Windows 10 - small capacity SSD

[PEagle]

Hello, 

I have a laptop and I'm having storage capacity issues. There is a drive that is 23GB SSD and 1TB HDD. I have installed the OS (windows 10) on the SSD part and everything was going fine for a while.

 

I tried moving as many files and programs on the HDD but the SSD ended up completely full without any further doing by myself.

My problem is that windows is telling me it uses 13GB which seems a bit more than it used to be. Same goes with temporary files that are now around 2GB, 1.2 of them completely unaccessible.

 

I also have the hibernate file that is taking up quite some space, I'd like to move that to another drive, is that even possible ?

All the "my documents, my pictures" etc. files have been moved away.

 

Do you have any tip to help me reduce the size windows is taking or to move some of its files to the HDD ?

As well, is there a way to tell the OS not to write anything unecessary to that drive ?

 

Thank you very much for your help.

[goto10]

is the ssd soldered? can it be replaced?

[PEagle]

22 minutes ago, goto10 said:

is the ssd soldered? can it be replaced?

I do not know but I'd like to avoid spending money on that one if I can.

 

Though last time I opened it up, I only saw the HDD.

[goto10]

windows these days will not fit into a 32 gbs ssd well enough

 

you say 23 gbs, this to me means that your pc still has a recovery partition wasting around 5gbs of those 32gbs that in reality are like 29gbs, but to get rid of that partition safely you really need to format that ssd and start from clean, eliminating all partitions so you can have the entire ssd for you

 

the pagefile can be moved to the hard disk

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/winaero.com/blog/how-to-move-page-file-in-windows-10-to-another-disk/amp/

 

you could try these steps and see if it helps gaining more space

 

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-reduce-windows-10-footprint-your-pc?amp

 

the real problem will happen when you need to update windows to 1903, the update will need like 30 gbs of space, that you dont have, there are workarounds, but the problem in reality is the limited size of the ssd

[PEagle]

7 minutes ago, goto10 said:

windows these days will not fit into a 32 gbs ssd well enough

 

you say 23 gbs, this to me means that your pc still has a recovery partition wasting around 5gbs of those 32gbs that in reality are like 29gbs, but to get rid of that partition safely you really need to format that ssd and start from clean, eliminating all partitions so you can have the entire ssd for you

 

the pagefile can be moved to the hard disk

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/winaero.com/blog/how-to-move-page-file-in-windows-10-to-another-disk/amp/

 

you could try these steps and see if it helps gaining more space

 

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-reduce-windows-10-footprint-your-pc?amp

 

the real problem will happen when you need to update windows to 1903, the update will need like 30 gbs of space, that you dont have, there are workarounds, but the problem in reality is the limited size of the ssd

Ok, I think I'll give up the idea to keep it on the SSD and simply move everything to the HDD when 1903 kicks in. 

The computer'll be much slower but at least it'll work properly. 

 

There are no recovery partition left, I did a clean install from a windows iso and not anything provided with the computer, wiped clean every partition. This one was on windows 8 when I bought it.

 

Thank you very much for your time

[GoodBytes]

You can disable hibernation, and that will free up the hibernation file.

If you don't mind living without it, you can save a lot of space.

To do this: Open the Command Prompt as Administrator.

Then type and execute:

powercfg /h off

/h stands for "hibernation"

"off" will disable the feature.

 

Once you execute it, your hibernation.sys file should disappear, if not, restart, and it should be gone.

 

 

To save more space, you can use the Windows Disk Cleanup utility. Open it, and once it scans/loads, click on "Cleanup System Files" button, and then check everything you want to clear and hit OK.

 

You can also delete the content of the following folders:

C:\Users\<Account Name>\AppData\Local\Temp

(AppData is hidden)

Do Ctrl+A and hit the delete key. Hit the "Skip" button on anything is can't delete (because it is being in used, and that is fine)

Do the same for: C:\Windows\Temp

 

Once done, empty your recycling bin, and you should save a nice amount of space in total.

[PEagle]

I have done some of that, I'll make sure to do the rest of it. 

Regarding hibernation, can't we move the file instead ? If not, I'll disable it. 

 

Thanks

[GoodBytes]

46 minutes ago, PEagle said:

I have done some of that, I'll make sure to do the rest of it. 

Regarding hibernation, can't we move the file instead ? If not, I'll disable it. 

 

Thanks

It cannot be moved. The bootloader needs to have access to it, and that means it needs to be on the first partition identified by the system.

The OS isn't loaded at this stage to do fancy things.

[PEagle]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

It cannot be moved. The bootloader needs to have access to it, and that means it needs to be on the first partition identified by the system.

The OS isn't loaded at this stage to do fancy things.

Allright, thank you very much

 

[goto10]

38 minutes ago, PEagle said:

Allright, thank you very much

 

i was thinking about the whole situation, as you see you can do alot but you will still be limited by the small size of that emmc ssd you have there

 

you already mentioned the idea of move windows to the hard disk

 

but windows 10 on a hard disk is honestly annoying to use

 

have you considered remove the hard disk and buy a cheap 120 gbs ssd and replace the hard disk?

 

the hard disk could be moved into a external hard disk enclosure if you need the space

 

i know that you said you dont want to spend money, but this approach will give you alot more depending on your usage, and once you are done with the laptop  and want to sell it or give it away, you remove the ssd and leave it with the emmc 32 gbs ssd, so no money is wasted

[PEagle]

3 minutes ago, goto10 said:

i was thinking about the whole situation, as you see you can do alot but you will still be limited by the small size of that emmc ssd you have there

 

you already mentioned the idea of move windows to the hard disk

 

but windows 10 on a hard disk is honestly annoying to use

 

have you considered remove the hard disk and buy a cheap 120 gbs ssd and replace the hard disk?

 

the hard disk could be moved into a external hard disk enclosure if you need the space

 

i know that you said you dont want to spend money, but this approach will give you alot more depending on your usage, and once you are done with the laptop  and want to sell it or give it away, you remove the ssd and leave it with the emmc 32 gbs ssd, so no money is wasted

Not a bad idea at all, I'll check what I can get that would fit that, even go to a bigger capacity or to SSHD if that works good with Windows 10.
Otherwise I'll consider changing the 4 years old notebook.

[goto10]

i personally dont like sshd idea, is still a small ssd with a hard disk integrated, is a hassle and since it is a laptop, a ssd only situation doe benefit it in terms of weight, power consumption affecting battery and durability, hard disks do get damaged on a laptop, the movement, toss them around do damage those hard disks

[GoodBytes]

11 hours ago, PEagle said:

Not a bad idea at all, I'll check what I can get that would fit that, even go to a bigger capacity or to SSHD if that works good with Windows 10.
Otherwise I'll consider changing the 4 years old notebook.

Forget SSHD, you are wasting your money. Get yourself a budget name brand SSD that has cache system (DRAM). You can get 128 and even 256 GB model for really cheap these days.

 

Name brand budget is a fine choice because:

• You don't care about speed, anything will be superior
• I doubt you plan you'll keep that laptop for over 5 years, let alone 3. So even if you were to trash the laptop in writes for some reason, durability won't be an issue.
• I doubt your laptop is some mission critical device where reliability of the SSD must be of the highest caliber to not be concern of failing from manufacture defects.

Check reviews, but should not cost much.