5 ways to save space on your Solid State Drive

1. Run Disk Cleanup: Disk Cleanup can be found in your program list or by right clicking on the drive in Computer. To access the tool from the menu, click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup and select the drive.

 

Run Disk Cleanup from the Accessories group under your start menu or by right-clicking on the drive under "Computer".
Select the types of items to delete and click OK to start the process.

 

Windows 7 hides some of the cleanup options unless you click the "Clean up system files" button (requires administrator access). This will add several additional categories of files that can be removed, and a tab called "More Options". Under the more options are two options: a button to launch add/remove programs and a button to delete all system restore points except the most recent.

2. Download and Run WinDirStat (http://windirstat.info/) to help identify and remove unneeded files:

WinDirStat can show you what type of files are using all the space on your drive. Use this to identify files that could be moved to another drive or deleted. More than half of the space on this 250GB SSD drive was taken up with a batch of video files!

3. On a dual drive system, Install your applications to a hard drive. Watch for a prompt for where to install the program. If you don't see a destination choice, you may need to choose to do a Custom Install to have the option.

4. Disable virtual memory - set the swap file to zero. If this is a dual drive system with a hard drive as the second drive, move your paging file to a different drive. To do this under Windows 7:
   1. Press Windows-Pause to open System window (or right click on "Computer" and select "Properties")
   2. Click Advanced System Settings
   3. Select the "Advanced" tab, and under Performance, click "Settings"
   4. Select the "Advanced" tab, and under Virtual Memory, click Change
   5. Remove the check next to "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives"
   6. Select the SSD drive letter and change the option from "System managed size" to "No paging file"
   7. Optional: if you have a hard disk drive, you can select it and still have virtual memory available by changing the option from "No paging file" to "System managed size" or "Custom size" if you want to limit how much space to use.
   8. Click OK to save changes...

Press the "Windows" key and the "Pause" key together to immediately open the system properties window. You can also click on "System" in the control panel, or right-click on "Computer" and select properties from the context menu to see this same screen. Click on "Advanced System Settings" from the task list on the left side of the window..In the System Properties window, select the "Advanced" tab and then click on the "Settings" button in the "Performance section.

In the Performance Options window, click on the "Change" button under the Virtual Memory section. The default is for Windows to manage the swapfile, and to create the paging file on your system drive. To set virtual memory to "none", to change its size, or to change the drive Windows uses, remove the check from the box at the top. Select the drive you want to change, and then either set your custom size or set it to "No paging file" to free up space on smaller SSD drives.

Windows will use your SSD or Hard Disk Drive as virtual memory unless you change this setting. A swapfile allows Windows to load more programs or larger data files than you could fit in your existing RAM. However it is much slower, even on a Solid State Drive, and it takes up space (reserved as a hidden system "swapfile"). With your Paging file size set to "none", you must have enough available RAM to open your program or data file, otherwise you could get errors or a "not enough memory" message. If you have a two-drive system (SSD and HDD), change the location of the swapfile to your HDD to free up SSD space and still have the virtual memory support.

5. Disable hibernate: You can set the idle-time delay before the system enters a sleep or hibernate state under the power settings. While sleep does not use storage space, hibernate does. The hybrid sleep of Vista and Windows 7 will automatically hibernate after a given time in low power sleep mode, unless the timeout is set to never or hibernate is disabled. To disable hibernate in Windows 7, you must have administrator privileges and do the following:
   1. Open an Administrator Command Prompt window
      (Start, All Programs, Accessories, right click on Command Prompt and select "Run as Administrator")
   2. At the C: prompt, enter the command "powercfg -h off"

To enable Hibernation again, repeat the process but enter "powercfg -h on". If you receive an error: "You do not have permission to enable or disable the Hibernate feature.", then you did not run the command prompt as an administrator!

To prevent system hibernation from the power settings, do the following:

1. Open Power Options from the control panel
2. Click on the task to "Change when the computer sleeps"
3. Click on the option to "Change advanced power settings"
4. Expand the "Sleep" category, and then expand the "Hibernate after" line.
5. Change all hibernate settings to "Never". Click OK to save changes...

To change the hibernate timeout in Windows, open Power Options in the Control Panel. Click on "Change when the computer sleeps" in the task list on the left.

Hibernate is part of the Advanced power settings. Click on the line "Change advanced power settings" to open the list. In the Power Options list, expand the section called "Sleep", and then expand the "Hibernate after" section. To prevent the computer from entering a hibernate state, and creating a large "hiberfile" on your drive, set all options in this category to "never" (how many you have depends if this is a notebook or a desktop system).

Note: changing the hibernate delay through the Power Options only applies to the current power plan, and only applies to the current user. Disabling the hibernate feature using the powercfg command disables it for the computer.

For more assistance contact Technical Support here.

