How to minimise my Vista Ultimate 64bit installation size?

D

Doomlord

Member
Hi, apologies in advance - I'm sure this has been discussed before but a quick search didn't turn up any similar threads... feel free to just reply with a useful link! ;)

I'm just doing a new install of MS Vista Ultimate 64bit on a 128GB Samsung ssd. I have a 1.5TB hdd to use for bulk storage and games, and an external 1.5TB drive in a caddy too - so storage space is not an issue.

However, even before WIndows Update has finished it's most recent bout, my install is running at a staggering 30.6GBs!!! :o All I've installed so far is Windows itself, all the hardware drivers and Firefox + a few plugins. And WU is still downloading stuff as I type this...

What I'd like to know is what I can do to shrink this massive install size down a bit... I have turned off System Restore but haven't restarted yet (WU is taking *hours* at the moment, literally...). Will leaving this off help? Do I also have to manually delete the backup/restore file image too?

There is another biggish file called hiberfil.sys iirc. That is for when I put the PC into hibernation - I don't usually ever do that. Can I delete this and/or turn off the hibernate function safely? Again, do I have to manually remove the actual file/folder or will Windows do that (on restart, perhaps)?

Supposedly there is/are folder(s) with tons of excess drivers that MS included with Vista but which I don't need - how big is this and can it be safely deleted?

Likewise, what happens to all the update files that Windows Update will pull down off the net all the time? Does MS clean up after itself or can I find and remove those (that aren't needed)?

Anything else I can do that people recommend?
 

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OK, slight update... I found a windows(old) folder! So that got deleted. From a past failed install, could have sworn I'd installed to a clean, freshly formatted drive - but I guess not. Anyway that is about 5GBs that's now gone... So, 'just' 26GBs currently (but still increasing...)

I can't tell if turning off System Restore made a difference though.
 

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Don't know if V-Lite works with Vista 64Bit.
Something is not right with your system though
I would use a Linux or Ubuntu live disc to remove any files and program installation files I needed and reformat,with a fresh install.
Looks like your system is getting a bit messy and that could lead to problems later.
 

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  • Manufacturer/Model
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    Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo P8700 @ 2.53GHz
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    LENOVO 64734VM
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    1x 180GB Intel 530 series SSD
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    1 x 650GB Western Digital Elements 5400rpm
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    Medium for New Zealand
    Other Info
    Weakest part of my computer is the graphics chipset.
    Only ever used a laptop.
    Also use USB Freeview TV Card
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    Other bits a pieces as needed
Not sure why I'd use a live disc to remove files and then reformat and reinstall anyway? Also, I don't want to remove functionality per se, so I'm not sure V-lite is the answer anyway...

I agree there is something not right - probably the way Vista reports disk usage :p

Just finished installing Service Pack 2 - yay - now I can install Live Essentials at last... However, at this point the install is 37.5GBs! :o There's NO WAY, of course, that I've actually downloaded that much data, nor was there that much on the original disc, of course, or the mobo driver CD....

Anyway, about to run 'disc cleanup' and it reports that one of the items I can clear up is "Hibernation File Cleaner - 3.99GB" - that's a good start. Down to 33.6GBs...

On the second tab are two more options: Cleanup for 'Programs and Features' and Cleanup for 'System Restore and Shadow Copies'. Looking at the top one first - it's just a list of installed drivers/software, so nothing that shouldn't be there; oh well. For the second clean up option, it just asks if you are sure you want to delete all but the most recent restore point, including any shadow copies and backups. I said yes. This made no difference...

Incidentally, winsxs has grown to 19.9GBs on disk! :o :o And we're not supposed to touch that... ****ing hell, Microsoft!!

Anyway, there you go MS Vista Ultimate 64bit + SP1 + SP2 + drivers + Firefox + Adobe plugins = 33.6GBs.....................
 

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After you install SP2 tyhere is a clean up tool you can use.
In an elevated command prompt type
Compcln.exe
Y to confirm.

The live cd was so you could boot into Linux and access your Windows files like they were any other file to save them to another drive.
 

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System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo Thinkpad T400
    CPU
    Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo P8700 @ 2.53GHz
    Motherboard
    LENOVO 64734VM
    Memory
    2.00GB Single-Channel DDR3 @ 531MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Mobile Intel 4 Series Express Chipset Family
    Sound Card
    Conexant 20561 SmartAudio HD
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15 inch
    Screen Resolution
    1280 x 800
    Hard Drives
    1x 180GB Intel 530 series SSD
    1 x 120GB Hitachi 5400rmp
    1 x 650GB Western Digital Elements 5400rpm
    1x 1Tb Western Digital Elements 5400rpm
    Internet Speed
    Medium for New Zealand
    Other Info
    Weakest part of my computer is the graphics chipset.
    Only ever used a laptop.
    Also use USB Freeview TV Card
    Lenovo Docking Station
    External Speakers
    Other bits a pieces as needed
Here's another thread about how "Vista is eating up my hard drive space" that may help you understand and perhaps may even help: Hard Drive space disappearing! Help me please - Tech Support Forum.

