see the situation in my audience and prepare materials that interest them.
Thus, your actions, unfortunately, indicate insufficient intellectual development. I think you don’t need to read my blog, much less comment on it.
Nikitin Lev
Vadim Sterkin
The fact is that you don’t need to back up My documents twice (I have quite a lot of them). Perhaps I didn't express myself very clearly.
I use Acronis for backup. I backup the system partition exactly as a partition - once a week. Incremental backup of My Documents at the end of each working day. If you do not move My Documents to another partition, they will be backed up along with the backup copy of the system partition.
Another argument in favor of storing My documents on a different partition - I have it located on another physical disk of increased reliability (WD HDD RE series).
And finally, my system partition is located on a 120 GB SSD. It is not possible to place my documents there, and the reliability of the SSD is not yet at its best.
In general, I agree with your recommendations, except that for the reasons listed above, I think that storing documents on a separate partition on another physical disk is not a mistake at all. This solution has a number of advantages (the ability to place the system on fast SSD, do not increase the volume and time of backup, do not put all your eggs in one basket by placing the system and documents on different physical devices).
Moreover, the OS allows you to transfer My Documents to another partition using its own means while preserving all system links.
Nikitin Lev
Vadim Sterkin
But in general, you write everything correctly, I fully support it.
I don’t understand those “gurus” who advised me at one time to “be sure to split” a physical disk into several logical ones: “for the system, for games and for distributions.”
With the advent of NTFS, I completely abandoned the idea of creating more than 1 logical disk on 1 physical disk. If a physical disk dies, it doesn’t matter how many logical disks were on it. And in order for the section itself to die, it is necessary to do a series of strange experiments that I, for example, do not conduct on combat vehicles...
And I also don’t see any point in leaving less than 100-120 GB for the system.
Alexander
The laptop has a 320 GB hard drive, a 50 GB system partition, purely for the system and programs, all personal data (music, photos, videos) are stored on an external hard drive. Now I generally plan on a laptop all hard allocate the disk under the system, and store everything else on an external hard drive.
Anton
I initially made a mistake with the space, when I took the B7, the specifications said that 16 GB would be enough. I allocated 25 GB for the system and made 40 GB for backup.
Now out of 25 GB there are 6 GB of free space left. For six months I have not noticed a single jamb (well, except that the task scheduler service does not start) backups are made every week.
Now I am more careful about updates, Vin XP was enough for me when I installed all the updates automatically, and one fine day I came across an update from a craftsman, after the reboot the OS did not recover, only backup saved me.
I’ve been thinking about rebuilding the disk for a long time, but I don’t want to bother with copying again.
DreDa, I have the same thing, only one HDD - only two disks can be placed in a laptop :)
Alexander, you are wrong to think that Microsoft drivers are bad :)
In fact, the device drivers provided through WU are created by the hardware manufacturer, not Microsoft. They undergo additional compatibility tests, so they are the most reliable.
And those versions that, say, AMD rolls out on the website are often experimental and not so stable.
Nikitin Lev, your approach is clear, thank you for the detailed description of your strategy.
Nikitin Lev: I think that storing documents on a separate partition on another physical disk is not a mistake at all. This solution has a number of advantages (the ability to place the system on a fast SSD, not to increase the volume and time of backup, not to put all your eggs in one basket by placing the system and documents on different physical devices).
Technically, this is not an error, of course. But as I said in the article, access to your work files should be as fast as possible. I do not advocate storing gigabyte archives of music and films with the system. But I will keep all mine documentation and frequently used files on the SSD, along with the system.
My philosophy is that the speed of work consists not only of fast hardware, but also of the productive actions of the user.
You have the same layout as me (SSD 120 Gb + HDD). This allows me to easily keep the system and basic personal data together, which I access at the highest possible speed.
Arinoki
I have a 320GB HDD. Section one. Even if the system crashes - there is only the system and software on the disk - it is more efficient to reinstall it.
Transferring program files (and program files (x86) in the case of a 64-bit axis) really doesn’t make sense even with several hdds - I didn’t notice an increase in speed.
Oh, and I also transferred my account folder to the third screw - also no use.
system - seven.
Why I tried to transfer it - I thought that such a unix-way separation would have a significant advantage.
There were no problems with the software - I made all the links through WinPE.
Nikitin Lev
Vadim Sterkin:
My philosophy is that the speed of work consists not only of fast hardware, but also of the productive actions of the user.
Where is the loss in speed? Perhaps you have a different work scenario. I primarily work in Office, Project and Visio. Files of these formats can be opened almost instantly from the HDD (5400). I never even thought about buying a faster hard drive. The opening time is subjectively close to zero.
But, probably, you just have different working files, and they open noticeably slower from the HDD.
Hector
System partition - 50 Gb, total size 320 Gb
regarding the schedule:
WITH- system (after all, I keep the system on another partition)
D- documents and personal files
E- toys
F- video
G- before I knew about the existence virtual machines, periodically installed different Linux distributions on this partition
I seem to have avoided the mistakes listed here (or I didn’t read them carefully)
Vladimir, 70 GB is enough for the OS and programs, but you need to take into account the number and size of the installed software.
