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General discussion

Hard Drive Shrinking?

Apr 25, 2007 2:28PM PDT

I've been running Vista for less than a week now, no problems so far. The only thing I notice is that my hard drive free space decreases by 1 or 2GB's a day without me downloading or adding anything. Is there a setting or something I need to adjust? Thanks

Discussion is locked

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That's odd...
Apr 25, 2007 2:51PM PDT

It could be something simple, such as a glitch in System restore taking up too much space for restore points, but it certainly shouldn't be happening. One thing I would suggest is downloading the free program TreeSize, which will let you quickly find out which directories are taking up the most space. With a few click you should be able to narrow it down to the specific folder, and from there find out what files are consuming your hard drive. If you encounter a problem tracking it back to the source let us know.

John

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System restore? That was my guess.
Apr 25, 2007 3:22PM PDT

I can't get into system volume access denied, as adm.
250GB hard drive
232GB usable C
10GB recovery D
55Mb utilities
177 free 79%
How much does Vista OS take up?
Dell E521 Vista Home Premium

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I like that little utility TreeSize
Sep 19, 2007 2:27PM PDT

Gives a clearer view of what's on my drives.

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Ditto
Apr 26, 2007 2:52AM PDT

This happens to me, but I don't worry about it, usually it takes away 1-2gb a day like you said then a week later I look, and I hav 2-3gb more than before it took it away Grin

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Hummm
Apr 26, 2007 2:58AM PDT

Thanks for the reply, I thought I was going crazy. Only been running Vista for a week now. I wonder what it is?

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May be a cause of the problem...
Apr 26, 2007 3:05AM PDT

i jsut did a quick google, apparently vista stores 15% of the hard drive for system restore points...

I have found a post on another site: [http://www.feeds4all.com/Item.aspx?ItemID=14209400]

Windows allocates 15 percent of your hard disk space for system restore. The slider bar which used to be there in Windows XP has been removed in Vista.You need to do some work with your command prompt for doing this now.
To change windows vista disk space usage, login as administrator and launch command line, and run vssadmin list shadowstorage to see the current allocation.
To change it, use: vssadmin resize shadowstorage /on=[drive]: /for=[drive]:
/maxsize=[size] That is, to limit System Restore to 'n' gigabytes on the C: drive, use: vssadmin resize shadowstorage /on=C: /for=C: /maxsize=nGB Of course, limiting System Restore's drive footprint also limits how far back it can store points.If you put very less space,Just keep a eye on your restore points regularly.


i havent tried it, this hard drive thing doesnt exactly concern me, but if you are concerned you could give that a shot

denni0302

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or...
Apr 26, 2007 3:08AM PDT
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Shrinking drive.
Apr 27, 2007 12:31PM PDT

For the first week the search indexing seems to use quite a bit of space and then frees it up as it settles down to what you use most often, as well as the restore files eating it for a while.

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Vista administrator
Apr 28, 2007 6:00AM PDT

I thought administrator in Vista was disabled?

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I don't know
Apr 28, 2007 6:22AM PDT

I went into System Restore and it shows only the last restore point. I have a D partition listed as 10gb recovery. I thought that was the Dell PC Restore. BTW I lost another 1.5GB yesterday. I still have 175 free but I don't know what's going on. ???

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Or you may simply...
Apr 28, 2007 1:42AM PDT

Go to the disk clean up utility and delete the system restore files up to the last system restore date. That's what i do at the end of each week. I usually get about 9GB back

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System Restore and Shadow Copy
Apr 28, 2007 9:12PM PDT

System Restore enables Windows Vista Users to recover the Windows without formatting and reinstalling Windows. Shadow Copy, a new feature introduce in Windows Vista which is only availabe in Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows Vista Enterprise could make you restore you old personal files. Both features are convenient but they need additional hard disk spaces to store the restore points and previous versions of your personal files. On the other hands, Windows and some programs need to create additional files to store your personal settings to make your programs start faster. All of these caused your hard disk space decreased dramatically. Unfortunately, you have free up your hard disk space manually and regularly. There is no automatic mechanism to solve the problems now. Maybe it will be available in next version of Windows. To free up your hard disk space, select control panel on your start menu, select System and Maintainence. Under Administrative Tools, select free up disk space. If you know the user name and the password of your administrator or you are using an administrative account, select files from all users on this computer. User Account Control will need the permission from administrator in order to continue. Select the hard disk drive which you will like to free up space, click ok. You can choose which one you will like to remove. Select More Options. Under System Restore and Shadow Copies, select clean up, then click ok.

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What if I have Home Premium?
Apr 29, 2007 4:04AM PDT

Does that work too?

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Shrinking hard disc space
Sep 18, 2007 6:23AM PDT

Hi,
I have an exactly similar problem as described in the thread.
My system specs are -
250 gb hard drive
2 gb RAM
windows vista home premium
core 2 duo processor
toshiba A205-S4617 laptop
I have been banging my brains on this for almost a month now without any success.
Does this system restore thing really work ?
Please let me know as i am otherwise planning to sell my laptop and buy a new one.
Thanks