Fresh Install 2 machines same programs but one uses more HDD space?

I just got the Intel 160GB G2 for my desktop and a Crucial C300 128GB for my laptop.

I know the Intel has a higher capacity but I am going by used space.

I did a fresh Windows 7 x64 install on both machines via the Windows 7 disk and installed exactly the same programs on both machines.

However my Desktop is using like 4-5GB less space??? I cant understand, nor can I track down why.

Same Adobe programs, same 2 games, same video card drivers, same misc programs.

No Hibernate files (turned off on both) anybody think they have a reason for this strange occurrence?

Im wondering if somehow one SSD just holds/compresses data better than the other? If its not that my next best guess is that Intel SSD optimizer tool may have something to do with it.

I have installed 5 extra games on the Desktop now and the HDD uses is just breaking even.

 

Laptops does have more "Stock Bloatwares" such as extra software that control your media, OSD, etc. Although, 4-5 GBs worth of bloadware is a little too much. Did you check the restore points on the laptop?

 

I think some of that is 'page file reserved' based on the amount of ram the system has (take a stick of ram out, and see what it says for used space)

 

Open up a DOS window, issue "Dir C:\ /s/a > c.dir" to get a full directory into a file. Then, using an editor with sorting capability, edit the file, figure out which columns contain the file size data and sort descending upon that field. Do this on both systems and compare the big files at the top of the sorted directories. If it's not apparent that way, you probably have a lot more subdirectories/folders on one than the other. Regardless, by eyeballing the directory listings, you can soon find out what's going on.

 

Laptop has 8GB Desktop has 4GB

No bloatware on the systems this is a fresh win 7 install from windows media not the laptops OEM media.

 

Just check the size of the page files..
Mind windows updates as well, if 1 had has run more than the other.

or...
Disktective works wonders!

 

yea, then most of that is 'page file reserved' I don't exactly know how to stop it from happening, but when I have 8GB ram installed in my system it uses 4GB more hdd space (about 8GB total) than when I had 4GB ram installed. That is with pagefiling disabled.

If you were to physically remove one of the sticks of ram, you should see that disc usage would go down by the size of the stick of ram removed.

 

I assume it's just "shadow" space reserved for system restores. IT'll be larger on different drives I guess.

 

Laptops and desktops use different drivers. So different amount of space is required for their installation.

Also, if you're allowing Win 7 to decided on its own the amount of virtual ram used, the amount taken from the harddrive to simulate this virtual ram can be different between both your systems. By default virtual ram is set to 1.5x the amount of ram. That could explain the 4-5GB difference.

 

The one thing to keep in mind is that the laptop is the one using about 5GB less space with the smaller sdd and larger amount of ram, not the other way around.

I'll go ahead and try to look up the page file space and see if there is a difference.

 

also check default block sizes on the two drives.