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Waves Audio Inc. folder on "C:" drive taking a lot of space


abacab

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I discovered that the Waves folder on my PC was taking up almost 10GB of space on my system drive. Seems that they accumulate a lot of stuff here. Strangely enough, I found it at "C:\Program Files (x86)\Waves".

So I moved the entire folder to my secondary drive, and replaced it with a directory junction at the original location, using an elevated (admin) command prompt:

"mklink /J "C:\Program Files (x86)\Waves" D:\Waves".

Waves plugins are running normally, and I clawed back 10GB of free space! :)

 

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  • abacab changed the title to Waves Audio Inc. folder on "C:" drive taking a lot of space

i use the WinDirStat app periodically to find folders that are "heavy" - Waves, and a number of products including Slate, any number of virtual instruments etc often install some large libraries and supporting files into the ProgramFiles and Documents folders as well as Program Files folders. i think at this point i have about 30 links to move this stuff off my C:/ drive on onto my contents drive.

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14 minutes ago, Glenn Stanton said:

i use the WinDirStat app periodically to find folders that are "heavy" - Waves, and a number of products including Slate, any number of virtual instruments etc often install some large libraries and supporting files into the ProgramFiles and Documents folders as well as Program Files folders. i think at this point i have about 30 links to move this stuff off my C:/ drive on onto my contents drive.

I used to use WinDirStat, and that gets the job done. But I've switched to TreeSize Free, which does basically the same thing, but scans a lot faster. https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free

I was surprised that I never noticed this big chunk hiding in the 32-bit "C:\Program Files (x86)" path before. Must have assumed that all of my recent additions to Program Files would be in the 64-bit path. Oh well, lesson learned. Just thought I would share.

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I'm curious...what kinds of file extensions do you see in there?

I have only a handful of Waves products, but there is only 71 MB in my \program files (x86)\waves folder. That includes old install bundles going back to 2015 (IIRC, the year Waves first offered a non-iLok option, and consequently the year I bought my first Waves product). The plugins themselves are typically half a megabyte in size, and though I don't follow Waves anymore I'm pretty sure their catalog hasn't expanded to 20,000 plugins.

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1 hour ago, bitflipper said:

I'm curious...what kinds of file extensions do you see in there?

Basically all of the resources that make the Waves plugins tick, for every Waves version I have ever had installed. Except for the Waveshell VST and VST3 files, which are where you would expect them to be, in their respective plugin paths.

Waves TreeSize.PNG

Edited by abacab
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yeah, my Waves folder is about the @ 9.6GB (after clearing cache and using on v11/v12 plugins), Slate @ 7.7GB, CbB @ 3.5GB (Dim Pro, etc), Kontakt libraries @ 15GB total - but they're all on the D drive where i have content and project files.

within the Waves folder are all kinds of file types which are the working bits and only the shell DLL are in the VST and VST3 directories.

Edited by Glenn Stanton
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2 minutes ago, Glenn Stanton said:

yeah, my Waves folder is about the @ 9.6GB (after clearing cache and using on v11/v12 plugins), Slate @ 7.7GB, CbB @ 3.5GB (Dim Pro, etc), Kontakt libraries @ 15GB total - but they're all on the D drive where i have content and project files.

Good point. Definitely also clear your Waves Central cache. I always seem to end up with a few GB left in there after I install plugin updates.

I am only showing 3MB  in there now, but I recently cleared a bunch out of there as well.

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Band in a Box can be another offender, although you have more choioces. Even though you tell  the installer to install the RealTracks and RealDrums content elsewhere, if you take the default for the main BB folder, it goes onto (C:). I assumed that would only be the program and resources folders, but it was about another 20GB on my system with the UltraPak version.

At least the installer lets you choose a different folder for that at install time. So I uninstalled it and reinstalled the entire thing on my (D:) drive.

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5 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

Also, I notice that @abacab seems to have a couple of Gigs in "unused plug-ins" folders. That seems....wasteful, if they're actually not being used?

And they will stay that way, as I do not want to bork up my Waves installs. I think that overall the Waves plugin architecture is a delicate train wreck in motion, and I don't care to upset the balance by deleting anything. Waves can kiss my a**, but I do intend to keep using the plugins that I have bought.

Besides, I moved that Waves folder to a secondary drive that has hundreds of GBs of free space. This topic was about getting the sh*t off of the [C:] drive, so mission accomplished for me! :)

 

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  • 5 months later...

Have you tried changing the sample libraries data folder location in Waves Central setup? I moved the location to another drive on my Dell e6420 using an adapter that replaces the DVD drive with a hard drive. Moving them freed up a little over 46GB of space on the system drive. I've never had any serious problems with Waves, and they're a lot easier to manage than some other vendor's plugins. The important thing to remember is not to manually move around files without understanding the consequences.

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50 minutes ago, PittsburghSteelMan said:

Have you tried changing the sample libraries data folder location in Waves Central setup? I moved the location to another drive on my Dell e6420 using an adapter that replaces the DVD drive with a hard drive. Moving them freed up a little over 46GB of space on the system drive. I've never had any serious problems with Waves, and they're a lot easier to manage than some other vendor's plugins. The important thing to remember is not to manually move around files without understanding the consequences.

If you re-read my OP, you will notice that I moved everything Waves to my "D:" drive with a directory junction. Using that method, the Waves system still thinks I'm using "C:".

Less chances of breaking the delicate Waves plugin structure, IMHO. Although YMMV. I'm glad to hear that Waves Central fixed it in your case.

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