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Windows Vista Where does the space go?

Discussion in 'Legacy Windows' started by Fang, 2007/09/29.

  1. 2007/09/29
    Fang

    Fang Inactive Thread Starter

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    I recently bought a Toshiba laptop with Vista and a 80 g hd which works out to 72 actual gigs. It booted up with 62g free. I just looked at it and now its only got 52g free. So I assume that windows update has used some of that for updates, gut dang 10g. :confused:
    Can anybody enlighten me on this usage and will it continue to drop or what?

    :)
     
    Fang,
    #1
  2. 2007/09/29
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    Hi Fang. I don't really have a solution for you but I am experiencing the same issue with Vista as well. Whenever I boot up my machine and go to my computer. The C:/ drive shows that I have 11.0 GB free space but if I go on Internet Explorer and browse for an hour or so then I check on the free space on my C:/ drive again it shows I have 9.5 GB free. :confused: Whats up with that? I don't understand it either, as to why my free harddrive space will just drop for no apparent reason just by browsing on Internet Expolrer. :confused: This is what I usally do to regain some of that lost space. :)

    Try this:

    1. Click Start<All Programs<Accessories<System Tools<Disk Cleanup.
    2.Choose the option to Delete Files from all users on this computer
    3. A UAC box should come up saying do you want to continue with this operation, click continue
    4. Once disk celanup finishes calculating how much disk space you can save on the machine a box will appear and let you pick what files you want to delete
    5. Put a check mark next to everything you want to get rid of except Hibernation File Cleaner
    6. Then at the top click the more options tab and then delete all of your old system restore points
    7. Click on the Disk Cleanup Tab then click ok then windows will ask you whether you want to delete the selected files
    8. Click delete files and let disk cleanup run
    9. Next download and run ATF Cleaner and delete all of the junk files on your harrdrive. http://www.snapfiles.com/get/atfcleaner.html
    10. When you run it click select all and everything that you want to cleanup will be selected.
    11. Hit Empty Selected and wait until you get a Done Cleaning conformation dialog box.
    12. Last but not least navigate to C:/Windows/Softwaredistribution/download and delete all of the contents inside of the download folder but don't delete the download folder itself then empty your recycle bin

    I usually do those things I mentioned above but for some reason I have to keep running disk cleanup a least twice a day because my free disk space seems to dissapear. When I had Windows XP my free disk space never changed at all unless I installed a Microsoft Update or a program. I just don't understand how your harrdrive space can be used up when you are not even doing anything. :eek: Its werid. Just like Fang said is there any way to stop Vista from using up your free harrdrive space? :mad:
     
    Evan Omo,
    #2


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  4. 2007/09/29
    noahdfear

    noahdfear Inactive

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    By default, some 10% of your hard drive is reserved for temporary internet files (don't hold me to that percentage ...... it may be different with Vista :rolleyes: ). Open your Internet Options and set it to 50~100MB max. That's more than enough to store quite a number of open pages at one time.
     
    noahdfear,
    #3
  5. 2007/09/29
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    Actually Dave, I set the amount of TIF's to 50 MB. I cant set the amount any lower than 50 MB because after I click ok and I go right back to TIF Settings its back at 50 MB. Also I have my days to keep in history set at 0 days as well. But even if TIF space on the harrdrive is supposed to only use 50 MB of space that shouldn't be enough to drastically change my free space from 11.0 to 9.5? :eek: Its somewhat strange. Can you think of any other reason as to why the free space disapeares on a harrdrive? :rolleyes:
     
    Evan Omo,
    #4
  6. 2007/09/29
    Ski52

    Ski52 Inactive

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    Lots to consider with Windows managing drive space. As was said - Temp files & Temp Inet files will burn a lot of space.
    Cookies can add up after a while - a cookie is typically 1K, but the default cluster size in NTFS is 4K. Which means a 1 byte file consumes 4K of disk space. The typical loss on my C partition which is 50G is near 100Meg. The majority of cookies on my machines are deleted when you exit your browser.
    More to consider - the Hibernation utility can use up lots of space - if you install a lot of things, the Restore files can get large.
    Constant changing of disk space can be attributed to the Paging file (Swap file). Set the minimum and maximum to the same to preclude the system constantly reallocating and rewriting disk space.

    Other things come into play also.
     
    Ski52,
    #5
  7. 2007/09/29
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    Hi Ski52. Yes there are actually a lot of things to think about when it comes to harrdrive space but the thing that I just don't understand is when I had Windows XP my harrdrive space didn't change at all unless I installed an update or program. I basically have all of the same settings in Vista as I did in XP. I have deleted all of the Temporary junk files on my system and still my harrdrive space jumps around all over the place. I have my paging file set to system manged and I have hibernation enabled so maybe that has something to do with the decreasing of my harrdrive space. I guess its just what Vista does and there isn't much we can do about it since Vista is a big resource hog. :rolleyes:
     
    Evan Omo,
    #6
  8. 2007/09/29
    Fang

    Fang Inactive Thread Starter

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    I have turned off auto update to see if that stops the drastic change. :rolleyes: will report back later.
     
    Fang,
    #7
  9. 2007/09/29
    mattman

    mattman Inactive Alumni

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    Windows tricks?

    Edit: Oops, I thought I had missing space, but overlooked "larger than" in the folder properties.


    I might try to find a disk space program, but I am not losing sleep over it.

    Good luck with the quest.:)

    Matt
     
    Last edited: 2007/09/29
    mattman,
    #8
  10. 2007/09/29
    Fang

    Fang Inactive Thread Starter

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    I did a google on it and it said system restore is some of the hog. So I turned it off and it recooped about 8.5 gigs. :eek:
     
    Fang,
    #9
  11. 2007/09/29
    charlesvar

    charlesvar Inactive Alumni

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    Hello Fang,

    Not a good idea unless you have another way to restore the OS such as imaging.

    I haven't found a way to control the max size of Vista's SR file the way it could be in ME and XP. Not looking too hard for now because dual booting with XP wipes Vista's SR file on a re boot :rolleyes:
     
    charlesvar,
    #10
  12. 2007/09/30
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    PeteC,
    #11
  13. 2007/09/30
    charlesvar

    charlesvar Inactive Alumni

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    Thanks Pete :)
     
    charlesvar,
    #12
  14. 2007/09/30
    Fang

    Fang Inactive Thread Starter

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    Yea I know, but I learned a long time ago to put my stuff on a disc if I really want a backup and the only thing we want are our pictures. So that cool restore disc they send with your pc is fun to run when your board and have nothin to do. I use to reinstall Win once a year when my virus sub was expired but found a way around that now. :)
     
    Fang,
    #13

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