500GB hard drive almost full :(

It still shows 33GB available.

I downloaded TakeOwnership, so now I can at least look in folders that were not accessible. The RRbackups folder is located in C:\Program Files (x86). It shows as 1.67MB. Previously, there had also been a RRbackups folder in C:\ that was inaccessible. I took ownership of it & it was small. I deleted it, but it only gave me back a meager amount of space.

Is there anywhere else I need to look, now that I seem to be able to access folders I previously wasn't able to?

 

In Explorer click Organize on the top left then Folder and Search Options. On the View tab click Show Hidden Files and also uncheck Hide System Files.

Now look in C: and See if you see the RR Backups folder. What size is it (if it exists)? (right-click and select properties)

 

I'm just looking for the RRBACKUPS folder that was shown in your screenshot from post #14. It should be in the root of C: not in Program Files. It should still be there if you are missing so much space.

I'm thinking just uninstall the program and see if the space is reclaimed. Maybe use Revo uninstaller to double check that it gets all the residual bits of the program. Seems to me if it is Lenovo's program causing this problem they should have just told you to uninstall it. I don't know why they didn't just do that at the time of your service call.

 

RRbackups = 1.67MB

 

If you haven't deleted the program yet you could try this just to see if it makes any difference.

To clarify in my last post when you go to Folder and Search options and the View tab there are two things you want to change 1) check-->Show Hidden Files and a few lines down 2) uncheck--> Hide Protected Operating System Files

There should still be a large folder directly in C: call RRBackups

 

I haven't deleted the program yet. Following those instructions, the backup location was set to USB external storage (which isn't attached). It won't change to Network because the laptop's not networked. Checking on local backups, it says there are none.

C:\RRbackups is 1.67MB.

 

I really don't know what is going on with your laptop. I don't understand how no program will show what files are taking up the space.

From the various threads I have read more than half the people get their space back by deleting the R&R recovery program. The problem definitely seems Lenovo related it correlates to so many threads of people having space disappear on Lenovo machines. I can think of no other program that hides its files so carefully. You've already tried turning of backups so I think your only choice is to delete the program and see if you get your space back.

The only other thing I can think of is to run a Linux live CD or USB and look at your C: drive from that. Linux will show all Windows files no matter how hidden they are under Windows. You could delete a large folder related to R&R if found using Linux.

[BTW, I have found nothing about a registry edit for this problem so I don't know what that is about. Everyone seems to eventually fix the problem by deleting all backups and turning off scheduling or uninstalling the program]

 

Under Add or Remove Programs, the program R&R was listed as 85MB. I removed it & it required a reboot. I noticed reboot took a little bit longer than usual. The R&R program appears to have been successfully removed.

I now have 33GB available space

 

I going to ask Caliban and Satrow to take a look at this and see what they think is going on. In the mean time try clearing your Windows System Restore points again to see if that makes a difference.

Type System Restore in the start/Search box. In the list select Create Restore Point. At the bottom of that Window is an option to delete all Restore Points. Choose that and then check your disk space.

Then go back and actually create a new restore point so you have one available.

My only thoughts on this are that 2 days ago you had a folder of 183gb for rrbackups that was considered a hidden system folder. It is possible that there was a copy of this folder because it was considered a system file. So two copies at 183gb are somewhere taking up space. The question is where and how to delete them.

 

It says System Restore is turned off. I believe it has been for a very long time, as I'm using Rollback Rx. I did go ahead & take another snapshot, so now I have the baseline & 3 snapshots. Then checked my available space & it's still 33GB, so the snapshot didn't gobble that up.

It says that SR can affect drivers & recently installed programs, which concerns me.

 

That is normal: it just means if you restore to an earlier time before a driver update then you will be using an older version of the driver.

Let's see if someone has an idea. I'll read a bit more looking for people that uninstalled the program and still didn't regain their space.

***
One thing that i am wondering about is why when you did chkdsk did you do it on D: rather than C:? I realize the volume label for D: was the same as your C: drive and the sizes looked correct by why D:?

In Disk Management you have a large C: drive and a very small recovery partition--is that correct?

 

I wasn't able to do chkdsk locally. Had to download a W7 recovery disk & use it. At first, I did do it on C:, but it thought the recovery disk was C:. So, I had to do it using the letter D: to get my laptop's C:. Hope that makes sense.

Yes, large C:. Recovery Partition is only 9.76GB (with 2.73GB free).

 

Hi,

I talked with Caliban and Satrow and we think that a Live Linux CD is the way forward to get a look at the complete file system including the parts hidden from Windows.

It would be a matter of downloading a Linux ISO and burning it to CD and booting from the CD into Linux. You would not be installing but running directly off the CD. You don't have to know anything about Linux as it now has a very Windows type desktop that should be familiar and easy to navigate. You would just be browsing the C: drive and checking the Properties of the main folders to see which is taking up all the space.

Two ISO I would choose from would be:

PartedMagic which is relatively small at 157mb or
Linux Mint which is 700mb but more of a full Linux OS that might be just a bit more user friendly.

Both will give you what you need. (I just tested Parted Magic and the only reason I say it isn't quite as user friendly is that when you select Properties on a folder and then go to close the window if you hit OK rather than Cancel it asks if you want to apply changes even though you haven't changed anything. You can just answer No to applying changes or instead of originally hitting OK choose Cancel.) Just a bit off-putting but not a big deal.

Burning the ISO would be exactly the same as before using imgburn.

****
What occurred to me last night was this may be a matter of too much of a good thing. You have emptied the Lenovo RRBackup folder which should have solved the problem. Perhaps it is now Rollback that has saved shadow copies of the large RRBackup folder. I haven't used RollBack but my understanding is its purpose is to keep a copy of all files on the HD ready to be restored no matter what a user does to delete them. This would explain why after deleting that large folder you did not recover space. RollBack may be keeping a copy of the folder ready to restore it.

