[jpzk]

Hi to all.

My PC "died" this past weekend and it turned out to be a dead power supply.
So, I took the PC to the trusty repair shop in town and they changed the power supply ... all is well in that department now.
Then, while it was there anyway, I asked the guy to install additional RAM. They took the old (2009) RAM out and installed two more modern "bricks" of 8 BG of RAM (DDR3), total 16 GB of RAM now. (using P.S. CS5 ... that should help).

The problem.

I had only 50 GB left on my main 125 GB SSD when I took it to the shop and now I have only 35.5 GB left !!
No added programs, just took it there and they did the hardware changes and I brought it back home a few minutes ago.

The question: where has that 15.5 GB of storage gone???

If someone could come in and offer an opinion/suggestion/remedy, that would be great!
Thanks!!

Edit:
I just browsed Photoshop "Edit" >"Preferences">"Performance" and noticed that "perhaps" something has changed in there ?? Not sure at all though ... just a guess that maybe it has something to do with the loss of storage?
Here's a PrntScreen of that:

Attached Images

 

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Last edited by jpzk; 04-24-2017 at 11:42 AM. Reason: added information

[lightbox]

It's most likely the paging file used by Windows. You can turn it off but you risk crashing and losing your work if you run out memory, and you may lose the ability to hibernate.

Since you increased your RAM, the OS has expanded the amount of disk space that it uses to supplement your physical memory. This all goes into a pool of virtual memory. Think of it as reserve memory.

The disk is used to offload things that are not currently being worked on, or to save state when you suspend or hibernate your PC.

[VoiceOfReason]

Paging file is what did it.

[jpzk]

It's most likely the paging file used by Windows. You can turn it off but you risk crashing and losing your work if you run out memory, and you may lose the ability to hibernate.

Since you increased your RAM, the OS has expanded the amount of disk space that it uses to supplement your physical memory. This all goes into a pool of virtual memory. Think of it as reserve memory.

The disk is used to offload things that are not currently being worked on, or to save state when you suspend or hibernate your PC.

Thanks for the info ... much appreciated!

Well, I never thought that adding RAM would suck storage space on that SSD.
I think it is time for me to get back to the shop and have them install a larger SSD ...
I will dare asking yet another question: according to the Photoshop print screen shot I posted here, does it seem OK to you?

Thanks again !

[gerardbaron]

Hi to all.

My PC "died" this past weekend and it turned out to be a dead power supply.
So, I took the PC to the trusty repair shop in town and they changed the power supply ... all is well in that department now.
Then, while it was there anyway, I asked the guy to install additional RAM. They took the old (2009) RAM out and installed two more modern "bricks" of 8 BG of RAM (DDR3), total 16 GB of RAM now. (using P.S. CS5 ... that should help).

The problem.

I had only 50 GB left on my main 125 GB SSD when I took it to the shop and now I have only 35.5 GB left !!
No added programs, just took it there and they did the hardware changes and I brought it back home a few minutes ago.

The question: where has that 15.5 GB of storage gone???

If someone could come in and offer an opinion/suggestion/remedy, that would be great!
Thanks!!

Edit:
I just browsed Photoshop "Edit" >"Preferences">"Performance" and noticed that "perhaps" something has changed in there ?? Not sure at all though ... just a guess that maybe it has something to do with the loss of storage?
Here's a PrntScreen of that:

Most of it are system restore files and paging files
Right click on the c: then properties
Then clean
Click on advance
Clean system restore files
The system will keep the two last one

[jpzk]

Most of it are system restore files and paging files
Right click on the c: then properties
Then clean
Click on advance
Clean system restore files
The system will keep the two last one

I actually did a disk cleanup moments ago and that gave me just a few bits of storage ...
I also regularly do a disk clean up since my SSD is rather small (125 GB) and full of programs .... can't afford to loose more !

[lightbox]

You can also move the pagefile to a different disk (e.g, from C:\ drive to D:\ drive, assuming they're different physical drives and not just partitions on the same drive) which will free up the space from your SSD. But if you ever lose the drive that stores the pagefile​ you could have some problems. Best to keep it on the same partition as your OS.

Can't comment on the Photoshop settings- I've never seen that before.

[jpzk]

It's most likely the paging file used by Windows. You can turn it off but you risk crashing and losing your work if you run out memory, and you may lose the ability to hibernate.

Since you increased your RAM, the OS has expanded the amount of disk space that it uses to supplement your physical memory. This all goes into a pool of virtual memory. Think of it as reserve memory.

The disk is used to offload things that are not currently being worked on, or to save state when you suspend or hibernate your PC.

