Mac bootcamp Windows missing storage

[MaryBlackwell]

I partitioned my mac and installed windows 7 about a year ago. Today, I updated to windows 8.1, and I thought I did a clean install, but a large portion of my bootcamp disk space is still being used up although I have basically nothing on my new windows. Is it possible my old system came through and is taking up space? I'm really confused. Any insight would be really appreciated, thank you.

 

[chscag]

If you upgraded your Boot Camp installation of Windows 7 to Windows 8.1 then it just overwrites Windows 7 with new system files and drivers. There is no changing of the amount of space it occupies. Whatever partition size you allocated to Windows 7 will remain the same for Windows 8.1 regardless of how much space the new version takes up.

In order to do a clean install of 8.1, you would have had to erase 7 first. And that likely would have led to a Boot Camp failure whereas you would have had to start over. You probably did an upgrade installation of 8.1 over the top of 7.

 

[MaryBlackwell]

I did install over 7, I thought that was a clean install, because I didn't bring any files over? Guess not. I just don't understand why it's taking up so much space. I set aside 200GB which turned into 193gb of usable space but now there's only 103gb free. Shouldn't 8.1 only take up 20-30gb, where's the rest of it gone? Do I have to delete it all and start over to get that space back? I also have a folder that says
"windows.old" and it has 11.6 GB in it, can I delete this? And even then, I'm still using 50-60+GB on what?

Sorry if I'm not making a lot of sense, this is all really new for me.

 

[chscag]

Do I have to delete it all and start over to get that space back? I also have a folder that says "windows.old" and it has 11.6 GB in it, can I delete this? And even then, I'm still using 50-60+GB on what?

You can safely remove the "windows.old" folder after you look through it and make sure there is nothing there that you need. I doubt there will be since those files will be system files and likely loads of *.dll files from Windows 7.

All I can tell you is that a normal Windows 7 x 64 bit installation will easily take up 20 GB of hard drive space. And that's before you add programs and whatever fluff you like. Windows 8.1 x 64 bit is going to take up more space. I have no idea what else you have installed in your Boot Camp partition. However, if your Boot Camp partition has 193 GB of useable space and now you only have 103 GB free, that means you're using 90 GB. Subtract the Windows old folder and you're down to using around 79 GB. I'm not able to look at your hard drive so I have no idea what you have that could be taking up the space. What other programs have you installed in Windows?

 

[lclev]

Chscag is correct. When you installed or actually upgraded Windows 7 to 8.1 it created a Windows.old folder and put all your windows 7 stuff in it. This is done incase something goes wrong during the upgrade or you wish to roll it back to Windows 7. If you are done with it and know you don't want to roll it back just delete it.

Lisa

 

[MaryBlackwell]

I have a lot of files that have to do with gaming that seemed to come over from my old windows 7, like BOSS and fraps, but I'm not using them, because I have nothing installed. Is it safe to delete things that are dated from 2014? I just have all this stuff that was present in windows 7 but they don't even open properly on windows 8. Can I just delete them all? They're taking up a lot of space, I think that's my problem. My actual user account, my new one is only taking up 14gb. There's also 2 folders called program files and program files (x86) do I need both? If I delete windows.old and some old game files that frees up 24gb, 38gb including my account and then another 30gb maybe for windows 8? So that's 68gb accounted for, I'm still having trouble locating the rest. Do you think there's just a bunch of files that came over with windows 7 that are taking up space, that I can't use? Is there something I can download or buy to clean this up? I'm really at a loss.

 

[chscag]

I would be reluctant to delete anything unless you know for sure that it's not going to impact the running of Windows 8.1. As I stated previously, the windows.old folder can be removed if you don't need anything from there. As far as programs go, what you don't need can be removed via the Control Panel "Add Remove Programs" option. I wouldn't mess with either of the Program Files folders. You can remove programs from those two folders by using the Control Panel "Add Remove Programs". Other than doing a fresh from the start clean install of Windows 8.1, I would leave well enough alone. You are entitled to a free upgrade of Windows 10 so just wait until then to do a fresh clean install. Don't worry about some space you can't account for.

 

[lclev]

There's also 2 folders called program files and program files (x86) do I need both? If I delete windows.old and some old game files that frees up 24gb, 38gb including my account and then another 30gb maybe for windows 8? So that's 68gb accounted for, I'm still having trouble locating the rest. Do you think there's just a bunch of files that came over with windows 7 that are taking up space, that I can't use? Is there something I can download or buy to clean this up? I'm really at a loss.

Anytime you do an upgrade install you will get all the garbage with it. That is a problem with Windows. As for the program files and program files (x86) - YES you need both. One holds information for 64-bit programs (program files) and the other holds information for 32-bit programs (program files (x86)). If you delete either programs that rely on them will not work.

If you want to see what will happen with other stuff, move it to an external drive, make a note of where it was originally and see what happens.

Also a good and safe program to run to clean up the registry and delete junk is CCleaner. It had a free version.

https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

Lisa