But it's not just the size of the distributions. I remember I was freeing up space on a friend’s partition, and some Nokia software was taking up 200 MB in the program folder and another > 1 GB in AppData.
Alexander, offhand, I would say that the 320 GB disk does not need to be divided. Here, Arinoki I did so. But this is a topic for another conversation :)
Anton, 25 GB is not enough for Windows 7, there are no options.
Nikitin Lev, logical drives are not needed at all, I think (but I will justify it more fundamentally in a blog post :)
Loss of speed - in navigating through folders and finding the necessary files/documents (I actively use saved searches).
Since I have a 5400 rpm HDD installed along with the SSD, I can see the difference in speed with the naked eye.
boris
On my system in currently two hard drives: 500GB and 1TB. I put the system on a 500GB disk, and the programs, naturally, go there too. I store all documents, music, films, distributions, etc. on a 1TB disk. Then in Win7 I change the location standard folders music, videos, downloads, etc. to their own folders on the second hard drive.
Horuss
For example, I have Windows 7 on a 16GB partition, but there are no programs installed that take up a lot of space, such as Office or Photoshop. Hibernation is disabled because I consider it useless on a regular computer (if I had a laptop or no beech, I would think about using it). Backup is disabled because there is no particularly important data or settings. I download updates about once a month. With all this, 4.5-4GB of free space remains on the disk at all times.
Arinoki
Vadim Sterkin,
Yes, even in comparison with the Velociraptor series hdd (I think I wrote it correctly) there will be a difference in comparison with the ssd.
I'm just upset that 256GB options are still very expensive.
Salen
I have Mac OS X Lion and FS ext journaled. I'm very glad that I left Microsoft :)
But this is my main workstation. As for the portable one, I’m completely happy with my HP laptop on Windows; I don’t need a MacBook yet (although I’m waiting for 2012 and the mega line update), and it runs win7. I allocated 50 GB to the disk - quite enough, even 13-15 free.
I store all the files on D, with features like My Documents - I don’t use them accordingly. ;)
By the way, the poppy comes already with pre-installed system, and therefore /home was not allocated to a separate logical drive (analogue - D:\), this is strange for me because I've been on Windows all my life and min. 2 log. disk - this is the rule. But no matter how much I load the poppy, I cannot kill it. Even the light blinked once - he calmly rebooted himself and, as if nothing had happened, restored all the processes that were in the same places where he left off. And Windows would be buggy for about 5 minutes until it came to its senses :(
Just like that. The article is practical. When I read about the update, I remembered a joke:
I bought a poppy. I bought a PS laptop.
Mac - customization, updating, minor embellishments - hell of a time.
Windows - settings - hell of a time; update-reboot-update-reboot-update-reboot-update-reboot…(185 more)… — scored.
:D and this dude had no place to throw away his money (he bought himself a professional x64 distribution)
I hope I didn’t offend anyone, sorry for the grammar and meaning, Monday is a harsh day :(
Novel
I have a 50GB Win7 partition on a 500GB HDD. I have a second 320GB HDD, but I have it disabled in Winows - I gave it to Linux. I connect only if I need to backup data from someone else’s PC.
Link to a full-screen screenshot of the Disk Management snap-in.
Tradition probably can’t really explain why this particular situation is happening :) And there are problems with free space and defragmentation on system disk I have never experienced it and have no plans to change its size yet. On another partition I have everything that can be connected via Win7 libraries, I also install games there and save all the garbage from the Internet. Programs and the swap file are located with the OS.
Of the listed errors, I didn’t find a single one (I was already happy for myself :)). A long time ago I strictly set the size of the paging file (but not less than 1.5 RAM) and disabled hibernation, or as it is correctly called in WinXP, I have already forgotten. Now I don’t suffer from this and I don’t recommend it to anyone.
But I especially often see people disabling system protection and updates. If I can still understand disabling the update (pirate OS are used), then disabling protection/recovery sometimes just kills...
Hector, thanks for the picture and schedule. I think I will use this point in future articles. 5 partitions for 320GB? Nu-nu :))
boris, storing the system and data on different physical disks good idea, but this does not eliminate the need to make backup copies. I would keep the OS and data together, and the second disk would be a backup.
Arinoki 256GB SSD is tempting, but I don't see the need. Depending on your needs, 90-160 GB may be enough for the OS and basic personal files. 120-odd is enough for me.
Salen, after installing Windows 7 SP1, all updates rolled out with one reboot. The joke is outdated :)
Horuss, i.e. I haven't convinced you of anything? :)
Novel, thanks for the screenshot, I'm glad that everything is error-free for you :)
microamper
System partition 80 GB, HDD 320 GB. When choosing the size of the system partition, I was guided by recommendations from various forums. IN this moment out of 80 GB, 36 are free (with games and other useless applications, did not clog the system). I update the system manually, selectively. I hardly use folders (My Documents).
baw17
Wester Digital Caviar Black 2×640GB
C: ~50GB – Raid 0
D: ~1150 — Raid 0
Caviar Green
E: ~2TB
Default paging file. memory 8GB
Anton Pleskanovsky
Good afternoon to all blog readers!