Paging file is what did it.

Better leave this paging file alone then.
As I mentioned, I will get a larger SSD ...

Has anyone peek at (my) the settings for Photoshop? Any opinion on that?

Cheers!

---------- Post added 04-24-17 at 03:11 PM ----------

You can also move the pagefile to a different disk (e.g, from C:\ drive to D:\ drive, assuming they're different physical drives and not just partitions on the same drive) which will free up the space from your SSD. But if you ever lose the drive that stores the pagefile​ you could have some problems. Best to keep it on the same partition as your OS.

Can't comment on the Photoshop settings- I've never seen that before.

Thanks for the reply.
"Best to keep it on the same partition as your OS." as you mention AND for me to change this "small" SSD.

[pres589]

Wondering if the Windows 10 sorta-forced update is sucking up some space as well.

[Dipsoid]

If it's not the system page file, PhotoShop stores quite large temp files in your temp directory. I've definitely cleaned upwards for 20 gigs of PhotoShop temp files out of my temp folder before.

[VoiceOfReason]

Drop your Photochop back down some to roughly 8gb, also you can change your pagefile size back to 8gb if you want rather than leaving it as system managed.

[Not a Number]

If you are letting Windows manage the page file size the maximum size on 64bit systems will be the larger of 3×RAM or 4GB. It depends on how often you fill your physical RAM but if you are like most users you probably don't need more than 2-4GB. You can run performance logs to see how much page memory you typically use. Or keep it system managed but shrink it down and monitor how large it grows.

Since you have more than one drive you can split the page file and put the bulk of it on your regular hard drive.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2860880/how-to-determine-the-approp...ons-of-windows
Make Windows 10 performance sing by tweaking RAM, service settings

[jpzk]

Wondering if the Windows 10 sorta-forced update is sucking up some space as well.

I have Win 7 64 bits.

---------- Post added 04-24-17 at 04:37 PM ----------

If you are letting Windows manage the page file size the maximum size on 64bit systems will be the larger of 3×RAM or 4GB. It depends on how often you fill your physical RAM but if you are like most users you probably don't need more than 2-4GB. You can run performance logs to see how much page memory you typically use. Or keep it system managed but shrink it down and monitor how large it grows.

Since you have more than one drive you can split the page file and put the bulk of it on your regular hard drive.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2860880/how-to-determine-the-approp...ons-of-windows
Make Windows 10 performance sing by tweaking RAM, service settings

I have Windows 7, 64 bits actually.
Is there another place/link relating to the same information for Win 7 ?

---------- Post added 04-24-17 at 04:52 PM ----------

If it's not the system page file, PhotoShop stores quite large temp files in your temp directory. I've definitely cleaned upwards for 20 gigs of PhotoShop temp files out of my temp folder before.

Which Temp folder do you mean?

---------- Post added 04-24-17 at 05:06 PM ----------

If you are letting Windows manage the page file size the maximum size on 64bit systems will be the larger of 3×RAM or 4GB. It depends on how often you fill your physical RAM but if you are like most users you probably don't need more than 2-4GB. You can run performance logs to see how much page memory you typically use. Or keep it system managed but shrink it down and monitor how large it grows.

Since you have more than one drive you can split the page file and put the bulk of it on your regular hard drive.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2860880/how-to-determine-the-approp...ons-of-windows
Make Windows 10 performance sing by tweaking RAM, service settings

I've just checked and saw that during a Photoshop run (with this forum running), the
"In Use" memory is 3124 MB
"Standby" memory is 3973 MB
"Free" memory is at 8904 MB
There is still a bit used by "Hardware reserved" (275 MB) and "Modified" (140MB).
I can't really see how much "page memory" I am typically using though.

Anyway, the bottom line is :
"Would I be better off just upgrading to a (much) larger SSD for my main drive and let everything run the way it is" ?

---------- Post added 04-24-17 at 05:07 PM ----------

Drop your Photochop back down some to roughly 8gb, also you can change your pagefile size back to 8gb if you want rather than leaving it as system managed.

Interesting option ... Looking into that too !
Thanks!

[lightbox]

Anyway, the bottom line is :
"Would I be better off just upgrading to a (much) larger SSD for my main drive and let everything run the way it is" ?

Yep. As usual with technology the cheapest option is the one that involves compromise. :P

Anything you do to tweak the pagefile will either limit you in some way or introduce another possible point of failure.

[Parallax]

With that much ram you don't need a page file at all.
I have half that much and don't run a page file. Npt only does it free space, it speeds things up.