[SOLVED] When counting free space and used space on ssd, i miss around 24gb

Maramsp

Distinguished
Aug 23, 2016
62
1
18,545
Hey all,

Since now ac valhalla is out, and in December cyberpunk (maybe) comes i was counting if my ssd drive has enough disk space.
The drive should be 240gb, but when i installed it years back, it immediately said it was 222gb. I can understand that, cause of specs not always correct, and that some space is used without even used by the end-user for other reasons.

But today, when i installed the new version of windows 10, i was calculating some things.

At this very moment my recycle bin is empty, and my virtual memory is set to auto adjust, but currently sits at 4gb on my c drive.

I could move this auto adjustment towards my other 64gb ssd, but im not sure if its needed after (maybe) you all helped me with my situation.,

At this moment, of the 222gb, there is 96.2gb available as of windows explorer.

But when i highlight everything on the c drive, with hidden files included, and then select properties, it says there is only 101gb of space occupied at this very moment.

But then when my maths are right, 101gb plus 96.2gb nets on 197.2gb, and then if i take 222gb and subtract 197.2gb, the answer is 24.8.

So, there is 24.8gb of space that is gone, and which i cannot find elsewhere whether its occupied or free,

So whats wrong here. Does windows also take some extra gb without letting you know it, does the ssd itself (kingston ssdnow uv400 240gb) eats some extra gb without letting me know, is the calculation by windows explorer wrong, or something else the case?

Thanks in advance for thinking with me.

Greetings from Mara
 
Solution
I wouldn't "disable" it. There are still occasions when it is needed, such as with crash dumps. Using a minimal page file, and putting it on a drive OTHER than the main one, isn't the worst idea ever when it's a concern. Normally it's really not because Windows 10 does an excellent job of managing the page file and virtual memory, but given the space considerations, it's an option. Then again, so is simply getting a drive large enough to handle the requirements of your configuration.

System restore, hibernation and the Windows update allocation take up WAY more space than the pagefile usually does. When was the last time you did a clean install? Currently, after doing a clean install and all Windows updates, the OS doesn't use up more...
Generally, some SSDs take some space for overprovisioning.


But it's probably worth doing a few things. If you use a third party utility to create Windows OS backups in case of OS corruption or failure, then you can safely turn off System restore and delete the restore points. This usually reclaims many GB of space.

Do ALL of these as well.


You may also want to find and empty the contents of the C:/Windows/Temp folder.

I also like to change the default virtual memory paging file allocation in the advanced system settings. If you have a secondary drive installed, you can change it from being on the main drive to being on the secondary drive in the paging file configuration by going to control panel (control then hit enter in any search or run box), system, advanced system settings, Advanced tab, click "Settings" next to Performance, click on the Advanced tab, click Change, then click on your C: drive and select "No paging file", click on your secondary drive and select "system managed" or whatever size you want to set it to. If you set it manually I like to set both the min and max setting to about 4096mb, which is much more than necessary for any crash dumps if needed or for supplementing the system memory so long as you have 8GB or more RAM installed. If you have less than 8GB of RAM installed, then you might want to set the paging file to 8192 or thereabouts.

msBJiGR.png



IicYctI.png
 
@USAFRet
Here it is:





@USAFRet again:
I know that it is correct that 240gb will be 222 gb, i thought that my OP made that clear, but nevermind that. Ofcourse, different reading methods can give different results.

@Darkbreeze

First of all, thank you for the 2 links. The first one gave some nice info about SSD's which I didnt knew yet.
The second one described the method I always use for disk cleanup. Maybe I should have stated that in the OP, but thats always the first thing I do if i want to make my drives as clean as possible.

Secondly, I always delete the contents of every temp folder that i know of, at least once per week, and sometimes even more. But given the method that I described in the OP, was letting me think that by just highlighting everything on the C drive in windows explorer should make every GB on the drive listed. So, with this knowledge, wether the windows temp was empty or not, that shouldnt make a difference in the reading method i used first. But hey, USAFret pointed me to windirstat. I remember using this program before, but I forgot about it.

And about the management of virtual ram, I've considered to select "none" at my c drive, and let the system auto manage the virtual ram on my second (64gb) ssd drive, but I'm not sure if thats really nescesarry, as well like I described in the OP, at this very moment only 4gb of virtual ram is eaten on the C drive, so then still i miss around 18gb.

In any case, I hope that the windirstat and the diskmanagement screencaps give you all some info.

I will write back again when I'm online again, presumably around 20-24 hours from now.

But thank you all in advance!
 
18.1GB is consumed with pagefile and hibernation. Those red spaces in the middle.
That is not seen if you simply select all on the C drive and count the numbers.
And is why I suggested moving it to a different drive. Spaced out hibernation, but since this is a desktop that should probably just be disabled anyhow.

 
@Darkbreeze
Indeed, i have 32gb ram, so maybe it is better to disable the pagefile.
Am I correct the pagefile only is asked to work if the normal ram isnt enough for things that my pc needs to handle?

@USAFRet
That actually makes sense, cause I thought that when I opened the window where I can change the pagefile, which said just 4gb, that I just could count the numbers while having selected everything. But even when I count these 18gb, I'm still missing around 4gb if my maths are right. But we get closer and closer by every post lol :)

Anyhow, for this case, and also cause I have 32gb ram, it is safe to disable the page file completely?

And to get even more space, would it be an option to move everything in c:\users\my username to a different drive? Or is it better to keep everything there on the C?
I have tried moving it once, but got some minor problems which I cant recall anymore, but because of that, I moved it back to the C drive. So all in all was that just bad luck, or is it simply better to keep the user folders on the OS drive?
 
I wouldn't "disable" it. There are still occasions when it is needed, such as with crash dumps. Using a minimal page file, and putting it on a drive OTHER than the main one, isn't the worst idea ever when it's a concern. Normally it's really not because Windows 10 does an excellent job of managing the page file and virtual memory, but given the space considerations, it's an option. Then again, so is simply getting a drive large enough to handle the requirements of your configuration.

System restore, hibernation and the Windows update allocation take up WAY more space than the pagefile usually does. When was the last time you did a clean install? Currently, after doing a clean install and all Windows updates, the OS doesn't use up more than about 30-40GB, at most, plus applications. You might simply have a lot of cruft built up and could perhaps eliminate a lot by starting fresh.
 
Solution
@Darkbreeze

Half a year ago i think. But as of today, my windows folder is just 19.2gb. And my user folders are around 20gb, but that is because I play some games that uses a lot of space in the appdata locations or documents, f.e, the sims 4 mods I have are around 14gb uncompressed and have to be paste inside my documents, and 2ksports games like the nba or wwe series uses 5gb or more each in the appdata.
Anyhow, what youve said about getting a drive large enough, that is indeed an option. When i bought this ssd years ago, games werent as big as they were now, so that was the best option, but nowadays i find myself in need of a bigger drive, especially with games like cod black ops, rdr2, etc.
So before my next big upgrade for my pc, i'm planning on first to get an 1tb ssd or maybe even m2 drive to suit my needs for the big games. By then only the c drive will be used for windows, user folders, and 1-2 games.
As for the pagefile, how much gb should i set it on, on the other ssd?