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    Hard drive space "vanishing?"

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by Dynamo44, Aug 16, 2008.

  1. Dynamo44

    Dynamo44 Notebook Consultant

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    So, I've noticed that my M1530's hard drive slowly loses space for no reason. It doesn't happen in chunks of say, 20 or so GB, but I notice 1-2 GB getting used up every two or three days for no reason. I've looked around on the net and have found theories that this has to do w/ Vista's System Restore and/or shadow restore having to hold onto 15% of my hard drive for restore points.

    Is this really the case, and if so, can I disable the functionality? If not, what could be causing this problem? Thanks!
     
    Dynamo44, Aug 16, 2008
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  2. stewie

    stewie What the deuce?

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    Yeah it's probably the System Restore and Shadow Volume Copy, it could also be some software from Dell. I'm not sure what Dell uses, but I know Lenovo has their own. You can disable System Restore and Shadow Volume Copy, but you can't just disable one of them, they're linked to each other.

    http://www.howtohaven.com/system/turn-off-volume-shadow-copy-vista.shtml
     
    stewie, Aug 16, 2008
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  3. crash

    crash NBR Assassin

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    crash, Aug 17, 2008
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  4. swarmer

    swarmer beep beep

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    It uses 15% of total disk space or 30% of free space, whichever is smaller. (Source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=243 ). So, don't worry about it. Why do you need empty space? As your disk fills up, Windows will throw the oldest restore points out the window... which is exactly what it should do. If for some reason you should need a lot of disk space all at once, before Windows has time to delete the old restore points on its own, then you can run Disk Cleanup to delete them.
     
    swarmer, Aug 17, 2008
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