Fresh install of Win7 taking up over 100gb of storage?

[marslander]

I performed a fresh install of Windows 7 last night. After installing the OS and all my mobo drivers, bios and untilities (its an asrock z77 extreme4), together everything is ammounting to around 177gbs of storage space.

Now, I looked up what each individual item installed (the os, mobo drivers, bios, utilities, etc.) amounts to and all together it should not be any more than 50gb of storage space. So, I beg the question; what is taking up so much hard drive space?

I got a new SSD that I am trying to install. Its a Samsung 840 Evo 120gb. Thusly, seeing that my Windows 7 installation takes up over 170gbs of storage space does not bode well for my SSD. I must be missing something...

 

[rgd1101]

http://windirstat.info/

 

[SethS]

An ssd, has part of it automatically partitioned to software, typically taking about 10% of drive space. The only other thing would be, incorrect install, and the drive has to have something on it before.
Don't worry, my hdd did samething, it's just because of something limiting the acces. Try defragging the harddrive.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

There are a great many things that you can't, or don't normally see that take up additional space. The swap file, hibernation file, system restore points, the uninstall directories left behind in "C:\Windows" by Windows Updates, just to name a few.

 

[MrTuRtLe03]

http://windirstat.info/

Download this utility, it will show you exactly what is taking up space and where. After it is done scanning the larger blocks are bigger files, see what you can uncover using it first.

 

[marslander]

Thanks for all the super quick replies. I will try out this win stat utility when I got home and fill you in on the result.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

http://windirstat.info/

Download this utility, it will show you exactly what is taking up space and where. After it is done scanning the larger blocks are bigger files, see what you can uncover using it first.

It's a decent enough utility, however, it does not show absolutely everything on a drive. "System Volume Information" (where your system restore points live) for instance, is not accessible, even to an elevated account, and therefore always shows as empty. Yes, you can cheat and give yourself access to those special locations, but that can open up a can of worms best left closed.

 

[marslander]

I discovered that the HDD that I was fresh installing to had a previous (and messy) version of windows already installed on it. It was secure locked so I couldn't see it, and never booted up into the pre-installed OS, giving me no indication there was an OS taking up real estate. This HDD was also supposed to be new... that's what you gamble with ebay, I guess. Thank you all for your help.