Used space on my hardrive

XKazeCloudX · Mar 15, 2007

Hi, i have installed windows vista on my computer and deleted windows.old. and when i look at my hardrive i am using 82gb. however i add up all my documents and inside my hardrive. ive added it all up and i have only about 30-40 gb at most. are there programs where i cannot see? or something like that. thankyou.

hopperdave2000 · Mar 16, 2007

There are numerous hidden files and several can take up LOTS of space: the paging file can be huge as can the system restore/system volume information folder. This could be where the space is, but it seems that 30-40gb of hidden files is a bit much. Not being being familiar w/ Vista yet, I'd run the Vista equivalent of the WinXP 'chkdsk /r' and I'd check the Drive Cleaners and Drive Utilites sections here at MajorGeeks for some downloads to check the drive space and file usage.

hopperdave2000

pwillener · Mar 16, 2007

There is a very handy little tool called ExplorerXP; it will show you the contents (size) of each folder on your HD. Download it from http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4201

Once you start it, you need to give it a little time to scan all folders and determine their approximate contents size.

Plaphon · Mar 16, 2007

did you have any system restore adjusted or some 3d party backup progs, may be free space is used by the old backup images?

muymalestado · Mar 16, 2007

pwillener said: ↑

There is a very handy little tool called ExplorerXP; it will show you the contents (size) of each folder on your HD. Download it from http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4201

Thanks - it works a treat.>>Phil :cool
Click to expand...

DavidGP · Mar 16, 2007

System Restore and Shadow Copy ( aka previous versions ) do eat alot of memory up, its a % of the HDs size but when it hits its max point it flushes the old restore points, you can manually flush all old restore points bar the last known one, by right click C drive > Properties and Disk Cleanup.

Info on shadow copy http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/shadowcopy.mspx

If you did an upgrade install, which my you having windows.old you have done then its a good option to flush the restore points all bar last known good one as initially while your installing things on a new OS build the restore points will grow as many apps and the os create them by default. The run CCLeaner to remove any temps and installer junk.

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Used space on my hardrive

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