Let me start by describing the characteristics of the system:
a) System partition size: 42.6 GB. Formatted storage capacity 111 GB (Configuration: 5-year-old laptop)
b) http://s011.radikal.ru/i317/1112/c3/3255d3036a20.jpg
c) I believe that the OS, figuratively speaking, “should live its own life” and, at least, Photo and Video files should be saved on their own partition and backed up into a separate image. This is probably how it happened historically: when a 40 GB hard drive was a luxury item, and the user cluttered the system partition with games and, as a result, the system had to be reinstalled due to the fact that the space on the partition simply ran out. Since then, this stereotype has been fixed in the mind :)
And also, purely subjectively, sometimes it just infuriates me if the “service men” beat the partition like this: 40 GB for the system, 460 GB for a large dump, which a beginner can do within 3 months. Dividing into several logical drives is very often a kind of crutch, necessary at first to accustom the user to order on the hard drive :)
Although it will be very interesting to read how data should be organized so as not to create logical partitions at all.
I'll go through the mistakes:
1.Disable system protection
Previously (the year was 2004), on XP, I turned it off immediately. In the treasured “RegTweaks” folder there was a mega-tweak for “improvement”; probably everyone had such a collection at one time... I didn’t make backups regularly, sometimes with Acronis - immediately after setting up the system, and “optional” once every six months. Yes, such a strategy is fraught with a sudden and very offensive collapse, but, fortunately, nothing bad happened - I didn’t cut into the living system with a scalpel, I tried to test everything on a virtual machine first.
I only started turning it on on W7, having heard a lot about how successful and dexterous it is (yes, outsidethebox also made a significant contribution). Liked. I recommend it.
2.Disabling Windows Update
On XP, I immediately cut off the pirate one, using the same famous megatweak. Because it's a license. It was updated, however, regularly, downloading updates from the network and packaging them in SFX. Then, in 2006, I started updating directly from the site, bypassing the activation check. It was inconvenient and inefficient, since you had to do a couple of manipulations with your hands, and only then go to the site.
Now it's always on.
3.Disable hibernation
I just haven't used it before. I just turned off the computer. In addition, the power supply was strange, having experimented with hibernation a couple of times on XP, I got either a BSOD or a session loss. I abandoned it before the seven appeared on my car (2010). I consider it an extremely convenient thing - I even taught my parents how to use hibernation, now they don’t turn off their computer, but simply “hibernate” it.
4.Disable the swap file
I've never done that before. Because I remembered the rule about 1.5*RAM - and always adhered to it. True, now that the machine has 8 GB, I think it’s possible to make 2-3 GB, no more, 12 GB is a bit much for the swap file...
Addition: I also don’t see the point with one hard drive to split the disk into two or three... ten partitions, and put a swap file on any other one except the system one. I always tried to share the hard drive with the system and the swap file.
5.Moving the Program Files folder to another partition
I've never done that either. Let the system and programs work together.
6.Inefficient use of disk capabilities
I can’t say anything about SSD, I haven’t used it.
And I always remembered about the lack of space; XP needed at least 12.5% of free disk space, and I always tried to keep the degree of “clutter” no higher than 80 percent. Situations where there is 100 KB of free space on the hard drive have never applied to my machines.
I didn’t understand from the comments: “and one fine day I came across an update from a craftsman, after a reboot the OS did not recover, only backup saved me.” - this is on Windows Update did it lie straight?..
Nikitin Lev
Anton Pleskanovsky, thanks for the schedule and pictures. With such a small drive, do you create three partitions and justify this as separating the system from personal data?
Why did you decide that documents should live their own lives? We made one backup of our 120 GB on external drive and that's all. You don’t need to back up anything separately, but if you want, please use a backup Windows copy 7 allows you to archive files.
Nikitin Lev, well, that’s because you have two physical disks :) And if there was one, you would split it into two. After all, you keep documents separate from the OS.
Nikitin Lev
Vadim Sterkin: Well, that’s because you have two physical disks :) And if there was one, you would split it into two. After all, you keep documents separate from the OS.
No, I wouldn't do that today. I have one 128 GB SSD in my laptop. I don't break it, because... I don't see the point. Anyway, there is only one physical disk, and there are not many documents. Here I simply back up documents once a day to the cloud, and once every couple of weeks I back up the entire partition to an external drive.
I keep the documents on home computer separately from the OS because: 1) this way they end up on different physical disks (this is less risky, a little faster) and 2) all accumulated documents do not fit on the disk with the system. That is, it’s all about the volume of these documents and the presence of a separate physical disk. If there are few documents and you don’t care about a separate physical disk, why not keep them together with the system? Here I completely agree with you.
But if there are a lot of documents and it is possible to place them on a separate physical disk, it is correct to place them there.
Nikitin Lev
It seems to me that the discussion somehow from the initial question “should the system be kept separate from everything on the smallest possible partition” (my answer is no) was divided into several side ones:
1. Is it necessary to keep documents and the system on different partitions (my answer is if these partitions are on the same physical disk, then no).
2. Is it necessary to split one physical disk into several partitions (my answer is no).
3. Is it necessary to split one physical disk into several partitions separately for the system and documents (my answer is no).
Disabling system protection
I turn it off because I don’t think it’s perfect. There were situations when the protection did not help, although this was still in XP, since then, I’m sure it has been improved, but I never saw the functionality I needed (.
