Two tips on how to free up a decent amount of space on your SSD

[BiG StroOnZ]

Here are two tips that could free up a large amount of space on your SSD (basically depending on how much memory you have installed).

 

1) Decrease the size of the Windows page file. This will free up disk space usually equal to the size of your total memory (if you leave it at default settings).

 

• Right click Computer and then select Properties
• In the left pane select Advanced system settings
• In the window that opens click the Settings button under the Performance box and then select the Advanced tab.
• Click the Change button and select the drive where you page file currently is (typically defaults C:)
• Select Custom size and fill the initial as well as the maximum size of your page file to be 1024MB which is more than plenty if you have more than 4GB of RAM 
• When ready click Set and then Ok (it will ask you to restart to confirm changes, then you will get your space back after restart).

 

2) Disable hibernation - will free up disk space exactly the size of your total amount of memory (this one takes effect instantly)

 

• Click the Start button and type "cmd"
• Right click on cmd and select "Run as administrator"
• In the opened command prompt window type the following "powercfg –h off" (without quotes) and then press Enter

After doing these two tips I freed up a total of 30GB on my SSD, going from 60GB left to 90GB left.

 

You don't need a large page file if you have more than 4GB of memory typically, since most people have 6-16GB these days. It's pretty much not a necessity. Some people say you can even disable the page file completely but there are some programs and functions that require it so it's best to allocate a small amount of memory to it. You also don't need hibernation enabled because it's mostly a feature for laptops. 

 

Hope this helps free up some space on your SSD. 

 

Additional "Space-Freeing" Tips:

 

On 7/8/2015 at 7:22 AM, D4RK said:

There is 1 more tip that you forgot, which is deleting old restore points & limiting restore points storage size:

 

~ First limiting the restore points storage:

• Right click computer and click on properties.
• Click on system protection on the right side.
• Under protection settings, select your main hard drive then click on configure.
• Your max usage slider should be set to 50% by default, change it to 10-15%,  if your current usage was larger than the 10-15% that you just selected, windows will some of the restore  points until it matches the max usage limit "it will delete older ones first".

 

~ If you want to further delete the older restore points and only keep the recent ones, then do the following:

• Write "disk cleanup" in the search box in start menu.
• Click on more options tab.
• Under system restore and shadow copies, click on clean up, and all of the restore points except the recent ones will get deleted.

 

BiG StroOnZ, maybe put his tip in your post, just so people are able to see it without scrolling down.

 

 

[Floppy Kant Fish]

Here are two tips that could free up a large amount of space on your SSD (basically depending on how much memory you have installed).

 

1) Decrease the size of the Windows page file. This will free up disk space usually equal to the size of your total memory (if you leave it at default settings).

 

• Right click Computer and then select Properties
• In the left pane select Advanced system settings
• In the window that opens click the Settings button under Performance box and then select the Advanced tab.
• Click the Change button and select the drive where you page file currently is (typically defaults C:)
• Select Custom size and fill the initial as well as the maximum size of your page file to be 1024 MB which is more than plenty if you have more than 4 GB of RAM 
• When ready click Set and then Ok.

 

2) Disable hibernation - will free up disk space exactly the size of your total amount of memory

 

• Click the Start button and type "cmd"
• Right click on cmd and select "Run as administrator"
• In the opened command prompt window type the following "powercfg –h off" (without quotes) and then press Enter

After doing these two tips I freed up a total of 32GB on my SSD, going from 60GB left to 90GB left.

 

You don't need a large page file if you have more than 4GB of memory typically, since most people have 6-16GB these days. It's pretty much not a necessity. Some people say you can even disable the page file completely but there are some programs and functions that require it so it's best to allocate a small amount of memory to it. You also don't need hibernation enabled because it's mostly a feature for laptops. 

 

Hope this helps free up some space on your SSD. 

 

nice tips, usually I just keep dumping my data onto more and more hard drives and never sort through it.

[WinNut]

Nice tips, I just got an SSD for my laptop.

[Tedster]

Hadn't noticed I had hibernation on. BAM. Another 24GB space suddenly appeared.

 

Thanks!

[BiG StroOnZ]

Hadn't noticed I had hibernation on. BAM. Another 24GB space suddenly appeared.

 

Thanks!

 

Try modifying the page file (following directions in OP), that could add up to another 24GB. 

[flibberdipper]

Yeah... I need swap and hibernate. I max out my 8GB of RAM and get pretty close to half on my page file. And then hibernate... Well... You know.

[BiG StroOnZ]

Yeah... I need swap and hibernate. I max out my 8GB of RAM and get pretty close to half on my page file. And then hibernate... Well... You know.

 

Why do you need hibernate on your desktop rig? 

[Guest]

Thanks this saved me 15GB

[GER_T4IGA]

Click the Change button and select the drive where you page file currently is (typically defaults C:)

Is it possible to move the page file from the OS drive to another drive e. g. from an SSD to an HDD (less important data tomb)?

[Bloodyvalley]

-snip-

I put:

 

Minimum: 500

Max: 1024

 

Is that fine? I tried putting 100 minimum but if ever Windows would crash it indicated that it wouldn't record the reason why it crashed.

[BiG StroOnZ]

On 6/20/2015 at 8:25 PM, Bloodyvalley said:

I put:

 

Minimum: 500

Max: 1024

 

Is that fine? I tried putting 100 minimum but if ever Windows would crash it indicated that it wouldn't record the reason why it crashed.

 

Do 1024 on both the minimum and the Maximum.

[Bloodyvalley]

Do 1024 on both the minimum and the Maximum.

Can you explain why?

[BiG StroOnZ]

On 6/20/2015 at 8:28 PM, Bloodyvalley said:

Can you explain why?

 

Because there is no reason to have it lower than that, it won't benefit you. And having it as the same number reduces fragmentation. Not that fragmentation is really a big deal on SSD's, because it doesn't really impact performance. But doing it this way guarantees that won't happen.

[Bloodyvalley]

Because there is no reason to have it that lower than that, it won't benefit you. And having it as the same number reduces fragmentation. Not that fragmentation is really a big deal on SSD's, because it doesn't really impact performance. But doing it this way guarantees that won't happen.

So you're assuming I'm going to defragment my SSD?

[BiG StroOnZ]

On 6/20/2015 at 8:34 PM, Bloodyvalley said:

So you're assuming I'm going to defragment my SSD?

 

No, I wouldn't ever defrag an SSD as it is not really necessary, but SSD's do fragment, just it doesn't impact performance as much compared to an HDD. But by having the values as the same number it reduces the chances of fragmentation.

[Mattrixx]

Being the genius that I am, I already knew these tips.

I know, I know....

[D4RK]

snip

 

there is 1 more tip that you forgot, which is deleting old restore points & limiting restore points storage size:

 

-First limiting the restore points storage:

+ Right click computer and click on properties.

+ Click on system protection on the right side.

+ Under protection settings, select your main hard drive then click on configure.

+ Your max usage slider should be set to 50% by default, change it to 10-15%,  if your current usage was larger than the 10-15% that you just selected, windows will some of the restore  points until it matches the max usage limit "it will delete older ones first".

 

 

 

-if you want to further delete the older restore points and only keep the recent ones, then do the following:

+ Write "disk cleanup" in the search box in start menu.

+ Click on more options tab.

+ Under system restore and shadow copies, click on clean up, and all of the restore points except the recent ones will get deleted.

 

BiG StroOnZ, maybe put his tip in your post, just so people are able to see it without scrolling down.

[EvilWiffles]

Really good tips! Went from 59GB to 71GB. Definitely helped.