I realize you said RollBack's initial start point was only 333mb but how big are the snapshots from 4/06 and 4/11? It seems to me if RollBack functions as advertised that it must have a copy of the large folder ready to restore.

 

Caliban & sach2,

I truly appreciate your input in trying to help me solve this terrible dilemma. All of the troubleshooting was very time-consuming for me (as I know it was also for each of you) and I was getting behind in my work, forcing me to put in 18-hr. days until now just to catch up, thus my silence in this thread.

A friend who has done computer work for me since back in the DOS days (and, in fact, over the years has built several desktops for me) became available, so I turned this laptop over to him last night. He called me this morning to say he'd found and fixed the problem.

Here is his description of what was wrong:


"The problem was RollBack RX. I went into the RollBack program and found two ‘snapshots’, one dated 4/7 and the other 4/14, that were over 190 gig each. That’s odd since you only have about 50 gig of total space used on the drive. I deleted those snapshots, but the space was not recovered. I then ran RollBack’s ‘defrag’ function because the help file mentioned to do this in order to regain space. It didn’t regain anything either. So, I completely uninstalled RollBack and finally the space came available.


"Here’s my theory: RollBack takes over the normal File Allocation Table (FAT) on the hard drive on bootup. The running FAT is emulated in Windows by RollBack. This enables the user to select which ‘snapshot’ to boot into in the event of problems. RollBack simply loads either the most recent FAT or an older one you select. The snapshots are not accessible by Windows Explorer because they aren’t actually IN the running FAT. This is why you showed a huge chunk of ‘inaccessible space’ on your reports.


"Now, WHY did RollBack make two huge snapshots? My theory on that stems from some discussions online as to how RollBack works. It doesn’t actually ‘backup’ the data, but rather uses some kind of algorithm to save all the ‘pointers’ to the files and data on your hard drive. Some talk online mentioned that if you have RollBack and you perform a normal Windows defrag [which I had done some time prior to my noticing the loss of hard drive space], RollBack thinks you’ve got all kinds of new data since all the pointers changed with the defrag. So POSSIBLY a defrag was ran and RollBack saved all the new pointers that actually pointed to empty space. This caused a snapshot file that was bigger than the data it was actually ‘snapshotting’.


"Why weren’t they removable in the RollBack program? And why didn’t the RollBack defrag free up the space? NO IDEA other than RollBack was corrupted somehow.


"The uninstall process of RollBack was scary. When you uninstall it, it asks which snapshot to revert to (I chose ‘current’ as it suggested). It then reboots and begins what I can only assume is a complete FAT rebuild. It looks like it converts the hard drive data from RollBack format to standard FAT. It took about 5 hours (during which time I could only sit and hope) for the conversion to run, but once it completed, Windows popped right up and there was your space.


"I do not recommend reinstalling RollBack. It’s similar to an older program called ‘Norton GoBack’ that caused disastrous data loss in computers I’ve seen in the past. It’s probably better than GoBack, but because it’s a proprietary FAT system, if something goes wrong, such as a failing hard drive, most diagnostic programs will not read your hard drive and its data. Lots of people online say they use RollBack with no problems, but others say they routinely uninstall and reinstall it from time to time to keep it running well. The uninstall process is too stressful for my tastes to do that on a regular basis. If during the uninstall/rebuild process the laptop were to be powered off or something goes wrong, your entire hard drive would be unreadable.

"Your notes talk about two other backups you are performing. I feel this is adequate to stave off a potential loss of data."

So...now we know! (And needless to say, I am uninstalling RollBack from my other laptop.)

Again, thank you for all of your time and efforts. Perhaps this knowledge will assist others.

Gini

 

I'm glad you got it sorted.

My personal guess is a bit less complicated. If you go back to post #14 where you had a picture of you space. You had 183gb used by Lenovo Rescue and Recovery.

I think the two Rollback snapshots of 4/06 and 4/011 had this folder backed up or at least one did. So when you deleted the Lenovo R&R folder it was never really deleted. Rollback kept it safe so it could roll back to before deletion.

I'm glad your friend got your space back! I'm not sure RollBack is the true culprit if you really like that program. I think Lenovo originally having a 183gb backup folder for a 50gb drive is the program that started all the trouble.

 

You may be right. In any event, RollBack Rx is now uninstalled, as is the Lenovo Toolbox, Resuce and Recovery, etc.

 

Hey, fst-tlk.

I know that's a huge load off of your shoulders - bewildering type of problem.

Glad you're up to snuff now. As you're obviously well versed with computers, make sure you stick around and help us out out here in the Forums when time allows.

Good luck to you!

 

Caliban,

I really don't care for all the bells & whistles preinstalled on computers. Myself, I'd just as soon do a DOS "Copy C:*.* D:" to an external hard drive every Saturday & be done with it. (Of course, back then it was 3 1/2" floppies - LOL!) DOS was so perfectly clear, and Windows, well... As far as I'm concerned, don't show me a folder, just give me the path.

In fact, I really miss some of my DOS-based programs. WordPerfect 5.0, for example. You could make a macro in a snap. WordPerfect 12.0 takes a whole lot longer. I was able to install WP5.0 on my XP desktop, but couldn't get it to do a full screen or print to my laser printer. However, I have been known to type extremely long macro-intensive documents in 5.0, then open them in 12.0 to print. Saves me bunches of time!

 

Ha! My sentiments exactly - hell, check my signature.

I, too, long for the simpler days - UNIX was my friend.