The protection cannot be finely tuned - specifying the folders, files, registry keys that need to be monitored and which not. That is, the system can perform a bunch of unnecessary actions and not do what was needed. If you are going to allocate space for backup, you need to be sure that every part of the system will be fully operational after restoration, otherwise there is no point in such “protection”. In addition, protection will not get rid of debris brought in different programs, so I make manual backups from time to time.
Swap file
...allow Windows to breathe more deeply. If necessary, the system will be able to write rarely used data to disk, freeing up memory for more important tasks...
You need exactly as much memory as you need, and if there is more of it than needed, I doubt that the system will be in a good mood and it will work faster), but in general the situation is similar with Protection. There is no way to set what can and should be kept in swap and what cannot, to determine these “more important tasks”. As a result, after exiting the game, for example, the system turns into a brake until everything it thought it needed is unloaded from the swap; nothing can be done before that, and for the screw with the swap file, difficult times come for a long random access). Another example is an opera minimized to tray with a certain lesson + 3dsmax photoshop or another program that requires a lot of resources, which also uses the screw itself often + torrent and player = a huge number of calls to the slowest device in the system, the result is corresponding, everything becomes slower that uses the screw at the same time. Therefore, I would advise turning on the swap file only if there is not enough RAM and there is no way to increase its volume.
bsod is not a normal and rare phenomenon, and if it appears systematically, then turn on the swap file for analysis, otherwise it’s like running around the room with a basin, waiting for the neighbors to flood, IMHO).
Dividing into disks and transferring system folders
I only keep the desktop folder in another place, since it contains half of the documents I work with, and nothing is stored there that would affect the operation of programs and the system. The screw is divided into 2 disks, system and everything else. The size of the system partition on a laptop is 30, on a desktop 40, this is enough for the necessary programs + a small reserve for defragmentation, etc. I put games in the second section because they weigh a lot, and you don’t need to back them up.
ki1dio
Anton Pleskanovsky
Vadim Sterkin
Why did you decide that documents should live their own lives?
The documents are located on the same partition with the system, because there are not many of them, as I already said here Nikitin Lev
We made one backup of our 120 GB to an external drive and that’s it. There is no need to backup anything separately
I agree, it’s logical and rational, I just don’t get around to buying a usb hdd, and since no critical data is saved on my laptop, I prefer a file-by-file backup. Just understand that I have never used any file catalogers on the hard drive, but used partitioning for this purpose, i.e. this is nothing more than a user experience habit act.
Vitaly I often “work” with temporary storage of a large amount large files on the desktop (more convenient/faster).
The second terabyte and the external interface are partially duplicated (the main part of the information is programs (distributions), backups, (except for video, music... well, why bother storing it “in crowds”)
In this article we will look at how to clean up the C:\ drive in the Windows 7 operating system and increase the amount of free space on it for the normal functioning of the system.
The article will consist of two parts: the first for beginners, the second for more advanced users.
So, let's go.
I repair computer equipment. And quite often they bring a computer with the problem “Not enough space on the system disk.” Due to the overload of the system disk, the following problems arise: some programs do not start, video in the browser does not load, general system slowdown, etc. This is due to the fact that many programs need space for storing temporary files, but there is simply no space on the disk . If you start to see a message that there is not enough space on the system disk, and your hand starts to move the mouse in search of the CCleaner shortcut or a similar program, then raise your second hand higher and hit yourself on the first. I categorically do not recommend using such programs, since more than once I had to restore the operation of the OS after the actions of this program.
Let's look at other ways in which we can free up free space on the system drive.
The first step is to transfer data (photos, videos, music, etc.) to the second disk. Since the “Desktop” and the “My Documents” folders are physically located on the system drive (from now on I will write the C:\ drive, since basically everyone’s system drive is “C:\”), so in order to free up space it is necessary to transfer user data to the second section. To make it easier to copy data from the desktop, go to the path C:\Users\%Username%\Desktop, select the “Table” view, filter by type. Next, press Ctrl+X or right-click “Cut”, then go to the second disk, create a folder and paste all the data into it Ctrl+V. Next, go to My Documents and transfer everything from the “My Images”, “My Videos”, “My Music” folders in the same way. Don’t forget to look in the “Downloads” or “Downloads” folders, from there we either move everything to the second disk, or, if the downloaded files are unnecessary, we simply delete them (For complete removal From the computer, select and press the key combination Shift+DEL, if you just press DEL, then the files will be deleted into the trash, which is also located on the C:\ drive. Also in the “My Documents” folder you can find many folders with the names of games - you don’t have to touch them, game saves are most often stored there and they don’t take up much space. Next, go to the “Trash” and click the “Empty Trash” button.
Step two - delete temporary files. While applications are running, they create temporary files necessary for normal operation. These files are created in the folder TEMP which is located on the path C:\Windows\Temp and should be automatically deleted when the application ends, but this does not always happen. So let's go to the folder TEMP select everything (Ctrl+A) and click Shift+DEL. If some files are necessary for the application to work at this very moment, then Windows will not allow them to be deleted. Can also be cleaned TEMP via function "Disk Cleanup", but more on that later.
