Solid state disk drives (SSDs) are this year’s hot ticket item for computer users — and with good reason. SSDs can cut boot time in half, open bloated software applications in the blink of an eye, and save your files so quickly you’ll wonder whether anything happened at all. In short, an SSD will probably add more pep to your PC or notebook than almost any other upgrade.
But with new technologies come new questions and concerns. In the case of SSDs, questions about insufficient storage space and how to properly set up and care for SSDs are common. Read on for some answers.
Q: I purchased a 32 gigabyte SSD to use as a boot drive. It’s barely big enough to hold Windows 7 and the applications I use, so I frequently am on the lookout for files I can delete from it. Is there a tool that can help me pinpoint which folders are using the most space?
A: Folder Sizes (http://www.foldersizes.com) can be of great assistance in helping you to find out which folders and files on your SSD are consuming the most space. Just launch the tool, point it at your C drive, and it will start analyzing the folders immediately, showing you with a bar graph exactly which ones contain files that are eating up the most space. You can also use the tool to generate reports about duplicate files and — most importantly — the largest files on your SSD.
While 32 gigabyte (GB) SSDs are certainly affordable, they’re barely sufficient for a reasonably loaded Windows system. While the operating system itself and many applications will fit comfortably within that space, it’s the additional files that get created — including media databases and search catalogs — that can add unexpectedly to space requirements. For that reason, it’s important…