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When I first started it up it was 170gb is there anyway to get it to at least 200? And what can I get rid of on an HP laptop that won't screw it up?

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[-] manicdave@feddit.uk 8 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

A very silly but useful hack I did to get the MS flight sim install down to about 40GB (normally ~270GB) before I gave up on windows was this.

Set up a nextcloud server on a raspberry pi.

Install the client on your windows machine.

Add your games install folder as a connection on the nextcloud client and enable VFS (virtual filesystem)

Once synced, right click the folder and select "free up space..."

This will basically delete the file data from your local machine and redownload it whenever windows tries to access a file.

Now launch your game and it'll take a while to start as it has to redownload the files it actually needs to run, but it won't bother getting what it doesn't have to.

[-] Bezier@suppo.fi 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Ram and (ssd) storage are two different things. Storage space is the one relevant to this question. Also, both of those numbers, 8 gb of ram and 256 gb of disk space, are very low these days.

If you're using the laptop with the software it came with, it might have a bunch of demo versions of useless apps as advertisements. HP is (or at least used to be) notorious for this crap. Somewhere in the settings should be an apps page that lists what's installed, check there.

[-] AlphaOmega@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Yeah that's your best bet, remove all the bloatware and regain 20 GB+

[-] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca -2 points 6 months ago

256 is absolutely fine unless you work with video editing or games. If you're just growing the net it'll last you forever.

[-] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

Look up WizTree for a quick way to see/fix what's taking up your space.

[-] frayedpickles@lemmy.cafe 1 points 6 months ago
[-] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

Windirstat is way, way, way slower. WizTree scans my entire drive in literal seconds.

[-] leftzero@lemmynsfw.com 4 points 6 months ago

WizTree scans my entire drive

It doesn't, really. It's already indexed. It's a feature of the NTFS file system. It's the same way Everything Search can find files almost instantly, and what Windows Search used back when it worked properly in the Windows XP days.

Why Microsoft stopped using that and switched to whatever the current useless search function uses escapes comprehension, though it probably has something to do with them wanting to shove Bing results and other spam in there.

[-] gratux@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 6 months ago

WizTree seems to be quite a bit faster, with almost identical look&feel

[-] dan1101@lemm.ee 1 points 6 months ago

This is the answer, you can actually visually see what's taking the storage space.

[-] teije9@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 6 months ago

hp is notorious for pre installing apps that you dont need, it's called bloatware. you can maybe remove some of those.

[-] anothermember@lemmy.zip 0 points 6 months ago

Golden rule is to never use a computer with the OS that was preloaded. You'll never know what they put in there.

[-] BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

The hard drive may be 256gb but a big chunk of that is taken up by Windows and also there will be a hidden recovery partition. So 170gb sounds about right. You can't reduce how much space windows takes, and the recovery partition is worth keeping in case you get in to trouble.

There may be programs HP have installed that you can remove in add/remove software to make a bit more space. HP is notorious for bliatware - installing things to try and sell you stuff. Probably a good few gb may be that crap.

If you download a big game, then it's not a big deal if you're using that game. 80gb is still plenty. And you can delete the game when you're done and use that 90gb for something else.

256gb isn't much but it's enough unless you want multiple big games installed or have a big library of data such as movies or pictures.

Also it may be possible to upgrade the hard drive - depends on the model and how accessible the hard drive is. If you can access the hard drive to replace it then you could get a 1tb drive for example. There are guides online but basically you'd need to copy the existing drive to the new drive (would need a USB adaptor to mount the new drive first) and then swap the drives round. It very much depends on the laptop though.

Another option is an external hard drive connected via USB - it's not good for gaming or running big programmes but it is fine for storing movies and pictures.

If the priority is to have multiple different big games installed at the same time, then upgrade the hard drive. Most HP models it's generally doable without much fuss. More difficult with the ultra slim devices though. Search for your model online and see what people have done.

[-] frayedpickles@lemmy.cafe 2 points 6 months ago

Tbh I thought this was a shitpost trying to get people to Linux

[-] Patnou@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Nope so far I got it up to 170 gb with revo unistaller It just kind of makes me think I would have an air tight case for false advertising.

[-] Maestro@fedia.io 1 points 6 months ago

Lots of people commenting about the laptop here, so let me offer something different. What's that one game you downloaded? Because if it is Ark: Survival Evolved (or Ascended) then still having 80G left is pretty good!

[-] Carnelian@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Probably just a lot of bloatware. When I’ve been in this situation in the past, I did a completely fresh install of windows. Much smaller. Linux can free up even more space.

There really isn’t anything necessary from HP, but it also depends a lot on your comfort working with the computer so ymmv. I don’t know what’s gonna happen if 3 months down the line you need to call customer support for something. If it were me, I’d be thinking “worst case scenario I can just factory reset”, especially if I had everything important backed up somewhere.

[-] michael_palmer@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 6 months ago

Reinstall Windows and then debloat it. Here's a guide from AtlasOS. I recommend it to all my friends who have just bought a new laptop. I have no complaints from them. Windows Updates, Defender, Microsoft Store work as expected.

[-] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

You obviously need to download more RAM.

[-] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Chances are good you could get a new larger ssd installed, right off the bat you won't get the full amount of storage advertised, windows 11 takes up around 18 gb. I don't know how much junk HP loads however. 250gb doesn't really give much room anymore, unless it's for productivity.

[-] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

You can get a terabyte SSD for like $50 these days. It might be worth it to just upgrade.

[-] Blackmist@feddit.uk 1 points 6 months ago

Providing it's not soldered to the motherboard like Apple does with no way to add more.

[-] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 months ago

Clean install without the HP bloat, backup the important stuff elsewhere first.

Another thing: Are you subscribed to a bajillion mods? That is the case for me. My CoD Black Ops 3 is 30GB, with DLC is 90GB, after Steam workshop mods is 377 GB.

[-] Patnou@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

I never download mods. I make a point of it. If a game is released and stands on it own I may think about it but thats it.

[-] Siegfried@lemmy.world 0 points 6 months ago

Cant you upgrade the laptop? Would you share the model?

[-] Kaiyoto@lemmy.world 0 points 6 months ago

Just adding for op that crucial has some drives on sale right now.

[-] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

I'm concerned about OP's ability to upgrade a drive based on the nature of the question. I'd like to also throw in some help with cloning a drive.

[-] recreationalcatheter@lemm.ee 0 points 6 months ago

Try a Linux install of something lightweight like mint/xfce to eliminate OS bloat.

Steam has a built in compatibility layer you can manage from your library page, so if your laptop could run a game on windows it should easily run it on mint with the spared resources and you'll have all that spare space from ditching windows crap.

[-] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

Guy is asking if he can download free software to get more ssd space. And while TECHNICALLY Linux does fit the bill for this (and is awesome), I'm willing to wager OP does not have the technical skill set for it at this time.

[-] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 0 points 6 months ago

Why do you need "to get it to at least 200”?

[-] castlebravo404@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 6 months ago

Yeah, that's like 80% free. Windows itself is bloated and if you add a couple modern games on top of that... Good luck.

[-] teije9@lemmy.blahaj.zone -1 points 6 months ago
[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca -2 points 6 months ago

suppose

supposed

its

it's

170gb[.] [I]s there anyway

any way

I recommend swapping in a new SSD . Use something like clonezilla to mirror the SSD from the old one to the new.

Also see whether you can bump the RAM in that box: laptops often have a LOT of junk that starts on boot that just seems to eat RAM, not the least of which is Windows itself. Adding RAM will have the most immediate effect once you've found the space to install things.

this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2024
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