Step three is clearing the browser cache. In each browser, the cache is cleared from different menu items; you can find out how to clear the cache of your browser by using Google. The most important thing when cleaning CACHE do not forget to uncheck the saved form data, cookies, saved passwords, etc. Otherwise, after clearing the cache, you will have to re-enter all passwords on the sites.
Step four - “Disk Cleanup”. To use the Disk Cleanup feature in Windows 7, go to My Computer, click right click to the desired disk, select the “Properties” menu item and click the “Disk Cleanup” button. We will see the following window.
Once the free space assessment is complete, a window will appear where you can check the boxes to mark the items you need to delete. Then click “OK” and click the “Delete files” button. We wait for it to be deleted and that’s it.
Step five - removal unnecessary programs. Go to “Start” " - "Control Panel" - item "Programs" - "Uninstall programs." The list will load installed programs. You can filter them by size and remove those that you don’t use (modern games take up especially large amounts of space).
Important: If you do not know the purpose of any programs, then it is better not to touch them or use them before deletingGoogle in order to understand what kind of program it is and whether it can be removed!
Act six- clean the temporary folder Temp V ApplicationData. The AppData folder is hidden by default. In order to see hidden folders go to “Start” " - "Control Panel" - "Small Icons" view - "Folder Options" - "View" tab - and put a marker next to the inscription "Display hidden files, folders and disks."
Then we follow the path C:\Users\%Username%\AppData\Local\Temp. Here we select all the files and folders and then click Shift+Del. Data that is currently in use cannot be deleted, so just click the “Skip” button.
These were the ways to clean up the disk for novice users; in the continuation of the article, we will look at ways to free up free space for more advanced users, although they are not very complicated.
The second part will be to turn off not everyone required functions operating room Windows systems 7, as well as in reconfiguring some parameters.
The first point is to disable hibernation.
Hibernation - mode operating system computer, saving the contents of RAM to a non-volatile storage device before shutting down. That is, in fact, this is a mode in which everything that was running on the computer from RAM is reloaded onto the HDD and after exiting hibernation we get running programs and a working operating system. To implement this function, the operating system reserves a volume on the hard disk approximately equal to the amount of RAM. Personally, I never liked this mode because exiting it was previously accompanied by malfunctions in the operating system, so I advise you to disable it (especially if you have a lot of RAM and little space on the C:\ drive). To disable hibernation, click Start - Run and write the cmd command (the command line will open). On the command line we write powercfg.exe /hibernate off. After you restart your computer, you will see free space on the system disk.
Or you can go to “Start” - “Control Panel” - “Power Options” - “Setting the power plan” - “Change power settings” - find the “Sleep” item, open it, enter the “Hibernate after” item and enter the value “0”.
Point two is transferring or disabling the paging file.
A paging file is a special disk space that is reserved by the system and, in case of insufficient RAM, is used to store temporary data. The space for the paging file is located on the C:\ drive and, if necessary, can be moved to a second drive. If you have a large amount of RAM (from 6 GB), then the page file can be completely disabled. To transfer or disable the paging file, right-click on “My Computer” – “Properties” – “Advanced system settings” – “Advanced” tab – “Performance” section – “Options” button.
Here you can change the location of the paging file, or we specify the paging file size as “0” and check the “no paging file” marker to disable it.
Step three - move the Temp folder.
To prevent the temporary folder from growing on the system drive again, you can move it to a second drive.
Point four - delete restore points.
In order to delete all restore points, go to “Start” - “Control Panel” - “System” - click “System Protection”.
Click the “Configure” button.
In the window that opens, click the “Delete” button opposite the inscription “Delete all restore points, including system settings and previous versions files".
To delete all recovery points except the last one, go to “Disk Cleanup” as in the first part of the article, go to the “Advanced” tab. Near the inscription “System Restore and Shadow Copy”, click the “Clear” button and in the window that appears, click the “Delete” button.
I also recommend checking for old copies of Windows 7. Starting with Windows Vista, it became possible to install a new operating system on the same partition as the old one. As a result, after installing the new OS on the C:\ drive root directory folders appear Windows.old. We go to this folder (or if you have several of them, then to each one in turn), transfer important information from “Documents and Settings” and from the “Desktop”, and then delete the entire folder.
It seems that these are all the main ways to clean up the C:\ drive. After completing all the steps, I was able to free up to half the capacity on the system disk. If you have any other ways, write in the comments.
Thank you all for your attention, good luck setting up your computers.
When updating the Windows operating system, installing and modifying programs, a lot of information is saved “in reserve”. As it accumulates, it takes up a lot of disk space, also slowing down the computer. To optimize the OS, you need to periodically clean up system folders and files. But this should be done carefully; careless actions can disrupt the performance of the system. We will tell you how to properly clean Windows of debris.
Windows 7 system folders that require cleaning
The Windows 7 system creates a complex structure of folders that are stored on all computer drives and are necessary for its services and the operation of user programs. Usually, Deleting system folders entirely is unacceptable. However, some of the files stored in them have already lost their relevance. To search and delete such files, special tools are used that are included in the OS or developed in addition to its capabilities. The following describes the actions that need to be performed when cleaning, mainly in relation to home basic Windows versions 7. However, in other versions, the differences consist mainly in the translation of the names of sections and system tools into Russian.
