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by Craig Lipski on Wed Jan 02, 2019 4:35 pm
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As will probably become painfully evident, I'm not a computer guy.  A few years ago I asked for advice here on what to get to meet my needs, and I've been happy.  Now I find that I'm using up a lot of my internal memory - mainly photos; it's no panic yet, and "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is", but I'll ask anyway.

I'm on the road for half the year, so I have a laptop as my primary workstation.  It's a Lenovo Think Pad W540.  I'm running Windows 7 Professional.  The system is as follows:

Intel Core i7-4930MX CPU @ 3.00 GHz  3.20 GHz
32.0 Gb RAM (31.6 Usable)
64-bit OS
(I don't imagine any of that matters, but again, I plead ignorance.)

My Device Mgr says, under "Disk Drives": LITEON IT LCT-512L9S SCSI Disk Device

I'm thinking of upgrading to a 1 TB SSD if possible, but I can't do anything for months (I'm on the road, and process files pretty much daily).  In the meantime, when I click on "Computer", and right click on "Widows7_OS (C:)" and select "Properties", under the capacity / usage pie chart, I see an unchecked box that says "Compress this drive to save disk space".  Free lunch or big no-no?  Also - disk cleanup; is this something I should be doing?

Sorry for the ignorant questions, and Thanks in advance.
 

by E.J. Peiker on Wed Jan 02, 2019 5:34 pm
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I wouldn't advise compressing the drive but there are many things you can do to free up tons of disk space. Do the following:

Install ccleaner and go to the Tools section and then select system Restore and delete all of the restore points that it lets you. If you have never done this, you could have 20-100GB of old restore points that you would never use. It won't let you delete the most recent one so you still have a restore point.

While you have ccleaner up, go ahead and run a cleaner cycle. If you don't routinely do this, you probably have several gigabytes of old internet junk on your computer. I would recommend unchecking the Cookies section for your internet browser prior to running it.

Next go to your downloads folder. you probably have many gigabytes of old program install files for versions you don't even use anymore. Plus, anything you have downloaded you can probably download again if you ever need it.

Go to your Control Panel and select Programs and unistall any programs you don't use anymore. Some people have Photoshop versions dating back many versions for no reasons as well as many other programs that they either never used or don't use anymore.

After you do all that, go back into ccleaner and under Registry, run a registry clean and then reboot.

If you haven't been doing any or most of this stuff, you will likely regain a quarter or more of your disk's space.
 

by Craig Lipski on Wed Jan 02, 2019 5:56 pm
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Thank you, EJ.
I do regularly get rid of downloads and run CCleaner, but I didn’t know about the restore points. Thanks for all the info!
 

by Bill Chambers on Wed Jan 02, 2019 9:14 pm
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E.J., should I get the free version or the Pro version? Since it's inexpensive, can I assume I should purchase the Pro version?
Please visit my web site, simply nature - Photographic Art by Bill Chambers
Bill Chambers
Milton, Florida
 

by E.J. Peiker on Wed Jan 02, 2019 10:12 pm
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The free version does everything you need.
 

by photoman4343 on Wed Jan 02, 2019 10:15 pm
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Craig, I do recommend you get the 1 TB SDD drive. I switched out my traditional spinning drive on my laptop about 18 months ago to a 1 TB SSD and it has made a big difference. Faster, cooler, less impact on the battery, etc. At the same time i switched to win 10 Pro from win 7 Pro. I am glad I did this too. If you do not want to do this, have your computer person do a fresh install of win 7 when you get your new SSD. With 32 GB of RAM on your laptop that laptop is worth keeping and upgrading. (My laptop is 6 yeas old now with 12 GB RAM, its max. )

What EJ said about running C Cleaner makes excellent sense. I never knew about removing old restore points.I need to do that too. I run C Cleaner every day on my laptop. And his other items are all worth doing.

