Author Topic: Shrinking disk space  (Read 1948 times)

Offline Malcolm Bull

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Shrinking disk space
« on: Tuesday 20 February 18 15:15 GMT (UK) »
A few months ago, I bought a new laptop with a solid-state hard drive (SSHD) and recently I noticed that the available free space on the drive had reduced drastically.  Just by chance, I noticed that there was a folder with the letters PICASA in the name which held a lot of .JPG files.  I do use Picasa, a lot, so with some trepidation, I deleted this folder (please, no warnings about the dangers of deleting unknown folders!), and the available space suddenly shot up by 20GB, without jeopardising the performance of Picasa.  This situation existed for a couple of days, but now the available space has suddenly gone down by about 15GB again.  The folder that I deleted has not reappeared, so I am now wondering what is going on and what to do.

Where can I look to solve this mystery? It is a feature of SSHD?  of Picasa? of Windows 10?
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Offline Lostris

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Re: Shrinking disk space
« Reply #1 on: Tuesday 20 February 18 16:14 GMT (UK) »
did you then go on to delete the files from the Windows 'ReCycle Bin' - Trash folder - I think the space it occupies (on the same disc) is still counted ?

SSDS usually reserve a few GiG for their own 'housekeeping' purposes - seeming like the drive is a tad smaller than advertised.

Offline Malcolm Bull

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Re: Shrinking disk space
« Reply #2 on: Tuesday 20 February 18 17:15 GMT (UK) »
Thanks.  Yes, I clear my Recycle Bin regularly and frequently.  I also use CCleaner.
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Offline Midase

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Re: Shrinking disk space
« Reply #3 on: Tuesday 20 February 18 19:07 GMT (UK) »
Picasa does not store your images, it is merely a large shortcut to your image files. It seems then that you have deleted all of the images.


Offline Malcolm Bull

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Re: Shrinking disk space
« Reply #4 on: Wednesday 21 February 18 08:03 GMT (UK) »
Thanks.

No. I did say that deleting this file did not jeopardise - "destroy it or cause it to fail" - Picasa.  I probably would have noticed if all my images had gone.
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Offline greenrig

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Re: Shrinking disk space
« Reply #5 on: Wednesday 21 February 18 10:48 GMT (UK) »
There are many freeware Windows applications that will analyse your disk and give you a pie chart or similar showing what is taking up space.  Right click on disk for "properties" and see "disk cleanup" for other ways to free up unwanted file.

Read up at the SSD manufacturers website about any "hidden" or management space taken for the SSD.

As you will probably know, Picassa is deprecated, and out-of-support, replaced by Google Photos.
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Offline Mart 'n' Al

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Re: Shrinking disk space
« Reply #6 on: Wednesday 21 February 18 11:16 GMT (UK) »
2 years ago when I bought a new desktop computer with a 1000gb hard disk it filled up very quickly because the default Windows setting was to keep a backup copy of every file that was changed every time I changed it. The company I bought it from talk to me through how to disable this feature. Sadly it's so long ago that I can't remember what I did but it's something that you should look into.

Martin

Online AngusMcCoatup

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Re: Shrinking disk space
« Reply #7 on: Wednesday 21 February 18 15:57 GMT (UK) »
2 years ago when I bought a new desktop computer with a 1000gb hard disk it filled up very quickly because the default Windows setting was to keep a backup copy of every file that was changed every time I changed it. The company I bought it from talk to me through how to disable this feature. Sadly it's so long ago that I can't remember what I did but it's something that you should look into.

File History (Win8). It's in the Control Panel if you want to check your own settings.

Also, how much space is your System Restore set to? If you noticed a large number of GB disappearing quite quickly, it may have been taken by an automatic System Restore, although it wont go over the limit that has already been set.


Offline Malcolm Bull

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Re: Shrinking disk space
« Reply #8 on: Wednesday 21 February 18 18:30 GMT (UK) »
Thanks, everyone.  That's given me lots to think about.

Malcolm
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