Hello,

I have noticed in the last couple of weeks that my SSD space that contains windows is steadily decreasing even though I am not adding anything to the drive. The only recent change I have made to my computer is replacing the graphics card and downloading new drivers for the card. I have read some information that this problem might indicate a virus, however, I am not noticing any signs of malware on my computer. I also read that this dissapearing space could be the result of a couple files in windows: pagefil.sys and hiberfil.sys. I downloaded TreeSize and noticed that these files were 12.0 and 9.0 GB respectively. Is this normal? Can I free up any of this space and is this the cause of my rapidly fading hard drive? The hard drive is 64 GB in total.

Thanks

Unfortunately you haven't told us enough about your computer. How much ram do you have? What is the make/model?

hiberfil.sys you can do without but you must disable hibernation first. Windows should automatically delete hiberfil.sys upon a reboot.

Pagefile.sys (I hope that you left off the e by mistake) is for virtual memory. Virtual memory can be disabled although that is not recommended especially if you have too little ram. However you can decrease it's size or move it to another drive if you have one. Read this on how to change page file size. I recommend that you set initial size for at least 1 gb (1024 mb) and max size for at least 2 gb (2048 mb).

Other than that you can use ccleaner, ATF Cleaner, or the built in disk cleanup utility to clean off your computer. Please note that the ccleaner installer will by default install yahoo toolbar. I recommend that you prevent it from doing so. I prefer ccleaner but an advantage to using the built in disk cleanup utility is that it has the option to delete all restore points except the most recent one. All of those actions should clear up some space (possibly significant portions of space) but if not please let us know because if not you just might have a bigger issue at hand such as malware. WinDirStat can help you determine where your space is going.

Please let us know if this helps.

You are right it's pagefile.sys, my mistake. I have 12 GB of RAM, its a self built computer so there isn't really a make/model. I have Windows Home Premium 64-bit, the SSD is a OCZ Vertex. I would be happy to provide any other information about my computer that you might need. I'll deffinetly try out your suggestions for cleaning up the hard drive. Have you seen this type of behaviour before? Some people seem to think its normal for Windows 7 and I was hoping to get an experts opinion. Like you said the other option is that it might be a virus but I only symptom I see is this dissapearing space.

You can move pagefile.sys to a different drive, that would give you back 9GB and following townsbg's link you can disable Hibernation and that will give you back 12GB for 21GB total.

I have pagefile.sys on my H: drive:

MovePageFile.jpg

Cool it sounds like this is a pretty normal Windows 7 situation. I appreciate all the help, are there any particular reasons for why this started happening just recently? I figured it was becuase I upgraded from 6 to 12 GB of RAM along with the new graphics card but the drop in space did not equate to 6 GB so I was unsure. I went from about 18 GB free space to about 6 GB.

A guess would be that both the hiberfile.sys and pagefile.sys sizes increased.

hyperfil is automatically the same size as your ram and it has to be to function. It's purpose is to store what's in memory to your drive when you shut down (if you select hibernate) so it has to assume that your ram could be full therefore windows makes it the size of your memory just to make sure that there is room. There's no way around that that I know of however you don't need to use hibernation.

I recommend that you move the pagefile to another drive so you can lessen the demand on your ssd and thereby increase lifespan. Although some would ague that doing so isn't necessary that's what I'd do. As for your pagefile size it's my experience that windows makes it 1.5 times the size of your ram which is something that I don't think is necessary for having so much ram. I believe though that you still need it enabled because windows might still at times use it although I don't know why it would.

As for cleaning it off, that needs to be done regularly because temporary files are downloaded when you use the internet and they aren't always removed afterwords.

Thanks a lot guys, my hard drive is back to about 18 GB and looking good. I appreciate all the help, makes me rest easier knowing it wasn't malware.

I'm glad it worked out. You know where to find us if you have anymore issues.