Consider getting a good external hard drive too for your laptop's files so you have a backup. I use a Western Digital Passport, 2 TB and a 4 TB. I try and keep the 1 TB SSD at least 30-40% free.
Joe Smith
 

by Craig Lipski on Wed Jan 02, 2019 10:54 pm
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photoman4343 wrote:Craig, I do recommend you get the 1 TB SDD drive. I switched out my traditional spinning drive on my laptop about 18 months ago to a 1 TB SSD and it has made a big difference. Faster, cooler, less impact on the battery, etc. At the same time i switched to win 10 Pro from win 7 Pro.  I am glad I did this too. If you do not want to do this, have your computer person do a fresh install of win 7 when you get your new SSD.  With 32 GB of RAM on your laptop that laptop is worth keeping and upgrading. (My laptop is 6 yeas old now with 12 GB RAM, its max. )

What EJ said about running C Cleaner makes excellent sense. I never knew about removing old restore points.I need to do that too. I run C Cleaner every day on my laptop. And his other items are all worth doing.

Consider getting a good external hard drive too for your laptop's files so you have a backup. I use a Western Digital Passport, 2 TB and a 4 TB. I try and keep the 1 TB SSD at least 30-40% free.
Why Win10?  I guess the upgrade is inevitable, but when I upgraded my older desktop, I remember having to deal with a bunch of crap I didn’t want and that was constantly using internet (I live and travel in the boonies, so my internet options are limited). I understand that MS will soon quit updating 7 if they haven’t already.  

If there’s a 1Tb SSD drive that will work w/ my laptop, i’ll definitely do that - I have no desire to buy a new machine just for the sake of “new.”

I run CCleaner pretty much every day - I load all of the day’s shots straight to the computer before culling / processing, then clear out the non-keepers.  As my standards have changed, I’m trying to take some time every day to cull out old stuff; when I was shooting 10 Mpx shots, 500 Gb seemed infinite, then I went to a 16 Mpx camera, now 30 - space fills up a lot faster now!

I do have a WD 4 Tb external ssd for backup, too.  

Thanks for all the advice!
 

by photoman4343 on Fri Jan 04, 2019 12:01 am
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Craig, this spec sheet for your laptop says it takes M.2 SSD drives.

http://psref.lenovo.com/syspool%5CSys/P ... s_v471.pdf

You can contact Lenovo Support and ask them about win 10 and SSDs etc. I think this link may answer your question as it provides new drivers for win 10 64 bit.

https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/prod ... /downloads

If you live in a city with a good computer service department, take it to them and let them do all of the work.for you. They may charge you $150 in addition to the cost of new hardware, but they will do everything needed to get it right for you. That is what I did when I updated my laptop with a 1 TB SSD and win 10 Pro. They can advise you if you need win 10 Home or Pro. I have a home network and that is why I use win 10 Pro.
Joe Smith
 

by Craig Lipski on Fri Jan 04, 2019 8:51 am
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photoman4343 wrote:Craig, this spec sheet for your laptop says it takes M.2 SSD drives.

http://psref.lenovo.com/syspool%5CSys/P ... s_v471.pdf

You can contact Lenovo Support and ask them about win 10 and SSDs etc. I think this link may answer your question as it provides new drivers for win 10 64 bit.

https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/prod ... /downloads

If you live in a city with a good computer service department, take it to them and let them do all of the work.for you. They may charge you $150 in addition to the cost of new hardware, but they will do everything needed to get it right for you. That is what I did when I updated my laptop with a 1 TB SSD and win 10 Pro. They can advise you if you need win 10 Home or Pro. I have a home network and that is why I use win 10 Pro.
Thank you, Jim.  I’ll check out those links.
We do have a Best Buy Geek Squad a couple of towns over, but I’ll look for recommendations for other nearby options - ones that won’t be selling, just servicing!  I’m within an hour of 2 major universities, so I imagine this shouldn’t be a problem.
 

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