Huge amounts of HDD being used- is this right?

baby and crumble

Hey everyone, quick question from someone who is just getting used to windows machines...

I have noticed my comp getting a bit slow, so decided to do a scan using windirstat to see what was used where- this is my work machine and though primarily mine, it has been used by other people in the past.

Anyway, I have found some numbers that seemunusual to me and just wanted to check them with people who might know more...

Ok, in the 'Windows' section I am apparently using 17g, spread over folders called 'winsxs' (10.3g), 'system32' (3.6g) and 'installer' (1.3g).

In <files> I have 2 pretty big files called 'pagefile.sys' (2.2g) & hyberfil.sys (2g)

Onbviously I know that some space on my HDD will be given over to the OS and program files, but tbh these numbers seem pretty high to me- are they all right?

Thanks a million,

Zo

bonzodog2

zoegh wrote: »

Hey everyone, quick question from someone who is just getting used to windows machines...

I have noticed my comp getting a bit slow, so decided to do a scan using windirstat to see what was used where- this is my work machine and though primarily mine, it has been used by other people in the past.

Anyway, I have found some numbers that seemunusual to me and just wanted to check them with people who might know more...

Ok, in the 'Windows' section I am apparently using 17g, spread over folders called 'winsxs' (10.3g), 'system32' (3.6g) and 'installer' (1.3g).

In <files> I have 2 pretty big files called 'pagefile.sys' (2.2g) & hyberfil.sys (2g)

Onbviously I know that some space on my HDD will be given over to the OS and program files, but tbh these numbers seem pretty high to me- are they all right?

Thanks a million,

Zo

These are virtual memory paging swap file and hibernation. If you never hibernate, you can disbale it in Power Options, if you're short of space.

17GB does seem a lot for the windows folder. On mine its 1.88GB, for Xp Pro.

Are you just curious, or does the machine perform poorly? You could try a defrag, or maybe a re-install - but as you say this is a work machine, check with employer/IT Dept/etc first....

RolandIRL

is the computer running windows 7. just checked on mine and my Windows folder is 15GB, maybe vista/7 on your computer is roughly the same

Overheal

Vista also has a strange hard drive bug. keeps growing like a tumor.

baby and crumble

Well I tend to defrag every 2-3 months or so, and do a full scan every month, with the background scans going everyday...

I'm running Vista, and it doesn't perform that bad, I'm just looking to try and save some space, and I just copped the numbers and they seemed a bit excessive, really...

Overheal- when you say a bug, is it something i can get a patch for? Or is it just the joy of Vista?

Overheal

it appears to be just the joy of vista. its something i noticed - and there was nothing i thought i could do about it. If you download and run windirstat, it will just show up as a large chunk of unknown filespace that seems to grow as the OS gets older.

To solve the problem (and keep the machine lean) I just kept reformatting 2-3 times a year. Not really a solution, but it did keep the machine clean and lean.

I havent run any maintenance tools since installing vista retail a few months ago however - i really do need to look into that.