Support Board
Date/Time: Tue, 25 Aug 2026 23:04:03 +0000
Sierra folder is Continually increasing in size
View Count: 500
| [2026-07-09 19:05:00] |
| lovelivelaught - Posts: 95 |
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Hello, I recently installed a new Sierra Chart because my previous installation had grown to over 400 GB, which was noticeably slowing down my computer. I installed the new copy on May 31, 2026, and its initial size was about 14 GB. Within a few weeks it had grown to 40 GB, and today it is already 43 GB. Why is the installation increasing in size so quickly? It seems to be slowing down my computer again. Are there any settings I should adjust to prevent Sierra Chart from continuously growing in size? Thank you. |
| [2026-07-09 19:41:15] |
| John - SC Support - Posts: 47651 |
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You are constantly downloading new data, so the amount of space that is taken up by Sierra Chart is going to grow. This is normal, and can not be avoided. Refer to the following for how to clear out old symbols and remove the files associated with them to clear up space: Chart Data and Chart Data Files: Cleaning Up Old and Unused Symbols for Efficiency This is also part of the reason why we recomennd installing Sierra Chart on its own SSD drive. Refer to the following: High CPU Usage | Inactive User Interface | Poor Performance | Long Time to Load Chart Data | Charts Reloading Often: 30.29 - Solid State Drives / SSD For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, use the Teton service: Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing |
| [2026-07-11 12:01:15] |
| Rui S - Posts: 250 |
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lovelivelaught, What takes more space is Market Depth Data data. If you don't need that data for long term back testing, just delete it from the installation folder (Data / MarketDepthData folder) of each Sierra Charts instance. You will be amazed how light it will become afterwards. |
| [2026-07-13 20:25:44] |
| lovelivelaught - Posts: 95 |
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I did thank you.The size of the folder dropped to 10G from 40 but it grew to 20G withing few days, it looks like I have to remove the data weekly
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| [2026-07-14 08:55:53] |
| Rui S - Posts: 250 |
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You probably have many tickers storing market depth data. If you don't need all tickers, instances or charts using market depth data, just don't use market depth for those. Out of six SC instances I have running during my trading session, only two are storing market depth data and just for one single instrument, the one I trade. Still, I regularly have to delete past market depth data anyway. |
| [2026-07-15 16:22:59] |
| Calculus - Posts: 139 |
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Love I don't know exactly what is happening but Sierra seems to use something like 'virtual space' on the hard drive. So what's happening - and I know this because it happens to me - is while Sierra is working, taking all the data in, it seems to use far more space on the hard drive than is needed. This is why you're seeing it massively bloat in size over a few days. But then if you reboot, all that bloat disappears, and for me the bloat is around the 10GB to 15GB level. It might have something to do with how SSDs work when running low drive space. I only have 25GB left and using Sierra for 5 days I might only have 5GB left. But when re-booted, all that space comes back. This is what I mean by 'virtual space'. As for the total amount of data Sierra needs every month, I collect a load of data on many different markets, and I reckon Sierra uses about 3GB per month in data. Date Time Of Last Edit: 2026-07-15 16:26:00
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| [2026-07-15 22:13:36] |
| lovelivelaught - Posts: 95 |
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Calculus, what do you mean reboot? What exactly do you do?
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| [2026-07-16 10:44:11] |
| Calculus - Posts: 139 |
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Reboot the PC, turn it off and on. As I said, Sierra seems to consume far more HD space than it actually needs when running real-time. I am slowly running out of disc space so in order to reclaim the disc space Sierra temporally uses, all I do is reboot the PC. Problem solved. |
| [2026-07-16 14:49:51] |
| John - SC Support - Posts: 47651 |
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Sierra Chart is not using up more disk space. What you are seeing is due to the operating system.
For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, use the Teton service: Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing |
| [2026-07-18 16:00:42] |
| Calculus - Posts: 139 |
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John, it sure is Sierra taking up the space because when I do my monthly backup of Sierra data, I manually go through every market I follow to download the data, ie go through my Quote Page entries one by one. So if I haven't looked at a chart of say IBM all month, when I click on IBM to load it into a chart, you can see all the missing data populate the chart (daily and intraday data). If I start the process above with say 15GB of spare hard drive space, by the time I've checked around 100-200 symbols, the HD space will be under 5GB. So I lose 10GB when there's zero chance Sierra needs 10GB for 1 months of data covering 100-200 symbols. Then I reboot, and so I get ALL my hard drive space back. That's how I know it's Sierra using up what I call 'virtual space'. However, it's not a problem at all because the reboot gets that hard drive space back. NOTE: This only happens when I have to download missing data over more than a few symbols. When I just use Sierra normally (no big data downloads) it hardly uses any HD space. Date Time Of Last Edit: 2026-07-18 16:18:59
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| [2026-07-19 15:19:32] |
| Calculus - Posts: 139 |
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For anyone running low on hard drive space, these 2 programs will help to delete unnecessary bloat such as temp files in your browser(s). Both are free - FCleaner - https://fcleaner.en.softonic.com/ Wise Disk Cleaner - https://www.wisecleaner.com/wise-disk-cleaner.html I run one after the other, doesn't matter which one first. And if you're using the Chrome Browser and want to free up 3GB-4GB, get rid on the AI rubbish. Go to Settings > System > and then turn off 'On-Device AI'. Date Time Of Last Edit: 2026-07-19 15:20:05
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