The following may also help explain and cleanup: How to Fix Shrinking Disk Space in Vista » My Digital Life.

Download the free TreeSize https://www.jam-software.de/customers/downloadTrial.php?article_no=80&language=EN& which will give you a much clearer of where all your disk space is going. Then perhaps you'll better be able to analyze the problem and see what's taking up the most space. If you find any that you want to know more about, just post back.

Remember, installations take up more space than when finalized and temporary files have been removed. That's almost always the case.

There is nothing you can do about winsxs - if you touch that folder, you will almost certainly hose your entire system. That one is most definitely off limits - as are anything in any other junction points.

Here's my little blurb on improving space and speed that I include for everyone with such problems (I include speed also for you because you don't want to cripple your system in your quest for more space) in Vista systems (and it also suggests other things of value that you can consider or ignore - the choice is entirely yours). All of this is your choice, actually - I'm just presenting some options that may help and that have helped many others (and that I pretty much use myself though sometimes I do procrastinate I'm sad to admit and there are some things I won't do no matter how beneficial - for example, I refuse to delete my cookies (but that's a personal choice as I prefer the benefits of having them when going to previously-visited web sites over the limited amount of space recovered and speed gained given their small size)). Much of this should be part of normal maintenance, but that includes some other things (like creating periodic system restore points - probably at least weekly as they don't necessarily improve speed, space or performance and may in fact even do the opposite in some cases) not addressed here.

One very important thing to begin – do NOT use any Registry Cleaner or Registry Booster or Enhancer, or Repairer or Fixer software (or whatever it calls itself) no matter what it says (scans will tell you have thousands of errors just to get you to download and install the program or worse, buy it) or where you got it (even safe sites sell these products but they are not worth the headaches they can cause). Most do nothing of value and some can do great harm (to the point where you need to do a clean install to fix the problem – and that’s not even counting the fact that many such programs are actually malware in disguise). Vista keeps the registry clean on its own quite well and doesn’t need any help.

To improve your speed and space, do Disk Cleanup using: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76073-disk-cleanup.html. Delete as much as you feel comfortable doing – nothing deleted there will harm your system in any way. This includes deleting the Temporary Internet Files. If you want to keep this from building, go to Tools / Internet Options / Advanced and check the box Empty Temporary Internet Files Folder whenever browser is closed and then that folder will always stay empty (except when you're using the program).

Also do an Optimization: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Optimize-Windows-Vista-for-better-performance. Do all of the options (or at the very least, consider them - many can help a great deal).

At least once every 2 months or so, run CCleaner http://www.piriform.com/ with as many options as you choose to delete (but be careful because this program if not used properly and with caution and with you paying attention to what you are doing can delete important and even critical files that could cause a great deal of trouble - so don't go overboard and just cleanup what you should and nothing extra).

System Restore can take up to 15% of your partition's space but that can be reduced. It's a trade-off. The less space you allocate, the fewer restore points you will be able to retain - but many people reduce this to save some space while leaving enough to save 3-4 restore points at least (which is usually enough - until you need them). Here's the procedure: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76227-system-restore-disk-space.html. In versions of Vista that support it (like Ultimate) Shadow Storage can also be managed: Manage the Volume Shadow Copy Service with from the Vssadmin Command-Line.

Go to Start / Search options and type in msconfig and enter and then double click on the program icon that appears. Go to the startup tab and uncheck any program that you don't need starting at startup. That will probably be the majority of items there - if not most of them (some are needed like the AV program and Windows Defender but most are there to make opening the source programs faster and make you think they're more efficient). This will free up a lot of RAM and help a lot in making your system faster (though perhaps not so much that you'll be able to notice the difference - but maybe depending on how much unnecessary stuff is loading at startup). When I did this on my system I removed over 90% of the entries and suffered no ill effects – to the contrary, I noticed startup was quicker, response times when working were better and I could open more programs at the same time and still have no problems, and shutdown was also faster. Better still, download Autoruns http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx which is much superior to msconfig and click on the Everything tab and do what was suggested above (though here you can’t delete everything as with the start menu in msconfig because there are some very important files and services included which MUST not be deleted or it can cause serious harm to the system). If unsure, leave it alone.

You can accomplish some of these tasks (and more that aren't entirely related) by using http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/center/whatsnew.htm (which also searches for malware). I do this on a monthly basis just as a part of normal maintenance and I suggest you do the same (except for the registry cleaner – no not even Microsoft’s own product is entirely safe and the product has been removed from the paying marked for reasons unknown though it’s still available here for now but probably not for long). Make sure you select a full scan - it will take a few hours (mine can take around 5-6) but can work in the background so start it when it has enough time to complete.