Using Windows XP Files and Settings Wizard for Backup

FAST Limitations
The Windows XP Files and Settings Transfer Wizard can only back up settings
for the user that is currently logged in. If multiple system users are configured
on the system, the Files and Settings Wizard must be run for each user.

The FAST Wizard only archives specified files from the system drive, and typically
only from the folders contained in the Documents and Settings folders. If data
files are stored on other drives or in some other directory structure location,
the FAST Wizard may not archive the data.

System Preparation
The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard will copy files from several
Windows and Internet Explorer work-file locations. Verify and correct any errors
on the drive as these will cause most backup programs to abort before the backup
data is fully collected. Cleaning up unnecessary temporary files will speed
up the FAST Wizard process and reduce the size of the resulting archive. (Note:
Defragmentation will have little or no effect on this process.)

Error Checking
Run error checking on the hard disk to check for errors. To correct errors on the startup drive/partition will require a system restart with CHKDSK running before Windows Starts. To do this:

Command Line Method

Windows GUI Method

Click Start > Run. Enter "CMD" in the Open box (without the quotes) and click OK to open a Command Prompt window. At the C: prompt, enter "CHKDSK" and press Enter to check for errors. To scan for and correct errors, enter "CHKDSK/F" and press Enter. Restart the computer to start the process (Start, Turn Off the Computer, Restart). Note: If you choose to run CHKDSK only to look for errors, but not correct them, you will need to repeat the process with the "/F" option only if errors are reported.

Open My Computer, right click on the local hard drive to test, select Properties. Click the Tools tab, and then click the Check Now button in the Error Checking section. Add a checkmark next to Automatically fix file system errors and next to Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors and click Start. Click "Yes" to the option to schedule the disk Check next time you start. Restart the computer (Start, Turn Off the Computer, Restart).

Disk Cleanup Tool
Run the Disk Cleanup Tool to delete unnecessary temp files. To do this:

1. Open My Computer.


2. Right-click on the hard drive, select Properties.


3. Click the Disk Cleanup button in the lower right of the General
   tab.


4. Add check marks next to:
   
   
   
   • Downloaded Program Files
   
   
   • Temporary Internet Files
   
   
   • Recycle Bin
   
   
   • WebClient/Publisher Temporary Files
   
   
   • Catalog files for the Content Indexer
   
   
   
   


5. Click OK and then click Yes to start the clean-up process.

Manual deletion
To perform a manual deletion of common temporary directories and subdirectories:

The disk cleanup tool will not remove all temporary files from the drive if
the applications that created them used Windows "legacy" directory
locations or created sub-directories during installation. Note that some of these
temporary directories may be flagged as hidden or system folders, and you will
need to adjust the Advanced Settings under Folder Options to view or access
them. To do this:

Directories to check for temp files:

Advanced Folder Option Settings:

Click on My Computer. Click to open the Local Hard Drive. Open the Windows directory, and then open the Temp directory. Delete any temp files found. Open Documents and Settings For each user folder in Documents and Settings: Open the User's Folder, Local Settings Folder, and then the Temp folder. In the Temp folder: Select and delete any files and folders appearing in these directories (do not delete the temp folder itself.) If you receive an (access denied) error and that a file cannot be removed; skip that file and continue to delete the rest. Since a group selection and delete operation will terminate on errors, try selecting smaller groups until you have just the 3-4 files left that are "locked" by the system.

From a Windows Explorer window, click on the Tools menu and select Folder Options. Click on the View tab and make the necessary changes: Display the contents of system folders Hidden files and folders - Do not show hidden files and folders - Show hidden files and folders Hide extensions for known file types Click the Apply button. Click the Apply to All Folders button. Click OK.

 

How to back-up a single user's data with the FAST Wizard
Windows Files and Settings Transfer Wizard will build a compressed archive
containing the user's personal files, folders and settings, including common
folders such as My Documents, the user's Desktop, and the Start Menu structure
specific to that user. It does NOT archive applications, and will usually prompt
or identify some programs that will need to be reinstalled to access the files
it does archive.

The Files and Settings Wizard does give a user the choice of archiving the
most common settings, or allow them to make specific selections. This option
does allow the knowledgeable user to select additional folders to include in
the archive, or to add or skip specific file types to the standard list for
archiving.

At least two different versions of the FAST Wizard appear to exist, the original
version that ships with Windows XP and the updated version that is compatible
with Windows XP 64-bit. The latter version is available through one of the additional
updates that may be selected on the Windows Update site.

The program can be saved in a folder by using the disk creation step and copying
the files after it completes. Storing the version of the FAST Wizard that was
used to make the backup initially is recommended, since trying to restore from
a different version will fail. See: Update for Windows XP (KB896344)

The backup drive can be any removable media, a folder on the drive, a second
hard drive, a network drive, or an external USB or Network-Attached Storage
(NAS) device as long as it has sufficient capacity to contain all of the data.
If using removable media, multiple disks may be required. An estimate of the
number of required disks should be displayed.

