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I have a new Windows 10 PC with a small SSD and a large standard hard drive. I had the OS installed on the SSD since I've seen so many articles about that making your computer a ton faster.

Now months later I'm having issues with the space on my C:\ drive (the SSD) being full. I'm mitigating what I can with uninstalling / reinstalling programs onto the larger drive and I have managed to find ways to change a small few system folders (Downloads, Documents->Pictures, Documents->Videos) to the other drive by default, but I fear that this is just delaying the inevitable as system files pile up.

What are my options to mitigate the memory load?

More specifically, what options do I have in Windows to have nearly everything non-essential exist on my secondary drive without heavily impacting daily operation?

Ethan The Brave
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  • It appears you have already done what you can do. It sounds like you simply need a larger SSD. – Ramhound Aug 17 '17 at 14:42
  • Have you moved your TEMP folder to the spinning drive? And possibly browser storage as well? – Steve Rindsberg Aug 17 '17 at 14:44
  • @Ramhound Please don't tell me that! ;_; – Ethan The Brave Aug 17 '17 at 14:45
  • @SteveRindsberg I have not. If you have resources for doing that I'd appreciate it. I always fear I'm going to break everything unless I know *exactly* what I'm doing. – Ethan The Brave Aug 17 '17 at 14:46
  • How big is your SSD? – DaveM Aug 17 '17 at 14:57
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    Aw geez, Ethan, you're gonna make me fire up the Win10 box, huh? ;-) OK, first create a TEMP folder on the spinning drive, then Control Panel | System | Advanced System Settings | Advanced tab | Environment Variables. Doubleclick TEMP and change the path to the new TEMP folder; do the same for TMP. OK your way out. Browser settings will be browser-dependent; google should help with that. You might also check the System Protection tab first; you can cut back on the amount of space allocated to restore points. Ah, and teach your browser to download stuff to the spinner rather than the SSD. – Steve Rindsberg Aug 17 '17 at 15:00

2 Answers2

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You are on the right trail:

  • Change the path of the User's folders (Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Videos,...) to point to directories on the larger drive,
    • If you tend to use other folders on your SSD for your documents, pictures, ..., relocate them to the larger drive, too.
  • Install as many programmes as you can on the larger drive.
    • Also check that Windows Store Apps (if you have some) are installed on the larger drive (Settings Menu -> System -> Storage -> Save Locations).
  • Take a tool such as WinDirStat and see which folder(s) and files are taking up the most space. Best case scenario: C:\Windows, C:\ProgramData and C:\Users\<USER>\AppData are among the top.
  • If you can live without them, disable hibernation, fast startup and hybrid standby, so your hiberfil.sys will become smaller.
  • Run cleanmgr.exe and clean up your SSD - you can usually delete all (System-)Files without anything going wrong, though I have seen some (very old) programs rely on TEMP, so they might "forget" some settings afterwards (so no personal files should get deleted, anyway).
  • You could reduce the size of your pagefile, though I would not recommend it as the pagefile is there for a reason.
  • Also, you can uninstall Windows features - though this is a desperate measure, as I don't think that you can free more than a few MiB with that.

Except from that, I don't think that one can do much to reduce Windows's desire for space (except, of course, Steve's suggestion to move TEMP away from the SSD)

flolilo
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You have to check if your Apps or programs are not stocking too much data on your C:.

I don't know programs you use but they store data where they are installed, same for Apps coming from the Windows Store. Consider to change the location of some programs you don't use everydays.

Hope it will help

Florent Burton
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