You also want to have good AV and AS programs on your system (so no malware is operating in the background draining resources). Windows Defender is a good AS program. The new, free Microsoft Security Essentials http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/default.aspx is an excellent AV/AM program that has one of the least impacts on system performance and resources according to reliable sources and it does the job very well. If you're using MSE, you don't really need Defender and MSE will deactivate it when installed (but you would with many other AV programs - though some of them also deactivate Defender). I would also suggest downloading http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php and running it monthly to catch anything that MSE might miss.

If you follow this advice and do it periodically (at least monthly) then I believe you will have as fast and clean a machine as it is capable of going given the hardware.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!
 
Last edited:

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    Hitachi HTS541616J9SA00 [Hard drive] (160.04 GB) -- drive 0, s/n SB2411SJGLLRMB, rev SB4OC74P, SMART Status: Healthy
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ilikefree said:
After you install SP2 tyhere is a clean up tool you can use.
In an elevated command prompt type
Compcln.exe
Y to confirm.
Click to expand...
That took me from 34.9GBs to 32.5GBs

The live cd was so you could boot into Linux and access your Windows files like they were any other file to save them to another drive.
Click to expand...
Ah, ok. As this is a fresh install though, there's nothing to save yet :) Well, just a link to this forum :p
 

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ilikefree - I mean to say, thanks!

Lorien - wow, thankyou too. I will wade into that over the course of today...

Last time I had this issue, I was using a 64GB SSD and 32bit Vista Ultimate, as I recall I got it down to about 19GBs or so but apart from deleting hiberfil.sys (and not sure now if that's a good idea so I haven't done it this time) I don't recall what I did...

This time it's 64bit Vista and a 128GB SSD, but I'm still gobsmacked at a 20GB winsxs file!! Anyway, time to start more reading...
 

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Treesize is cool!

OK, at the top level:
Windows - 30,865.7 MB
[Files] - 4,386.5 MB

Looking inside Windows, we see:
winsxs - 16,286.9 MB
SoftwareDistribution - 6,635.8 MB
System32 - 3,427.1 MB
assembly - 1,336.8 MB
SysWOW64 - 1,024.3 MB

And in [Files] we see:
pagefile.sys - 4,386.2 MB

Lesser sized folders/files not mentioned, of course.

Now, what's in Software Distribution, I wonder? 6448.9 MB of that is in 'Download'...

Pagefile.sys reflects the amount of RAM I currently have installed - 4GBs. Should have been 6GBs but one DIMM died on me recently :( Will upgrade to 12GBs eventually - at that point I can just turn off the pagefile, right? Or I could just bang it on a second hdd...

No mention of hiberfil.sys! I haven't deleted it or turned off the service... does this mean that Windows doesn't actually create the file until hibernation happens?
 

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I'm glad you like it. I use it myself and find it gives the best view of what's really on my hard drive than any other program I've found.

hiberfil.sys isn't created until you hibernate - that's the only time it is needed.

You really don't want to operate without some pagefile.sys (they recommend 1.5 times your RAM but you can get away with equal to RAM unless you find yourself slowing down because memory usage is too high) - but you can certainly place it on a different drive (but you don't just copy it over - there's a procedure to follow to do it properly so it works).

Software distribution contains .CAB files for installed programs. I've never seen anything that suggests this folder can be messed with (especially being in Windows) and I would suggest leaving it be for the time being. I'll try to look more into it to see if I can find out more about what it does and why it is there and how it helps.

I hope this helps. And please be careful. If you've done all the above, you're now at the point where it can be dangerous to delete much more without causing serious harm to the point where you may need to re-install.

Good luck!
 

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System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inc. MP061 Inspiron E1705
    CPU
    2.00 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo 64 kilobyte primary memory
    Motherboard
    Board: Dell Inc. 0YD479 Bus Clock: 166 megahertz
    Memory
    2046 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM) [Di
    Sound Card
    SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Generic PnP Monitor (17.2"vis)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200 pixels
    Hard Drives
    Hitachi HTS541616J9SA00 [Hard drive] (160.04 GB) -- drive 0, s/n SB2411SJGLLRMB, rev SB4OC74P, SMART Status: Healthy
    Case
    Chassis Serial Number: 5YK95C1
    Keyboard
    Standard PS/2 Keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech HID-compliant Cordless Mouse
    Internet Speed
    1958 Kbps download ; 754.8 Kbps upload
    Other Info
    Optiarc DVD+-RW AD-5540A ATA Device [CD-ROM drive]

    Dell AIO Printer A940

    Conexant HDA D110 MDC V.92 Modem

    6TO4 Adapter
    Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller
    Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter
    Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
    Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface

    Router Linksys / WRT54G -01
FYI SoftwareDistribution is related to windows update and should not be deleted.

However, the download folder within softwareDistribution, contains the installers for every windows update you have installed. don't get these installers confused with the uninstallers. These are simply backups so that, in the event you uninstall an update, it can be installed again without being re-downloaded.

I personally schedule ccleaner to clean the 'C:\windows\softwaredistribution\download' folder once a week, as a rarely need these files to be backed up.
 

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    24Mb/s
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    My massive wifi antenna is in the post!
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