SSD Space disappearing

[nuclear465]

So i got a new SSD (Kingston Hyper X Fury 120GB) about one month ago.

 

I installed the OS on the SSD (windows 8.1 64bits) and kept my HDD for storage. I installed all my most used programs on the SSD and only one game, my most played game Battlefield 4. BF4 occupies most of the percentage of the disk space like expected about 55GB with all DLCs.

 

At that time the SSD had around 25GB free. So i proceeded with a few tweaks to save some space:

 

- disabled hybernation;

- moved pagefile.sys to HDD;

- created symbolic link for swapfile.sys on the HDD;

- Passed all game libraries (Steam and Origin) for the HDD;

 

With that i save around 10 GB and ended up with 36GB free.

 

For the next few days that remaing 36GB kept going down until it reached 26GB in a week, i found that weird since i haven't installed anything on it. But i let it be for a while to see what would happen. It stayed like that with 25-26Gb free for 3 weeks.

 

Yesterday out of the blue, the SSD lost 10GB in a matter of seconds... dropped to 15GB in an instant, without doing anything.

 

I decided to unninstall Battlefield 4 and install it again but this time on the HDD. After unninstalling BF4 i got 72,7 GB free, but according to what WinDirStat and the windows Disk Manager, the numbers don't quite match.

 

According to WinDirStat my drive C:\ is 31,2GB. So 111,27 - 31,2 = 80,07 GB. But in reality is only 71,4. Yeah during the time i took to write this it lost some space again from 72,7GB to 71,4GB...

 

So what could be causing this ??

 

Thanks in advance.

 

[pwn_intended]

Try running your disk cleanup utility. There is also a second level of clean-up in the utility that deals with system files.

System restore can also take up a bit of space so you can either disable it or delete all but the most recent restore point.

That being said, a 120GB drive is very small and you will find it filling up quickly pretty much no matter what you're installing on it.

[ATX]

Could also be cached things.

[nuclear465]

Try running your disk cleanup utility. There is also a second level of clean-up in the utility that deals with system files.

System restore can also take up a bit of space so you can either disable it or delete all but the most recent restore point.

That being said, a 120GB drive is very small and you will find it filling up quickly pretty much no matter what you're installing on it.

 

I already did that. I also disabled system restore, it was one of the things that i did that i forgot to mention on the original post.

[Godlygamer23]

System Restore is the suspected cause to me.

[Juan Remes]

Have you tried: Windows C, right click, properties, free space, clean system files (as an admin) and free the space from there?

I use WinDirStat frequently to make room on my 55GB SSD, i only have Windows, most frequently used programs and BF3, and have like 9Gb free of space, its a good software

[nuclear465]

Could also be cached things.

 

Can the Cache be that big ? Almost 10GB ?

 

Have you tried: Windows C, right click, properties, free space, clean system files (as an admin) and free the space from there?

I use WinDirStat frequently to make room on my 55GB SSD, i only have Windows, most frequently used programs and BF3, and have like 9Gb free of space, its a good software

 

Yes i already did that.

 

As i wrote this, another chunk has been lost, minus 2,5GB. I have now 68,9GB. At this rate i will be left with no SSD at all !!

[Taswell]

Look for the the Windows update directory and delete all the temp Folders since windows sucks at it unless you tell it you enjoy having storage space.

 

Your user\appdata Folder could be huge too depending on your applications. Disk Cleanup May or may not help that.

 

your can check it with a program called space sniffer

[ATX]

Can the Cache be that big ? Almost 10GB ?

 

Cache can be extremely large. Install CCleaner, it lets you analyse your drives to see the largest files

[Juan Remes]

Can the Cache be that big ? Almost 10GB ?

 

 

Yes i already did that.

 

As i wrote this, another chunk has been lost, minus 2,5GB. I have now 68,9GB. At this rate i will be left with no SSD at all !!

You know what i would do? I would wait for the SSD to fill up and see what WinDirStat have to show me, at that rate your SSD is filling up, that should not take more that 1 day, just let your PC idling, so when your SSD is full there will be a MASSIVE rectangle in the middle and you will then know whats all this fuzz about. I like the fact that WinDirStat show you everything, even system files that the final user should not be able to see, thats why im so confident about telling you to do that.

 

And if you do this, you should screenshot before and after, just for the record and knowing what got bigger and what not. just a tip

[nuclear465]

You know what i would do? I would wait for the SSD to fill up and see what WinDirStat have to show me, at that rate your SSD is filling up, that should not take more that 1 day, just let your PC idling, so when your SSD is full there will be a MASSIVE rectangle in the middle and you will then know whats all this fuzz about. I like the fact that WinDirStat show you everything, even system files that the final user should not be able to see, thats why im so confident about telling you to do that.

 

And if you do this, you should screenshot before and after, just for the record and knowing what got bigger and what not. just a tip

 

Thanks ! I'll give it a shot. I will take a screenshot once a day to see the changes.

 

Right now it seems to have stabilized, but who knows if someday it will start to lose space again.

[watts300]

@nuclear465 You could try a selective start up by disabling items in msconfig and let it sit for a while.  If the issue is resolved, re-enable things one at a time, with plenty of time to observe the effects before you enable the next item.  

 

The visual representation of your drive in WinDirStat doesn't give you any useful information?  It has the exact same colored-box layout as a program that I use.  It should be telling you exactly what everything is and how much space it's occupying.  

 

 

 

This one of the reasons I try my hardest to dissuade some one from buying anything less than a 250GB SSD.  Drives this small are a hassle. 

[Juan Remes]

@nuclear465 You could try a selective start up by disabling items in msconfig and let it sit for a while.  If the issue is resolved, re-enable things one at a time, with plenty of time to observe the effects before you enable the next item.  

 

The visual representation of your drive in WinDirStat doesn't give you any useful information?  It has the exact same colored-box layout as a program that I use.  It should be telling you exactly what everything is and how much space it's occupying.  

 

 

 

This one of the reasons I try my hardest to dissuade some one from buying anything less than a 250GB SSD.  Drives this small are a hassle. 

Id love a 250Gb SSD, sadly here in Mexico, pc parts are stupidly expensive, almost 2 years ago, i bought my SSD, it is a 60Gb (55.9) SSD, ive managed to get windows, my most frequent programs and the game i play the most, BF3 in the SSD and i have 8.7Gb left, of course its not the best, but its amazing how easy is to squeze every single byte out of it without loosing performance. I even have System Restore activated (saved me many many times)