Hi, When I built my pc I used my 120GB SSD for Windows and my 2TB HDD for other files but it seems as if my SSD is being used for everything including software installation. I have around 1GB left on my SSD and I wanted to know if I could save my documents to my 2TB HDD and then restore my computer to factory settings. I know I will have to re install everything apart from Windows and that is fine, I just want to clear my SSD. I tried using CCleaner and freeing up space but it seems like after around 3 hours it seemed to take up more space. Could someone please advise me on what to do, whether there is something else I can use to free up ssd space (without going through and deleting each file) or whether it is possible to save files to HDD then restore files. I am also using a cracked version of windows 7 ultimate so I wouldn't know the procedure of having to re install windows. Any help would be appreciated, Thanks.
Why use a cracked version of windows while 'untouched' version of windows7 available for download here in this section (see the stickies) and activate using Daz loader or bios modding method. Use windows back up or Macrium reflect/Paragon backup free for all your data /image of whole drive/system etc.
Disk Cleanup is about all you can do and be assured you don't frakk up your installation. The problem in my experience is Windows stores a lot of extraneous data that isn't necessarily needed but little is provided to "clean things up". Microsoft has recently publish a "fix" for old defunct updates and that helped me some. The only way I've been able to substantially reduce Windows footprint is to wipe the drive and reinstall the OS. But even then, size creeps up and there's little you can do about it. However, over the last few years, none have exceeded 18-20GB. But then, I did move all my user data files to a different internal HHD and back them up to a third internal HHD. That means hundreds of GB in user data is NOT on my C: drive. That also means C: System Images are small and if they have to be restored no user data is overwritten. Sid_16 has a good point. This forum has all you need.
Use WinDirStat to see if anything not needed and huge is taking up space. With SSD on a desktop, you don't need page & hibernate files. I found on my system I had 6GB worth of redundant or outdated Linux Mint and Ubuntu ISOs. My 105GB C: drive has 41GB free, but I admit I don't have many large apps other than Office 10 Pro. (Not sure if I am reading the 2nd paragraph of the OP correctly, but if CCleaner is taking 3 hours to complete, something is totally whack with that).
Bingo! On my slowest and oldest machine it takes maybe 30 seconds. Ccleaner doesn't really free up space if you're just running the cleaner or registry scrubber. The most I've ever seen it clean is maybe 200MB and even then it cleared that in about 30 seconds tops. If Compact Databases is selected it does take longer but minutes not hours. Zeroing a drive's empty space can be rather slow, and may take hours, but that essentially frees up no space; it's not supposed to. It just destroys leftover data bits in the open space. Given his comment about 3 hours there's something bad wrong as you say unless he's zeroing out the empty space. I say he also may need to defrag his drive if he hasn't already.
PhaseDoubt, I have found a few different approaches to reducing the Windows footprint. One uses manual registry edits, another uses "mlink", and another uses a third party Profiles Relocator program. You generally describe what I and the OP wanted. Ideally, User Profiles, Program Data, and Program Files should be moved to a non-OS drive. But, Program files can also include the (x86) type, which raises additional questions. So there are degrees to which user docs, data, programs are shifted away from C:. My Win 7 laptop is 3 years old. I did move My Documents to D:, during the original setup, but now things are bloated on C:, so I want the best and least complicated method in hand before I wipe clean. Any feedback would be appreciated. Bill