Typically, Explorer hides system folders. To see them, select “Control Panel” from the Start menu and then “Folder Options”. If you can't see the All Control Panel Items tab, change the viewing method from Categories to Large Icons or Small Icons.
On the “View” tab, in the list of additional options, check the very last item “Show hidden files, folders and drives”.
When cleaning, pay attention to the volume of folders. There is no point in wasting time cleaning small folders. To understand which folders take up the most space, download WinDirStat. Please note that this program sometimes distorts the size of folders by counting files that have hard links from different folders multiple times. This is due to the peculiarity of the file NTFS systems, in which the contents of folders are determined by links that do not necessarily point to a unique file.
Do not rush to delete information if in doubt. And be sure to provide a rollback option: before changing anything, make sure archiving is enabled. To do this, in the “Control Panel” select “System and its maintenance” (“System and Security”) or immediately “Backup and Restore”.
If archiving is not configured, click “Set up backup” and then follow the system instructions.
Unnecessary information, which it is advisable to periodically delete, is stored primarily in the following folders and files:
- Temp;
- Temporary internet files;
- Winsxs;
- System volume information;
- appdata;
- System32;
- Pagefile.sys;
- Assembly;
- Installer;
- Driverstore;
- Download;
Windows 7 has a general cleaner for most folders. To run it, open a command prompt as an administrator. This can be done by right-clicking on an empty space on the desktop while holding down Shift key and selecting “Open command window” from the menu that opens. Then type cleanmgr, press Enter, select the C: drive and wait for the cleanup tool to determine what can be deleted on it.
Pay attention to two numbers: at the top it says how much space the program can free on the selected disk (in the example, 0.99 GB), and under the window listing storage locations - how much it will free up with the choice made (903 MB). After looking through the proposals, first of all, select those places where there is the most garbage. Then press the "Clean up system files" button.
Repeat the cleaning on all computer drives.
How to clean your computer from unnecessary files and junk
Although the all-purpose cleaner described above is very convenient and quite safe, sometimes it is not enough.
Temp folders
The OS creates several Temp folders. The general is located in Windows folder, personal ones are located in the user profile in AppData->Local. If several profiles have been created on your computer, to clean each one you will have to log into the OS under the corresponding name. To avoid searching your profile for a long time, press Win+R and type %temp% in the line that opens. Don't forget that themselves Temp folders cannot be deleted!
Temp contains working files used when executing and updating programs. After the work is completed, the files are no longer needed, but are often not deleted. They can be removed manually by simply selecting all the files in the folder using the Ctrl+A buttons, right-clicking on any of them and selecting “Delete”.
It is possible that some files will not be deleted; the system will say that they are already in use. Check the "Run... for all objects" box and click "Skip".
Do this for the c:\Windows\temp folder and each personal folder.
Temporary internet files
Information from web pages is saved here to speed up your Internet experience. When you enter a site that you have already visited, the browser does not read everything that is there, but only the changes that have occurred since the previous visit. This is useful, so usually the temporary Internet files folders are not cleaned. Moreover, you can set the “Used disk space” parameter for them. If exceeded given size old information will be deleted automatically.
If you still need to clear these files, open the “Network and Internet” section in the Control Panel.
Select Internet Options (Internet Options).
On the General tab, you can set options, including the size of the Temporary internet files folder. There is also a “Delete” button to clear it.
If several profiles have been created on your computer, then there will be several folders for temporary Internet files. This operation will have to be repeated for each user using the Internet.
Winsxs
There is a storage of old ones in the Windows folder system files, changed after installing the next OS update. This is Winsxs. Not only can it not be completely removed, but it is also strictly forbidden to clean it yourself. To clean, use the cleanmgr universal cleaner described above. In the list of garbage places, find the line “Windows Update Cleanup”, check the box next to it and start cleaning.
However, there may not be such a line. The fact is that cleaning the Winsxs folder was added only in 2013 with the KB2852386 update. If it is not there, check if you have Service Pack 1. You can make sure it is available by pressing Win+PauseBreak or right-clicking on the “Computer” line in Explorer and then selecting the “Properties” line.
If you don't have it, download and install Service Pack 1. Restart your computer. Next step- installation of the update itself. It can be found. After this, a line to clear updates should appear.
System volume information
As mentioned above, when working with system folders Backup must be enabled. However, copies stored in System volume information also take up a lot of space. In addition, the folder was chosen by virus developers. If the problem is only the volume of the folder, limit the space available to it. To do this, go to the system properties - for example, by clicking Win+PauseBreak and on the “System Protection” tab, click “Configure”. In the “Disk Space Usage” section, select an acceptable folder size. Here you can delete all backups, including the last one (the “Delete” button).
An alternative option is cleanmgr, an all-in-one cleaner. It deletes all backups except the last one. Having launched it as described above, you need to go to the “Advanced” tab and select “System Restore and Shadow Copies”. Next, click the “Clear” button and in response to the following questions, confirm your desire to delete files.
Removing System volume information itself is not fatal for Windows 7, but it is not recommended to check this fact. However, you can manually delete files from it, although the developers have done everything to make this difficult. If you have not done so before, enable the “Show hidden files and folders” property, as described at the beginning of the article. Find the folder in Explorer and right-click on its name. In the menu that appears, select the last line - “Properties”. On the Security tab, click Continue.
