Why is Vista zapping my hdd space?

Hello all! My problem is not unique I'm sure... I have an 80gb hdd on my acer 5100 and it's partitioned into C and D drives. Most of my programs are installed on my D drive yet I keep getting low disk space warnings when my C drive reaches less than 1gb of free space? I don't understand what is zapping up my hdd space so that I keep getting these warnings? I have over 17gb of free space on my D drive and again very few programs on my C drive? When I try freeing up disc space via the control panel I rarely clean up more than 20 - 45mb. Yet 3 days or so later, I will check and notice that there are 2gb of free space and I've done nothing!? Very annoying since it has begun to affect how my programs function. Anyone have any suggestions on what is causing the hdd drainage and how I can possibly stop it?

 

As we speak my C drive shows 999mb of 33.5gb free space. And no I haven't yet toggled for system restore, though I'm in the mindset of doing a complete system restore and not partioning my hdd at all and just let C be my one default drive. The problem there is that I have no sys restore disc for my acer!

 

Go to c drive, right click , properties, disk clean up, when that box comes up, go to more optitions, there you can delete all but the most recent restore point, and free up some hd. ed

 

I'll try that right now and report back once it's done.

 

Tried your suggestion and was able to restor 3mb, but thanks for the input I do appreciate it!

 

I believe Vista allocates %15 of HDD for SR but I can't remember if this was adjustable or not. Hibernate is another big user equal to the RAM that you have. However, this doesn't come close to accounting for the space used.

I used to have a disk exploring utility which had the ability to sort largest to smallest files but I can't remember/find it now. Maybe someone else knows it.

Don't join your disks as if your OS craps out at least your apps and data are safe.

 

OK, found it. It's Tree Size Free Make sure to unhide all your files by opening C:\ choose folder options, view, and check the 'show all files and folders' then a few lines beneath it untick 'hide protected system files' and you're good to go. These will appear as lighter folders and should not be fooled with without guidance.

 

Still runinng various scanning programs at the mpment but will give a look and a possible evaluation.Thanks a bunch for making it available for me!

 

It could well be that system restore is the culprit, though augie's suggestion of Treesize could confirm it or otherwise. If it is system restore then use the following to check and resize the present allocation -

Type cmd in the Start > Search box and right click cmd.exe above and click Run as Administrator

At the command prompt type vssadmin list shadowstorage > Enter

This will tell you what the present allocation is and how much you are using.

To change the allocation on C to, say, 1.5GB -

vssadmin resize shadowstorage /For=C: /On=C: /maxsize=1.5GB > Enter

It might be better to copy and paste these commands as the syntax has to be exact

 

Just tried your suggestion and re-sized the max storage to 1.5GB from 4.98GB! Hopefully this will have an effect on how much HDD storage space is being used because the only thing I can do from here (since I don't have a factory restore disk) is to buy another HDD and then create a back up disk so I'll have a restore disk in the future. Thanks for all of the help from everyone!!

 

Hey TimW! I've been successful in scanning and receiving logs for 4 of the 5 programs suggested in the Malware forum, but I'm having trouble with MG Tools. Every time I try to D/L it, it appears for a split second in my save location and then disappears b4 I can open it. I've disabled all forms of avg protection so I don't get any false positives as related to viruses etc., and still no luck. So I'm gonna take a breather, step back for awhile and try again later. I didn't want u 2 think your advice had fallen onto deaf ears!!

 

I sincerely want to thank everyone for their help - I really do appreciate your efforts! :-D Acer no longer carries a restore disk for my series of laptop. So what I eventually ended up doing was purchase another hdd (320GB Hitachi for only $39 new!) and created restore disks after inatllation of my programs. If I have a restore problem in the future I have my solution Again, thanks to everyone!!!