Windows 10 A breath of fresh air.

PostModN66 · August 02, 2015, 08:11:31 PM

To Geoff and others -thanks for this thread; I probably would not have been aware of this and I have now successfully installed W10 on my laptop.

One question though - I have a 250Gb hard disk, and it is 90% full. My personal files are about 10Gb and I have MP3 files to the tune of about 11Gb. What are the other 200+ Gb? Is it all operating system? Or might the old Windows 7 files be there?

I di a complete fresh install - overwriting personal files, "apps" (!) and everything.

Cheers Jon

MikeDunn · August 02, 2015, 08:14:02 PM

The OS is 11GB; I suggest you have a very hard look at all your extra files !

PostModN66 · August 02, 2015, 08:21:03 PM

Thanks Mike,

Could you give me a bit more of a clue about what I should look for? Most of the directories on the C drive look like random digits...

The first is: OCa51595e888ffd4ae875c78c

The rest are mostly similar.

Sequence of events is

Install Windows 10 "fresh"
Install Microsoft office
Copy my files across from a removable hard drive
Install Avast virus checker....

Any tips gratefully received!

Cheers Jon

MikeDunn · August 02, 2015, 08:27:52 PM

Could be anything, but sounds like a local cache of an installed application. Have a look inside the folder(s) ... see what you find.

PostModN66 · August 02, 2015, 08:50:46 PM

Hmmm....

Checked the size of all the folders within C drive. Most of them are zero or trivial in size.

The only ones of any size are:

Windows 12.6Gb
Windows.old 40Gb
Users 24Gb

Which still doesn't add up to the 200Gb that it is telling me are used.

If I delete everything on the C drive, operating system, and all, and attempt to install Windows 10 again, will the installer still work?

Cheers Jon

austinbob · August 02, 2015, 08:56:51 PM

Quote from: PostModN66 on August 02, 2015, 08:50:46 PM
Hmmm....

Checked the size of all the folders within C drive. Most of them are zero or trivial in size.

The only ones of any size are:

Windows 12.6Gb
Windows.old 40Gb
Users 24Gb

Which still doesn't add up to the 200Gb that it is telling me are used.

If I delete everything on the C drive, operating system, and all, and attempt to install Windows 10 again, will the installer still work?

Cheers Jon

Don't forget all the applications you have installed - this could easily make up the missing Gigabytes!!

PostModN66 · August 02, 2015, 09:01:48 PM

Hi Guys,

I am getting a bit out of my depth here, but just to be clear -

I did a completely fresh installation of Windows 10; all I then installed was Microsoft Office and Avast.

I imagined that doing it this way would not leave any legacy files or programs from my Windows 7 OS - in fact that was the whole reason for doing it!

So I haven't installed any "Apps......" (Actually I am not really 100% sure what an App is...!)

I will try deleting the C drive and reinstalling Windows 10 ........ here goes....!

Cheers Jon

PostModN66 · August 02, 2015, 09:42:30 PM

Think I have sorted it.....

Seems to be "previous version of Windows" taking up 153Gb - now deleted.

What the hell was in there!!???

Cheers Jon

austinbob · August 02, 2015, 10:01:41 PM

Quote from: PostModN66 on August 02, 2015, 09:42:30 PM
Think I have sorted it.....

Seems to be "previous version of Windows" taking up 153Gb - now deleted.

What the hell was in there!!???

Cheers Jon

Probably the previous version of Windows and all the crap you've accumulated over the years!! Glad you got it sorted Jon

PostModN66 · August 02, 2015, 10:07:57 PM

Yeah...it's a bit disappointing though - I had hoped that the fresh install would really start from scratch by deleting all the accumulated crap and effectively starting with a blank disk, but obviously not as fresh as advertised!

For my other PCs I wonder if there is a way to format the disk and truly start from fresh........

Cheers Jon

MikeDunn · August 03, 2015, 09:01:01 AM

Sorry, but when you do an upgrade ... ...

If you want a totally clean build, you need to d/load & save the installer (to USB or DVD), make that bootable, and select a clean build. Or buy a new disk & do it to there ... SSDs are cheap enough these days for a decent size for the OS.

austinbob · August 03, 2015, 09:49:40 AM

Quote from: PostModN66 on August 02, 2015, 08:11:31 PM
One question though - I have a 250Gb hard disk, and it is 90% full. My personal files are about 10Gb and I have MP3 files to the tune of about 11Gb. What are the other 200+ Gb? Is it all operating system? Or might the old Windows 7 files be there?

I di a complete fresh install - overwriting personal files, "apps" (!) and everything.

Cheers Jon

Jon I believe that, even if you do a 'clean' install and reinstall all your applications, all the information relating to your previous Windows 7 installation and the installed applications are kept. This is done to allow you to roll back to your Windows 7 installation if you want to.
Once you're happy with your Windows 10 system you can Use Disk Clean to remove any files related to your previous Windows 7 installation and get all that precious disk space back.

Izzy · August 03, 2015, 11:11:06 AM

Just been delving into the issue of having to re-install Win 10 after the 1 year free upgrade period has ended, i.e. with regard to concerns that you'd then have to pay for it, should anything go wrong, failed HDD etc.

The answer, which may help those wanting a completely 'clean/fresh install' is to go here
and download this tool.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

It's the Win 10 installer, and the file from it can be put on USB flash drive or written as an ISO file to DVD. Although it states that you need to have a Win 10 product key, at the bottom is a clause that states that if you have previously upgraded the machine to Win 10 ( from 7/8/8.1) then this is not needed as activation will occurr when you go online. It seems to indicate that the server keeps a record of the upgrade to Win 10 status.

I thus take it that if you upgrade to Win 10 for free in the next year, and later the laptop/desktop whatever needs wiping and re-installing, then you can load Win 10 from this without problem. It is stated that if you have a Win 7 original machine all the OEM's hardware drivers may not be provided, (this might go for some Win 8/8.1 machines as well).

The answer here -as with the Vista upgrade discs of old - would be to use the OEM recovery discs you made (you did make them didn't you?) to load the machine as you first purchased it, and then upgrade it to Win 10.

It might be another option anyway.

Izzy

Oldman · August 03, 2015, 12:08:27 PM

Out of interest how much space does Windows 10 take up when installed?
Curious as have a 32Gb SSD primary drive.

austinbob · August 03, 2015, 12:38:58 PM

Quote from: Oldman on August 03, 2015, 12:08:27 PM
Out of interest how much space does Windows 10 take up when installed?
Curious as have a 32Gb SSD primary drive.

It seems that Windows keeps your old installation on disk in case you want to roll back. So 32gB may not be enough unless it stores the old stuff on different drive. I'm sure Microsoft must have considered this possibility and Windows 10 wil check for available disk space before installation.