Windows 7 Disk Space

I have dedicated 52 GB to bootcamp running Windows 7. I am using it as a student for some architecture programs not offered to Mac at this time. After the install process I downloaded AutoCAD at 6.4 GB and proceeded to download the last program, REVIT, totalling about the same. I could not accomplish REVIT because I was out of disk space. I check under "properties" of my bootcamp partition and apparently Windows operating system and all applications to run it left me with 9GB. Is this for real? Research after the fact maximized the space at around 16GB.

Added note: I've have bootcamp before only dedicating 32GB using all of th same disks and I had 16GB of free space.

I don't need a lot of space but I was expecting over 30GB. Any ideas why this is and more importantly, how I can fix this?

Thank you, in advance.

Here are some ideas:

Check to see how much swap space (page file) Windows 7 allocated. In my experience with Windows (all versions) the system gets overzealous with swap space. You may be able to reduce the swap space considerably. Also, how much space did you allocate to Windows 7 to use for the "automatic restore" feature. Again, Windows 7 will allocate too much. Reduce it to around 5% to 10% maximum.

And finally, if you decide you need to allocate more disk space to Windows 7, you can do it non-destructively with intelligent software. We recommend and use CampTune from Paragon Software. It's $19.95 for a license.

Thanks chscag, I checked those items out with no luck. Automatic restore was at 0% and I was able to salvage 1GB from the swap space. I added up individual file sizes of the 7 files on my C drive and summed them to 26GB. My hard disk still states that of the 51.9GB there are 48GB used. Any ideas where the hidden files may lay?

No idea unless AutoCAD and REVIT have a bunch of hidden files or scratch space stored somewhere. Windows 7 Home Premium x 64 bit should install in around 17 GB if I remember correctly. That's without programs of course.

The business edition and enhanced edition of Windows 7 x 64 bit use quite a bit more space with a default install. I'm thinking around 20 - 22 GB or maybe a bit more.

You may be forced to use CampTune to increase the Windows 7 partition space. Since you're going to be using AutoCAD and REVIT I would dedicate 100 GB to the partition. That should give you a fairly good margin of safety.

Thanks for the advise. A larger partition will be the next action allowing me to move on with my life.