I'm Pissed!!!...and worried

I got a m1530 with a 7200rpm HDD and Vista Ultimate for Christmas and I like it but I have a problem that really is getting on my nerves. I thought 160gb would be sufficent and now I am considering a larger HDD but either way this aggarvates me. I have the pre-installed software, some updates, and AIM on my computer. That's it. I lose a least 1GB of free space on my HDD every day. I have lost 2gb today alone and installed nothing new. I'm figuring the space is being used for updates (It's the only thing I can think of) but when is this going to stop? I have 105 of 136GB free on my HDD. I realize the max capacity is due to formatting and such but what the hell happened to the other 31GB? Thanks for the help.

 

This happened to me, but it was because of torrents (Bitcomet was reserving the gb of space for what I was dloading). What I did was went to Start > Search and then sorted by filesize over 1mb, and then sorted the list from biggest files to smallest and deleted accordingly. If it doesn't work for you, you can email me and I will help you out remotely.

 

You'll probably get around 156gb total space, then you add Vista Ultimate (assuming ULTIMATE uses more space) which is probably like 15gb, then you add the Dell partition and that's probably like another 15gb, and updates and such and looks like it evens out.

EDIT: since you said it shows 136gb, that means the Dell partition is about 20gb... so maybe Vista is using 20gb.... that makes sense.

So maybe it's 156gb - 20gb partition - 20gb vista - x gb updates = your 105gb

 

Part of the space loosing process is that Vista can reserve up to 15% of your HDD to make backup copies of stuff. You can turn off System Restore and Shadow Copy and claim your space back if you wish.

 

damn dell recovery partition...I can do my own backing up and recovering THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Yeah, I deleted that partition 20 minutes after I got the notebook. Along with nuking vista, installing XP with 70GB space, Vista with 23GB, then 22GB for Ubuntu linux with the last gig for swap.

Although, Dell sucks at providing audio drivers for XP. Even tech support can't figure it out. Ah well, I get to chat with a nice philippino woman. She was pretty nice, but kept saying "Sir, I'm going to put you on hold for 5 minutes to...uh...get more information on the problem"

yeah. IE, she's going to ask for help from one of the other saps not with a customer.

 

Vista does several things like creating system restore points and making "shadow copies" of your work, that can really add up. Although I don't think it would take up 31 GB of space so soon. Maybe you should turn off System Restore to delete the restore points then turn it back on again.

To do this:

1. Hold down the Windows Logo key on your keyboard and press the Pause/Break key.

2. In the window that appears, look at the list to the upper left and click System Protection-Click Allow or enter the administrator password at the UAC prompt if it appears.

3. Uncheck the checkbox next to the "OS" disk in the list and click Turn System Restore Off in the box that appears.

4 Check the checkbox again and click apply. Close the window and see if you regained some disk space.

 

Thanks a lot for all the help guys. I really appreciate it. However, I do have some questions. Vashts, i performed a search as you suggested but I ran into a few issues. First, I do not know what files should be deleted. Secondly, the search only found 198 items, which were not very large, AND the most recent date for "last date modified" was December 25th. Obviously, new files have been added to my computer since Christmas. Booboo, before I reset system restore I want to be sure of what I'm getting myself into. If I do that and something were to go wrong, could I still restore my computer? Could it be restored to the original condition (the first time it was powered on) and how would I go about doing that? Greg, should Vista have claimed THAT much space ALREADY? As in, does vista reserve 15% of the HDD right of the bat or does it reserve HDD space as needed? And as a general question, when I first turned my computer on with nothing but vista ultimate and the Dell pre-installed software on the HDD, about how much free space should I have had? Thanks again everyone!
PS- I'm now down to 104gb but the amount of free space on the recovery drive (5.98 of 9.99GB has not change-ever)

 

Run WindDirStat to locate the space hogging files...

http://windirstat.sourceforge.net

 

I second WinDirStat. After reading the first few posts i was about to post it. you beat me to it!

Good luck. I think i'm going to get rid of my recovery as well. pointless now that i think of it. Also, i try to do all my torrents on my PC.

 

Ok, I can try that...so I just locate the biggest useless files and delete them? And if it reset system restore, can i still use my recovery partition to restore my computer to its original state? Oh and why is recovery pointless? Thanks

 

could always try just goin xp pro heh

 

Did exactly this and I got back about 20GB of space (Disk Space = 98.2 GB before, =117GB after). Cool!

 

(((( nah ))))

 

Don't worry, the recovery partition and Windows System Restore are two different things, you won't be deleting the partition. Also, you have a Windows Vista reinstallation DVD along with a Driver CD, that you can use to restore your system.

 

Booboo, I reset system restore but I did not regain any HDD space...
Ellian, did you regain that 30gb instantly?

 

try this.... http://liveslick.com/2007/09/03/is-vista-eating-up-your-hard-drive-space/

 

Yes, instantly. I checked right then.

 

How do you get rid of the recovery disk and incorporate it into the
c:/ drive?
I have a xps 410 that has the two disks.
Thanks,
Jane

 

Reformat and do a clean install, done. Save all your needed files before hand tho.

 

Thanks H3rman. The instructions on that websie tell you to type vssadmin shawdowstorage. First, I got an invalid command error. Then, it seemed to work but it says I Don't have the administrative priveleges to run that command yet I'm the only admin on this computer.

 

When you went to start and to command prompt, did you right click on 'command prompt' first and select run as administrator?

 

No, I didn't. Thanks for pointing that out but now, no matter what I type I get an invalid command error...

 

Wow. I finally got it and what a difference. Thanks a lot everyone. It freed up 17GB of space. I downsized the max shawdowstorage to 2GB it was set at 20.471.