Programs use WAY more space than manufacturer's required amount

[Aunnix]

Hi

Recently I built an new computer and after a few months I put in a new graphics card so I decided to buy a few games because they were VERY cheap around the holidays, lol. So first and foremost:

Intel i5 3570K 3.4 GHz CPU
Asus P8-Z77-V LK Motherboard
24gb Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3 RAM
(Initially) WD 320gb HDD (upgraded to) WD 750GB HDD
MSI Twin Frozr II GTX 660 2gb Video Card
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit

So after downloading and installing about 5 or 6 games my 320gb filled almost completely up. I felt like that was a bit soon for my drive to fill. The 320gb drive is a Green series so upgraded the hard drive to a Black series 750gb and, as I am downloading and installing the exact same setup as the last hard drive, I am tracking the amount of space each game is using. I found that all of my software uses WAY more space than what the manufacturers show on their websites as requirements. I've considered patches, but they would have to be pretty large.

Here are some of my findings. According to the MS website, Windows Pro is supposed to require 20gb of disk space. Add an extra 15gb for XP Mode installed, so that makes Windows a total of 35-40gb. It took 50gb of my hard drive space. Mass Effect 2 requires 15gb of space, and I lost 27gb after downloading and installing through steam. My Borderlands Game of the Edition through Steam says it requires 8gb but my hard drive used 15gb after downloading and installing through Steam (but I wondered if the 8gb just meant the main game is 8gb without the DLC packages?).

My Steam Client, Virus programs, and (for some reason) Adobe Design/Web Suite all used the amount of space the manufacturer's call for on their websites.

Any ideas or suggestions on a course of action or journey to seek knowledge would be great! Hahah

Thanks!

 

[Ijack]

One possible explanation of some of the difference.

You should be aware that every file that you store on a disk uses a minimum amount of space which is the cluster size, or an exact multiple of it. So a 1 byte file (as a ridiculous example) will occupy far more than 1 byte of disk space. This means, in particular, that if a folder contains a lot of small files it can occupy far more disk space than the sum of the individual file sizes. If you look at the folder properties it will tell you the total size of all contained files and folders and also the disk space occupied. It might be instructive to check this to see how much of the difference it accounts for.

 

[Sunius]

When you download a game through steam, it downloads installer and then installs the game using it. That's why they are taking double space: steam thinks it's OK to keep the installer after installation.

As for windows: my windows folder is 31 GB and 1 GB of users folder. 32 GB from windows only. Don't forget though, all the frameworks that have word "microsoft" are considered part of windows.

 

[Aunnix]

When you download a game through steam, it downloads installer and then installs the game using it. That's why they are taking double space: steam thinks it's OK to keep the installer after installation.

As for windows: my windows folder is 31 GB and 1 GB of users folder. 32 GB from windows only. Don't forget though, all the frameworks that have word "microsoft" are considered part of windows.

Hmm... well that's pretty horrible of Steam. Is there any way to remove the installer?

From what I've read, if you've installed the "XP Mode" 32 GB sounds about right as MS says Windows 7 Pro 64bit requires 20 GB and an extra 15 GB with XP Mode. After considering that, I still have 10-15 GB of used space by my Windows folder that I cannot account for unless they are patches/updates (which I don't find likely...).

 

[Sunius]

I don't have XP mode installed.

Also, you should be able to delete installers, though, I have no idea where to find them.

 

[Aunnix]

I don't have XP mode installed.

Also, you should be able to delete installers, though, I have no idea where to find them.

Then I'm not sure about Windows, but thanks for the comments. I will look into removing the steam installers.