In the list of users who have rights to the folder, you will see a single user - the system. Click on the "Add" button. To avoid guessing what name you're logged in under, click the More button and then Search.
By double-clicking on the name in the list of found users, you will add yourself to those who have rights to the folder. But you will receive minimal permissions. To expand them, highlight yourself in the list and click on the top line “ Full access" In this case, check marks will appear in all lines of the permission list. Click OK or Apply.
After this, you will have rights to all actions in this folder. But proceed carefully so as not to deprive yourself of the opportunity to restore the system in case of problems. After completing the planned work, remove the rights granted to yourself so that viruses do not take advantage of them.
Appdata
Appdata folders are located in user profiles and are designed to store settings and other personalized data used by various applications. If you installed a program, used it for a while, and then deleted it, then unnecessary configuration files will remain in this folder, possibly taking up a significant amount of space. Typically Appdata contains three subfolders.
The main one is Local, it contains the most information. The Temp and Temporary Internet Files folders, which we discussed above, are located here. Let us remind you that they can be cleaned, but not removed. It is not recommended to touch the Microsoft folder. Removing or clearing the rest will deprive you of some of the usual settings in the corresponding applications, if you still use them.
The Roaming folder contains settings of the same kind that can be transferred to another device. If you installed the application on another computer, then simply copying the corresponding folder from Roaming will partially replace the choice of settings that are familiar to you. There may also be folders corresponding to applications you don’t use; you can safely delete them.
The LocalLow folder is small and is used by several programs to store buffer data. There is no particular point in cleaning it; it will soon return to approximately the same size anyway.
System32 (DriveStory)
This folder contains a lot of important information. Drivers for devices that are no longer in use may be redundant. They are located in the DriverStory folder. Under no circumstances should you delete this folder or try to empty it manually! For this there are special utilities- standard pnputil.exe or:
If you don't know what bit capacity your system has, press Win+PauseBreak again. In the system information group, its type is indicated - 32 or 64 bits.
Before cleaning a folder using the utility, create backup copy, as described above. Next, you need to set the devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices parameter, which is necessary to display unused devices. To do this, open the system information section again (for example, using the Win+PauseBreak buttons), select “Advanced system settings” and click the “ Environment Variables" In the "Environment Variables for XXX" section (XXX is the user you are running as), click the "Create" button. Enter the parameter name devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices and its value 1.
Then go to Device Manager and disable those that you no longer need. Unused devices are marked in gray. Be careful not to disable anything you're not sure about.
After downloading from the site http://www.jaswindows.ru/ a utility that corresponds to the bit size of your system, unpack it into any folder. Go to this folder and run driver_cleanup.exe as administrator. After scanning DriverStory, the utility will indicate the volume that can be freed. On a Latin keyboard, press y to clear, or n if you don't want to clear.
Pagefile.sys file
Pagefile.sys is called the page file. Strictly speaking, this is not even a file, but disk space reserved for storing information that does not fit in random access memory (RAM). If there is not enough fast memory for all the programs and services running simultaneously on your computer, the processor transfers some of their information here and, if necessary, reads it from disk as if it were in RAM. This reduces performance, but does not cause fatal crashes due to lack of fast memory.
If the Pagefile.sys file is used very intensively, in addition to decreased performance, disk load also increases. Solid-state drives (SSDs) are especially sensitive to frequent overwriting of information. To prevent this from leading to premature hardware failure, consider increasing the amount of RAM. You can check the download by pressing the three “magic” buttons Ctrl+Alt+Delete and selecting “Launch task manager”.
Of course, you cannot clean Pagefile.sys, but you can reduce its size according to your capabilities and move it to a freer device. To do this, go to system properties and select “Advanced system settings”. Then go to the Advanced tab. In the "Performance" section there is one button "Options". By clicking on it, select the “Advanced” tab again and pay attention to the amount of allocated memory.
By clicking the "Edit" button, you will have the option to resize or transfer the file in whole or in part to another device.
Assembly
Some users have a desire to clean out the Assembly folder in Windows. Indeed, its volume can be relatively large, but you should not interfere with it. It is created and supported by the Framework. Here is his service information. The exception is subfolders of temporary Temp files and Tmp, the contents of which can be manually cleared (without deleting the folders themselves!), but their size is usually small.
Installer
Windows\Installer stores installation files of installed programs. They may be required for reinstallation and uninstallation. However, to reinstall the program it is better to download new version, and you can also remove it using non-system means, for example, Total Uninstall.
Still, you shouldn’t completely delete the contents of this folder unless absolutely necessary. A more reliable option is to move it to a freer device. To do this, it’s not enough to just copy the folder; you need to make sure that the rights on the new device match the original ones and set a soft link to the new location (for example, d:\). This is done with the command mklink /j c:\windows\installer d:\installer, which should be typed in the command line launched, as described at the beginning of the article.
Downloads (DownLoad)
These folders, located in each user's profile, contain data you downloaded from the Internet. They are clearly visible in Explorer and you can always remove from them what you no longer need or transfer to another device necessary information. A more radical solution is to transfer these folders themselves to a freer device, as described above for the Installer folder.
