Reinstalled Vista ... 35Gb???

D

Deeky

Gawd
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Feb 7, 2008
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Hmm. I just reinstalled Vista x64 because the bloat had consumed almost the entire 35Gb partition (I expanded it once from 25 to 35). However, upon reinstallation, I find I'm still left with only 4Gb free! The friggin' winsxs folder is still over 10Gb, and I haven't installed anything beyond drivers, MSN Messenger, Firefox and Thunderbird. What happened? I formatted the partition during the install process ... granted, it only took a few seconds so I have to assume it was a "Quick Format", and I had not formatted the partition with the majority of the programs and apps (I did that after Vista was back up). Do I need to adopt a scorched earth policy? Nuke EVERYTHING prior to the fresh install? Thanks for reading.
 
Fresh install of Vista x64 should be around 20-25GB with several restore points. You can try to limit the amount of space restore makes by either turning it off or by typing this into an elevated cmd prompt

vssadmin resize shadowstorage /for=c: /on=c: /maxsize=20GB (or whatever you want, 10GB should be fine).

35 GB partition for Vista is not enough, considering programs. At least 50-75GB if you have a small HDD.
 
The winsxs folder isn't actually as large as it says it is. I'll try to find the detailed explanation that I read on an official MS developer blog.
 
Why are you partitioning it out anyways?

Just use the raptor as the OS/App drive and put your files/media/documents on another storage drive...
 
Grentz said:
Why are you partitioning it out anyways?

Just use the raptor as the OS/App drive and put your files/media/documents on another storage drive...
Click to expand...
qft

I pointed out in another thread that I have my User folders targeting to folders on the slower partition on my drive but you could easily do the same to a completely separate hdd. That's less data that isn't crucial to performance being moved off the primary disk to secondary storage.
 
A clean installation of Vista Ultimate x64 SP2 will not be larger than 15GB, and on average it'll sit between 10 and 13GB - and I'm not counting the page file, nor the hibernation file either, with all drivers covered in Device Manager and hitting Windows Update until it says there ain't nothing left to install.

I just did that for a client yesterday, with a full install of Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 and then installed SP2 on top of it (haven't had a chance to make or acquire an actual slipstreamed SP2 DVD just yet). Even with the SP2 in-place upgrade and the fact that the WinSxS folder does keep backups of a lot of stuff, it's still not that damned large. Hell, I can install Ultimate x64 (original, no service pack) and it's well under 10GB all by itself so I can't imagine where these incredibly bloated installation size figures are coming from.

If it's coming up that large, something's terribly wrong someplace...
 
Joe Average said:
If it's coming up that large, something's terribly wrong someplace...
Click to expand...
Yeah, that was my initial thought. But what? Formatting the 35Gb partition and installing results in 15.7Gb, no apps, nothing - and that's before Windows Update starts cramming 80+ updates down the pipe.

I have three hard disks in my system. One for OS/Adobe/Games (the Raptor), one for documents, images, etc (500Gb Barracuda) and a third drive from my old system that's simply labeled "Old Stuff". I had Vista x64 installed w/ SP1, Adobe CS3 and a bunch of other apps in the 35Gb partition prior to the wipe. The remainder of the Raptor was games and Adobe CS3, which has also been formatted. I've since reinstalled Vista, installed a few minor apps, downloaded a buttload of updates (but still no SP1 by the looks of it), and I've maxed out the partition. I've got just over 200mb left. I haven't moved the page file or anything yet, but this seems ridiculous. What the hell is going on?

How "clean" is a clean installation of Vista Home Premium? What am I not doing?

EDIT: Disabled hibernation and moved the pagefile, so I've got 8+Gb of headroom now ... that's something, at least.
 
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It looks as if this is the price you're going to have to pay for the eye-candy, protection against "mal-ware", and oh yeah, and don't forget the "protected content" system.
 
I never installed Vista, but they must have really slimmed Windows 7 down. I'm running the RC fully updated with all my apps (firefox, Adobe programs, Office, etc) and I'm still only at 30gb for the entire partition.

Maybe you should give the RC a spin to save some space.
 
jhstuckey said:
It looks as if this is the price you're going to have to pay for the eye-candy, protection against "mal-ware", and oh yeah, and don't forget the "protected content" system.
Click to expand...

Nice flame....

Vista has a lot more to offer than that, and as said, there is something wrong with the OPs install and what is the big problem anyways? You have a large hard drive...use it! Storage drives are cheap.

People over partition things these days.
 
Sorry, but I can't understand how anyone would use Vista when they understand about it's "protected content" protection system. Are you aware of how this works, and for what purpose it was added to Vista by Microsoft?
 
jhstuckey said:
Sorry, but I can't understand how anyone would use Vista when they understand about it's "protected content" protection system. Are you aware of how this works, and for what purpose it was added to Vista by Microsoft?
Click to expand...

Are you aware that you have no idea what you are talking about?
 
jhstuckey said:
Sorry, but I can't understand how anyone would use Vista when they understand about it's "protected content" protection system. Are you aware of how this works, and for what purpose it was added to Vista by Microsoft?
Click to expand...

You have obviously never used it. I have not run into it once in years of using Vista....

Just stupid FUD created by XP fanbois that have never used it.
 
Vista is fine. Besides the bloat and the rare incompatibility issues (X-fi), I have absolutely no problem with it. I could easily get rid of the OS partition ... though I've always partitioned my OS. I've considered the W7 RC, and I'm still considering it. It's very tempting.
 
Settled down around 26Gb after moving the pagefile, disabling hibernation, removing the SP1 backup junk and resizing shadowstorage. That's with everything installed, including Adobe. Not terrible. Not great, but at least my poor partition isn't busting at the seams anymore.
 
jhstuckey said:
I reference this article:
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html
Click to expand...

Blah blah blah. Spoken like a true troll.

As Joe Average has said in many other threads DRM = Doesn't Really Matter.

If you have the right hardware it doesn't matter. If you want to play HD content this is what it takes. Period. You don't like? Then stick with DVDs.

At least my PC running Vista x64 can run HD and BluRay discs without having to resort to BS like this:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/BluRayAndHDDVD
 
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