Windows 7 is a beast in consuming hard drive disk spaces, especially the system drive, C, which is constantly being filled up. After a while it will keep annoying you with low disk space warnings because C drive is running out of space and almost full. So how can I safely free up all the disk spaces in C drive in Windows 7 and reduce its disk storage?
The methodology is to find the fattest folders in C drive, move as many of them to another drive (such as D, E, etc.) as possible, and make symbolic links (by mklink) from C drive to the folders in other drives.
Download the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility and then extract it with 7-Zip to use the MsiZapU.exe. Open a Command Prompt, type MsiZapU.exe G and press enter. The G command tells the program to remove any orphaned cached Windows Installer data files. You can also verify which folders and files utilize the most space using the Sysinternals Disk Usage tool, simply run the command “du /v /u c:FileUsage.txt”, this command will show a list of files and size and write it to a file. One thing you’ll notice is that the windows winsxs folder will be large to say the least. Download Windows 7 Disc Images (ISO Files) If you need to install or reinstall Windows 7 you can use this page to download a disc image (ISO file) to create your own installation media using either a USB flash drive or a DVD.
Step 1 – Find culprit folders that occupy the most disk space!
![Clean out windows installer folder Clean out windows installer folder](https://img.raymond.cc/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/WICleanup.png)
There are so many ways to do this but what I did was to look at the size stats for each of the major folders in my C drive. After 10 minutes, I was able to pinpoint these folders that are consuming large chunks of the disk volume:
- C:Windowswinsxs – very high-profile system folder that are not easily reduced / moved, which I’ll leave alone.
- C:WindowsInstaller – Over 3GB, program installers that can be moved safely and easily.
- C:UsersAdministratorAppDataGoogle – About 0.8GB, Google products data such as those by Chrome.
- C:UsersAdministratorAppDataMozilla – About 1.6GB, Firefox profiles and browser data.
- Some folders in C:Program Files – I wish I could move this entire folder but I couldn’t. I could only move some of the folders such as “Microsoft Gamesâ€.
- Some folders in C:Program Files (x86) – Same as above.
This is just my case. You may as well find totally different folders that need to be moved. After you have found something, proceed to step 2 to duplicate them elsewhere.
Step 2 – Copy these folders to another drive that is much more spacious!
This one is easy. Just perform the omnipotent Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V combination to copy these folders to another drive. In this example, we’ll copy these folders to their new destination – D:C_DRIVE:
- C:WindowsInstaller –> D:C_DRIVEWindowsInstaller
- C:UsersAdministratorAppDataGoogle –> D:C_DRIVEUsersAdministratorAppDataGoogle
- C:UsersAdministratorAppDataMozilla –> D:C_DRIVEUsersAdministratorAppDataMozilla
After the duplications, proceed to step 3.
Step 3 – Delete original folders and create the symbolic links
Now we need to delete the original folders in drive C. Some files and folders in Windows 7 are owned by TrustedInstaller while some by SYSTEM that cannot be easily deleted by Administrator. To delete them, you have to acquire SYSTEM privileges to do this, because the most privileged account in a Windows 7 computer is SYSTEM, not Administrator.
To do this, just create a file named syscmd.bat and put in the following commands:
Double click to run the file syscmd.bat and you will be prompted by a dialog with 2 buttons, click the top one to view the interactive message.
And you will enter a command line interactive mode with SYSTEM privileges which basically grant you full rights to the computer – you can do whatever you want now.
Run these commands one by one – line by line, you type in the command and hit enter:
Now that the original folders are deleted, we’ll make symbolic links in the same name so that any requests for these folders are correctly diverted to those on the D drive:
That’s it.
After these 3 steps, my C drive is successfully reduced in size by 5.4GB. I can move more folders to further enlarge / extend the free space but for now, it’s good enough for me.
Feel free to leave any comment about how you are doing with this approach.
Windows Installer Folder Size
Windows 10 updates provide the latest features and security improvements to help keep your PC more current and more secure. Before the installation process starts, Windows checks to make sure there’s enough storage space on your device for the installation process and for these new features and security improvements.
If there isn’t enough open space on your internal drive, you’ll see a message (like the one below) that tells you Windows requires more space.
Windows needs space to update
We can't install the latest Windows 10 features and security improvements on your PC due to low disk space.
Get more space with external storage
You can temporarily gain extra space by using an external storage device like a USB drive, an SD card, or an external hard drive.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- An external storage device with 10GB or more of free space, depending on how much additional space you need.
- An internet connection.
Delete Windows Installer Folder
Here's how to do it:
- Select Start >Settings > Update & Security .
- From the Windows update page, select Fix issues. This launches the Windows update tool that lets you update your PC using an external storage device.
- Before you use an external storage device for updating, make sure you back up any important files.
- Connect your external storage device and select it from the drop-down menu.
- Select Next and follow the instructions to finish installing the update.
- Once the installation is complete, you can safely remove your external storage device.
Even after selecting external storage, if you don't have enough free space on your internal drive, you might be prompted to free up more space.
If you don't want to use external storage, select I don't want to use external storage.
Free up space on your device
Here’s how to get more storage space on your device’s internal hard drive:
- Open your Recycle Bin and remove deleted files.
- Open your Downloads and delete any files you don’t need.
- Note: if you don't know how to find your Recycle Bin or your Downloads, search for them in the search box on your taskbar.
- If you still need more space, Open your Storage Use.
- This will open Settings > System > Storage.
- Select Temporary Files and delete any files you don’t need.
- Return to Windows needs space to update.
- Select Refresh.
- If you still see Windows needs space to update, repeat the process or consider deleting unneeded files from other folders. Alternatively, consider moving some files to external storage if you haven't already.
- When finished, select Start > Power > Restart.