The FAST Wizard does NOT support archiving directly to an optical disk drive.
To make a backup to optical media, save the archive on a network or other secondary
storage device and then use your regular software to burn the data folder and
application to the recordable media.

Files and Settings Transfer Wizard
How to run the File and Settings Transfer Wizard on the source system:

1. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.
   
   
   


2. Close any running programs (especially email!) and click Next.


3. Select Old Computer (This is the computer I want to transfer
   files and settings from.) and click Next. 
   
   


4. Select the transfer method. Your choices include:
   
   
   
   • Direct cable (such as a serial or USB transfer cable)
   
   
   • Home or small office network (such as when the old and new computer are connected over a LAN)
   
   
   • Floppy Drive or other removable media (choose from the detected list)
   
   
   • Other (you can browse to a target location that includes mapped network drives, USB hard drives, etc.)
   
   
   
   


5. Select what to transfer and click next:
   
   
   
   • Settings only
   
   
   • Files only
   
   
   • Both files and settings (This is the default selection to back up all of the user's files and settings.)
   
   
   • Let me select a custom list of files and settings...
   
   
   
   Choosing this option takes the default of the normal set of files and settings,
   but will allow you to add additional settings, data folders, files or file
   types. This would be the best choice when there is only one primary user
   of the system and there are additional files or folders that need to
   be archived that are not located in the default user's folders.
   
   
   


6. Click Finish.
   
   
   
   

Make a FAST Wizard archive CD, DVD, or Archive Folder

1. If you do not have a copy of the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard diskette,
   make one by following these steps: 
   
   
   
   1. Run the FAST Wizard and select New computer.
   
   
   2. Select I want to create a Wizard Disk and select the removable media from the list to copy the files to. Removable media will typically be a floppy disk, USB flash drive, or memory card.
   
   
   3. Click Next to start the file transfer. Two files should be copied to the target media: FASTWiz.exe and migwiz.ca.
   
   
   
   


2. Copy the two files from the diskette (or other media) over to the same location
   as selected when you ran the Wizard to transfer the files.


3. To create a recordable CD using Windows built-in burning feature:
   
   
   
   • Insert a blank CD-R disk in the optical drive
   
   
   • Select the data folder created by the FAST Wizard and the two FAST Wizard program files you copied from the diskette.
   
   
   • Right-click, select Send To from the context menu, select the CD-ROM drive from the list.
   
   
   • Click on the notification balloon You have files waiting to be written to the CD and follow the prompts to burn the files.
   
   
   
   

How to restore a single user's data with the FAST Wizard
The Windows XP Files and Transfer Settings Wizard is used to restore the data after the backup is made. Unlike the backup process, the restore process is fairly limited and does not offer partial or selective restore options. The archives created do not use a standard compression method such as .ZIP or .CAB archive formats, and cannot be opened or browsed interactively.

NOTE: Running the restore process multiple times may result in duplicate files
or menu shortcuts in some situations.

Files and Settings Transfer Wizard
Run the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard on the source system. To do this:

1. Run the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard by doing one of the following:
   
   
   
   • Open the backup location containing the FAST Wizard program and data files. Double-click on FASTWiz.exe to start the program. Use this method if the updated Wizard was used to create the backup, otherwise, run the Wizard from the Windows Start Menu. To do this:
     
     
     
     1. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.
     
     
     
     
   
   
   
   


2. Close any running programs and click Next.


3. Select New Computer (This is the computer I want to transfer files and settings to.) and click Next.


4. Select the option I don't need the Wizard Disk. I have already collected
   my files and settings from my old computer. Click Next.


5. For the answer to "Where are the files and settings?" select Other
   and click Browse.


6. Locate the drive and folder that contains the FAST Wizard data files and
   click OK.


7. Click Next. The wizard should transfer the files and settings from the optical media, network drive, or external storage device.


8. Click Finish.


9. Click Yes to log off for the changes to take effect and log back in as the user.

Optimizing your System with Disk Cleanup

Windows has several built-in tools that can help keep your system running smoothly. One of these tools called Disk Cleanup can remove extraneous files quickly from your computer. To start Disk Cleanup, follow these steps:

1. Go to Start » Accessories » System Tools » Disk Cleanup. Or go to Start, then type in Disk Cleanup in the search bar.

2. In the Disk Cleanup window, select the Files to Delete. Click OK.

The program will ask if you want to permanently delete the files. Click OK to begin the process. Take caution when choosing what files to delete – you cannot recover the information once removed.

There are other features of Disk Cleanup such as removing programs and system restore. The Programs and Features option links to the Control Panel where you can unnecessary software. The System Restore and Shadow Copies option removes any extra backup copies to save only the most recent. For more information, go to Microsoft Support »

Reference:
Microsoft Support. Delete files using Disk Cleanup. http://bit.ly/4ge7Dl
Microsoft Support. Disk Cleanup for Windows XP. http://bit.ly/1qBdrW