Thread: What would you do - Windows Drive - Big or Small

Originally Posted by DAMINK

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Its been years since i have investigated the SSDs but i was under the impression they dont like being rewritten so its best to keep all non critical stuff else where ie standard drive.

They used to be like that, but the modern ones not.

They basically run into the Petabyte region rewrite cycles before they start to fail.
Unlikely that a 'typical' home computer user will write/rewrite a petabyte of data on a single drive in a typical computer lifetime.

I used my 256G SSD for the OS, and try desperately hard not to keep 'storage stuff' on it, and regularly clean it up as well.
storage stuff = music, images, docs etc.
In saying that I am a bit of a slacker and do store that kind of stuff on the "OS" drive, but eventually I do take the time to move it all to the correct "DATA" drive and then make backups to a NAS for long term keeper data.

So I reckon 128Gb SSD on Win 10 should be good for at least 5 or so years with the odd cleanup routine .. for a non habitual software downloader!
That's another of my weaknesses. I'm always trying new software(mainly photography stuff) so I clog my OS SSD quite easily if I didn't check it's properties every now and then.

The main source of frustration is when programs get deleted and don't delete 'User Data', where you end up with many gigabytes of garbage that should have been deleted.

Check your C:\Users\username\AppData folders for a trove of easily deleted trash in there.
Usually three folders named Local, LocalLow and Roaming. I simply try to delete all the contents in those directories, not the folders themselves. Sometimes a process won't allow some stuff to be deleted.
Recently did my son's laptop the same way. He needed over 100G of space(256G SSD) and I simply shift deleted almost the entire contents of that area and recovered 85Gb!
That's my routine drive cleanout... Adobe software is about the worst, followed by Nikon's in hoarding gigs of data there, frankly not really needed.
The way it works is that almost all(but not all!) programs write data into there to attempt a speedup of the program the next time it's run. On an SSD, it's not really needed, and the extra sec or two never killed me in any way.
Major issue was always Adobe's Lightroom tho, as it maintained a lot of cached images in there for it's catalog. I never liked Lr, so to see it finally go was a relief anyhow.
My other issue is Nikon's software(I do a lot of photography stuff) and it also keeps cached images in there, by the trillions. Many gigs of really old thumbnails simply not needed. SSDs are fast enough that thumbnail caches are rebuilt instantly nowadays.

BUT! you do need some caution with the above process.
Some programs actually use the AppData area for program operation, instead of heavy reliance on the Registry for operating.
The last such program I worked this out for was Sigma's PhotoPro6(PhotoPro5 was fine tho).
So If I deleted the AppData folder for Sigma PP6, the program would basically install itself all over again.

After just over 3 years, my Win10 install, which includes many hundred of installs, removals and installs again of hundred of software has yet to exceed over 100Gb.
I can easily trim that down to closer to 80 or less.

My last annoyingly complicated PC session was trying to do a fresh install of Win7 on an old laptop basically doing the same thing as your errant USB drive saga.
Win10 PC creating a bootable USB drive with the modded Win7 install(all updates pre installed) and the USB drive worked, and was recognised by both my Win10 PC and the now vacant laptop, but the lappie just wouldnt' boot from the USB drive.
Would fail 'install' after a few mins every time saying something like boot media not recognised or something. Drove me insane for a few days.
I tried various different ways to get it to start the process, with no luck, but finally, and not really doing anything differently, it took hold and finally installed.

windows system files have to be on the boot drive, even tho you install programs on another drive some files will be placed on the boot drive.

windows caches a lot of things in system directories.

experience shows you have in reality about 60gb of usable space to fill with whatever on the boot drive you have, soon as that is used system speed and reliability will be impacted to varying degrees.

if you do little other than internet browsing and only install the odd program you should be fine for a couple of years at least

using a utility like ATF-Cleaner can help you manage how much the system caches grow and keep it all where you need it. it works well in windows 10 despite the description.

antivirus programs tend to store a multitude of data in system folders as well but if you stick with the builtin defender that wont be an issue like it is with many of the others. i once saw 30+gb of logs in an avg install.

the pace of windows service updates is supposedly going to be slower from here on, i'll believe it when i see it, but you never know and if it's true, drive space will definitely last longer than it has been in windows 10.

lenovo make some nice laptops, for the price......