Deleting unnecessary information from the disk, remember that even with correct actions with system information, problems may arise in the event of random events such as a power outage, virus intervention, etc. Therefore, be sure to make a backup copy before such actions. The main purpose of cleaning is to eliminate interference with the high-performance operation of the processor, so pay attention mainly to large amounts of data. Good luck with your work!
No matter what size of drive C: you set, no matter how regularly you clean your computer of debris, sooner or later you will definitely encounter this annoying window at the bottom right: “There is not enough space on drive C...”. The reasons for this error in Windows 7 and ways to increase free space on the system disk will be discussed below.
Causes
So, there are several factors that influence the amount of free space on system drive C. The most obvious one is . However, they “eat up” much more space on the system partition. Windows applications and services that you don't even know about. This includes the browser cache, memory dump files, hibernation mode, and so on, and so on, and so on. No matter how often you perform the standard procedure disk cleanup, it will still be constantly “clogged”. Below we will try to give an exhaustive number of solutions that can significantly free up disk space.
First, let's start with the most obvious way to solve the problem - the standard disk cleanup procedure. To launch the utility, open Computer, right-click on drive C, select Properties -> Disk Cleanup.
Wait while the program calculates the possible amount of freed space. In the window that opens, check absolutely all the boxes. It will be displayed at the bottom right volume of freed space. However, the specified number will not always correspond to the actual amount of freed disk space. This happens because some programs still use temporary files in the background and deleting them is currently impossible.
Click “OK” and in a moment your system disk will be replenished with some free space. If you are not satisfied with the result, move on to the next step.
Cleaning up user files
User files— files and folders with files created by you on the system disk. What are the possible places for “garbage accumulation” on the C: drive? First of all, this Desktop.
To find out how much space files take up on your Desktop, open your Computer and go to Drive C -> Users -> [Username] and find the folder Desktop. Call its properties and see the amount of memory occupied. Ideally, the number should be in kilobytes, not megabytes or, God forbid, gigabytes. Try to make sure that they remain on the desktop LABEL ONLY the programs you need. Move music, movies and other garbage to other local drives.
The next "garbage dump" is folders "Video", "Documentation", "Images" And "Music" In chapter "Libraries" Computer window (in the left panel). Carefully check the contents of these directories and, if necessary, move files to other drives. Storing information in the specified places, in addition, can significantly slow down the system due to fragmentation files.
So, why stop there, let's make room further.
Clearing temporary files
Much more space on the system partition is occupied by files that you don’t even know about. This temporary files, created by almost all running applications. Programs for working with computers especially like to “litter” large data sets- video, audio, all kinds of archivers, etc. Take, for example, the same WinRar, which, when opened, unpacks archives into temporary directories on the C: drive.
So, there are two main folders for temporary files. They are located at the following addresses:
C:\Windows\Temp
C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Temp\
All you need is to empty these folders. The contents of the first one can be deleted in the usual way by using Computer. The second directory is usually hidden from the user, so you can get to it by manually entering the path in the Explorer address bar, or by installing the program Total Commander and turning on display of hidden/system files ( Configuration -> Settings -> Panel contents -> Show hidden/system files ). After deleting files, do not forget Empty trash.
These are the main, most obvious ways to clean up a disk. Now let's talk about additional measures that are not necessary, but with their help you can replenish your free space with gigabytes.
Disabling Windows Update
The purpose was always unclear to me Windows updates. Huge amounts of data that often have no practical use. By default, it is enabled on the computer Automatic update. This means that almost every day the amount of free space is reduced by 200-300 MB.
Due to our problem, we, of course, will not delete already installed updates, but we will free up a couple of gigabytes downloaded to the computer, but not yet installed. But first we need to disable the function automatic update. To do this we call Computer Properties(right-click on the Computer icon on the Desktop and select the appropriate item). In the Properties window go to Center Windows updates-> Setting parameters. Select from the drop-down list "Don't check for updates".
Disabling Hibernation and deleting the hiberfil.sys file
Hibernation- this is the so-called Sleep mode, a state when the contents of RAM are written to a file hiberfil.sys on the system disk, and the computer itself turns off completely. After switching on occurs reverse process and The computer starts, keeping all applications that were running open.
Depending on the amount of RAM, the hiberfil.sys file can have a different size, ranging from 1-4 GB. You can sacrifice the Hibernation feature, but you will save a lot of disk space.
To disable Hibernation and delete the hiberfil.sys file, follow these steps:
- Go to Control Panel -> Power Options -> Sleep Mode Settings;
- In the dropdown list « Put your computer into sleep mode" select « Never" and save the changes;
- Open Start, enter the word "cmd" and in the search results run Command line on behalf of the Administrator (right-click on the icon "cmd" and select "Run as Administrator")
- In the window, enter the command powercfg -h off and press ENTER.
After a reboot, there will obviously be more free space on the C: drive.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to add that it is enough effective way Clear free space on drive C: is clearing your browser cache. You can find out how to do this online, but keep in mind that after some time this garbage will appear on the disk again, so do not forget to clean it periodically.
Try to maintain order on your Computer and then you will always know what, where and how much space on your disk takes up. As always, we hope that the article was useful. We write comments, like, repost on social media. networks and share with friends!
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