Absolute Minimum Windows 7 HD Space

What is the absolute minimum space you can install windows 7 in. I mean, does anyone have a fresh install with how much it takes? Don't tell me what Microsoft says. I think I had it installed in 7gb at one time. I am buying an ssd, for only the installation.

 

Around 10GB-12GB.

 

up to 30gb

 

Does Win 7 need to be stripped down in any way for it to take 10-12GB?

 

No. But many programs you install still include system libraries and such, as well as various things like drivers, directx updates, and so on, I wouldn't consider anything less than a 32GB SSD for Windows.

 

Ok.

Lol I had always thought of your signature as more of:
Answers : $2
Answers that require thought : $5
Correct answers : $20
Dumb looks : FREEEE

 

I am at 22gb with win 7 and my programs installed. And this is within a week of fresh install. I still have not installed Office, so Pita's estimate is about right.

 

On my old laptop I installed Windows 7 on a 20GB partition - later on reduced it by 5GB (I wanted a D drive so I can test stuff before putting it on the home server (websites)).

-> I could still reduce the volume further.

To be honest, I wouldn't worry about this too much - you do not need partitioning with a SSD, and if you need storage space a SSD is the wrong choice anyway.
Unless you regularly end up with large temp files the 40GB Intel would be enough for you.

On my current laptop I have a 160GB SSD in it, and have about 100GB free - that's with Vista, Adobe, Bit of MS Office, MikTeX and plenty of little stuff.
-> And Win7 needs less space than Vista as far as I am aware.

 

I would say that the minimum amount of space for Windows 7 and free basic programs such as CCleaner, OpenOffice (or MS Office), player (or codecs for WMP), antivirus, PDF reader, java, flash, web browser, QTLite, 7-Zip and web browser of your choosing equals around 15GB (maybe 20).

Since I usually install most needed programs such as 3ds Max, PS5 and video editing programs on the C drive... I end up having a total of about 60GB for the C partition (maybe 70 if needed).
With the rest being allocated to the D partition for storage of various data and multimedia.
Seems like the best option to me (depending on what you're doing with the OS).

If you are just looking to have OS and basics installed I described above, then 20GB should suffice (just in case).
I personally wouldn't go lower than that.

And if you are aiming to get an SSD, then a 32GB one should be enough.

 

I am not talking SSD only. I am getting an ssd for windows 7, and then a much larger hard drive for files and programs.

 

Turn off page file and hibernate, and make sure to move your Libraries folders to another drive. That should minimize future writes to the drive.

 

What SSD may I ask then?

Intel 40GB is enough, that's low cost (80GB will be faster though, or 160GB)

 

I think the smallest drive you can actually install windows on is going to be a 16GB drive (IIRC the minimum required space stated in setup was like 8255MB or something). There's probably no possible way to get a 10GB drive so you're stuck at 16, and you might as well just go for the 32GB drive for the not-so-large price increase.

 

I routinely install Win7 into 5 Gb VM virtual drives for testing other programs. But that is for quick and dirty testing of a single program. When testing is done the VM virtual drive is blown away and others are built as needed.

On VMs that my staff need to keep around for a while, we start with a minimum of 20Gb. We also set up the VM virtual drive as dynamically expandable so that we can easily add space when necessary.

On a real/physical machine, the smallest I've seen (without resorting to unnatural tools like RT7, etc) is approx 10 Gb, maybe a bit higher.

Don't forget that a windows installation (/windows or %systemroot%) requires 'enough' space for the base install from the DVD AS WELL AS running space for a page file and ALL updates you download.

This last is important; if you don't have enough free space available to %systemroot%, you will NEVER be able to download and install monthly patches or service packs.

As a point of reference, the SP1 RC for Win7/Server2008 can and often does require approx 7.5Gb of FREE space directly available to %systemroot%. Not on another drive, not on another partition. On the SAME drive/partition that %systemroot% lives on.

 

Microsoft actually recommends putting the pagefile on the SSD. It's actually a perfect place for it due to the way the file is accessed.

But I would agree with turning off hibernate and moving the libraries.

 

Well, I guess if you want a minimum install, pagefile is one spot to start with. These days most people can get away with no pagefile. But at a minimum I would set the pagefile parameters to minimum 256MB and maximum equal to your RAM.

 

( Green for 32-bit, blue for 64-bit. 64-bit sizes aren't exact, more like +/- 300 MB or so.)

Windows 7 RTM uses 7.5 GB or 10.5 GB, excluding pagefile and hibernating.
You're going to need more disk space of course, but you should move User folders to a HDD, see post 1 and 3 for two different ways to do it.
You can also move the Program Files folder, but I don't see the point in doing so since you want to take advantage of the SSD performance.

If you use vlite or similar the install size is 4.5 GB or 7.5 GB.
You need to remove at least Tablet, WMC, WMP, Natural language, language support (especially Chinese x2, Japanese, Korean), Help, Speech.

If you also remove winsxs you get 2.5 GB or 4 GB, but there are two consequences when doing this with vlite.
1. You have to enter some commands while installing, really not complicated.
2. Update will not work properly at first, this causes Update to install KB947821, which rebuilds winsxs folder structure.
Update will work after that, but it will not install all updates since some of them are made for features that are removed.
Read more here.

By using WAIK combined with vlite, the install size will be reduced to 1.1 GB or 2.4 GB.
Use the latest guide, do exactly as the instructions says and you'll be fine!

Caution! vlite and WAIK should be handled with care, vlite isn't even made for W7.
Reducing install size doesn't affect RAM usage much, or overall performance IMO.
Service Packs can't get installed when you have removed parts, so I suggest doing this after you have a W7 copy with SP1 included.
Also, it usually takes time to get what you want, be prepared to fail at least once, and spend more time than you thought you would.
I'm pretty sure someone will reply to me and say it's a waste of time.
Always test your ISO's in VMWare or similar.

 

Here's a list of what you can remove from W7 in vlite, very useful. It's recommended to follow the list, otherwise you may end up with a defect ISO.

RT 7lite is a good alternative, the reason I didn't mention it before is that vlite is used together with WAIK in the guide.

 

RT7Lite works very well with Windows 7. I only used VLite for Vista, so I'm not sure how they compare.

 

RT 7Lite isn't as fast or stable as Vlite. RT 7Lite needs (parts of) WAIK (1.6 GB) installed, while latest Vlite 1.2 only needs some files from Vlite 1.1.

On the other hand, there are components in W7 that you shouldn't remove, but actually, RT 7Lite isn't fool proof either.
I started with a clean copy of 2008 R2 and removed lots of components in RT 7Lite, and the ISO wouldn't even start installing.

The parts you can't remove in Vlite aren't large anyway, except for winsxs, but that can be fixed by also removing pending.xml, which makes the install trouble free.