Question about Hidden Files.

**Allane** · 01-23-13, 09:52 AM

So, I recently got my 120GB Wildfire back from warranty service, and as such, space is at an absolute premium. This time, I unallocated 25% of the space to keep the drive from grinding to a relative halt by SSD standards.

However, there's about 20GB of data on the drive that I can't seem to account for. Here's a screenshot of the discrepancy:

Question about Hidden Files.-ssd-usage-png

The Windows folder itself reports to be 16GB in size, but I know it's about 20GB anyway, but that doesn't account for this mysterious other 20GB that are apparently being used on my solid state drive. AHCI is enabled, and TRIM is indeed working, so I don't understand what's going on here unless hidden files are not accounted for when you try to measure folders.

If anyone has an answer or an explanation, I'd be grateful.

Allane.

**Kanati** · 01-23-13, 10:12 AM

page file?

**Warprosper** · 01-23-13, 10:14 AM

WinDirStat Portable | PortableApps.com - Portable software for USB, portable and cloud drives

This is what I use when searching for storage hoarding..

**enf** · 01-23-13, 10:23 AM

SpaceSniffer, find lost disk space the easy way.

**Alundil** · 01-23-13, 10:33 AM

Also a windirstat user here. I'll have to look into the SpaceSniffer tool. Haven't heard of that one.

**Allane** · 01-23-13, 10:36 AM

Bah. Forgot about the Page File. That clears up 16GB (offloaded the page file onto my spare HDD, just for consistency's sake).

Also, there was a hibernation file. Because I don't use hibernation, I got rid of that. (Thanks for that WinDirStat program!)

Getting those two fixed clears up all the space that I couldn't account for the first time around. Now if I could only figure out why Windows starts up so slow, even though my Wildfire is reading at normal SSD speeds.

**RhysJD3** · 01-23-13, 05:33 PM

Originally Posted by Allane

Now if I could only figure out why Windows starts up so slow, even though my Wildfire is reading at normal SSD speeds.

Depending on how much space you "emptied", it may need to do some garbage collection/trim. You should double check that trim is turned on for that drive. Don't recall the command but google is your friend.

You also may want to review what services and what not you have starting up.

Did you completely remove the page file? If I recall, completely deleting can decrease performance even with an SSD and lots of RAM. Try setting one for 1 to 2 gb and do a couple restarts and see.

**Allane** · 01-23-13, 05:41 PM

Originally Posted by RhysJD3

Depending on how much space you "emptied", it may need to do some garbage collection/trim. You should double check that trim is turned on for that drive. Don't recall the command but google is your friend.

You also may want to review what services and what not you have starting up.

Did you completely remove the page file? If I recall, completely deleting can decrease performance even with an SSD and lots of RAM. Try setting one for 1 to 2 gb and do a couple restarts and see.

As I said, TRIM is enabled (disablealertnotify reads as 0, so AHCI is enabled as well). I haven't been able to effectively check the startup time due to Windows Updates, but I'll get to it.

Also, this is a fresh install of Windows 7. Avira, my Catalyst Drivers, my Razer drivers, and the Open Office quickstarter are the only things that start at startup.

As for the page file, as I said, I put all 16GB of it over to my spare HDD. If you think I should put some of it back onto my SSD, maybe I will. As far as I know, the page file just logs activity on the drive and shouldn't affect load times that much.

**RhysJD3** · 01-23-13, 09:48 PM

Haven't read through this all but might be helpful. I think they also disagree with me on the paging file depending on how much RAM you use.

The SSD Optimization Guide Redesigned | The SSD Review

**Allane** · 01-23-13, 10:45 PM

Yeah. I'm not really new to Solid State Drives. Windows is probably just being stupid. I've checked and double checked the reads and writes, sequential, and random at QD's of 1 and 32. It's not that much slower than it should be. The firmware is up to date and it was a zeroed drive straight from Patriot.

I'm just not sure what needs optimizing for my startup routine. Maybe the AMD drivers are taking a long time to initialize? I didn't have the 7870 for long before bricking my Wildfire, and before getting the 7870, the windows startup logo would finish its animation then one second later load me straight to the desktop. Now, it takes about 7 seconds after the startup logo animation AND it makes me watch the "Welcome" page.

So, anyone running an AMD card with a Solid State have this sort of problem?