Where has all the GBs gone?

Hi,
I'm trying to figure out how I managed to use up so much space on my hard
drive in just 9 months. I have a 120GB hdd, which converts to approx 111GB.
HP Recovery used 8.34 leaving me 103GB.

Out of 103GB, I currently have 30.8 free space. This is incredible that
I've used 72.2 GB in 9 months. My 7-year old desktop with XP has 80GB with
55GB free space.

Does Vista use this much space? If I right click on Windows, select
Properties, it calculates 12.7 GB. Is this a true number? If so, I've done
this for every folder and the large ones are Program Files 12.1 and my user
is 17.7GB. No other users. Pagefile.sys 3.1GB and hiberfil.sys 3.4GB. Many
other misc folders add up to 5.75 GB.

All these files add up to 55.15 GB. That leaves 17GB that I can't account
for. Where's that missing 17GB?

You probably own some restore points with 'shadow copies' of files. Run Disk
Cleanup and delete all but the current restore point.

--
click the Ratings button. Voting helps the web interface.
http://www.microsoft.com/wn3/locales...help_en-us.htm see ''rate a post''
Mark L. Ferguson

"Wendy Kelly Budd" <> wrote in message
news:7093C3BA-2F8A-4938-B5EA-...
> Hi,
> I'm trying to figure out how I managed to use up so much space on my hard
> drive in just 9 months. I have a 120GB hdd, which converts to approx
> 111GB.
> HP Recovery used 8.34 leaving me 103GB.
>
> Out of 103GB, I currently have 30.8 free space. This is incredible that
> I've used 72.2 GB in 9 months. My 7-year old desktop with XP has 80GB
> with
> 55GB free space.
>
> Does Vista use this much space? If I right click on Windows, select
> Properties, it calculates 12.7 GB. Is this a true number? If so, I've
> done
> this for every folder and the large ones are Program Files 12.1 and my
> user
> is 17.7GB. No other users. Pagefile.sys 3.1GB and hiberfil.sys 3.4GB.
> Many
> other misc folders add up to 5.75 GB.
>
> All these files add up to 55.15 GB. That leaves 17GB that I can't account
> for. Where's that missing 17GB?

System Restore points ? - The default allocation in % of volume size is
too high. System Restore is best used within a short period of time -
like a week to 10 days. Having Restore points past that point are not
reliable and generally a waste of space. You can manually adjust the
space allocation to a smaller %.

"Wendy Kelly Budd" <> wrote in message
news:7093C3BA-2F8A-4938-B5EA-...
> Hi,
> I'm trying to figure out how I managed to use up so much space on my hard
> drive in just 9 months. I have a 120GB hdd, which converts to approx
> 111GB.
> HP Recovery used 8.34 leaving me 103GB.
>
> Out of 103GB, I currently have 30.8 free space. This is incredible that
> I've used 72.2 GB in 9 months. My 7-year old desktop with XP has 80GB
> with
> 55GB free space.
>
> Does Vista use this much space? If I right click on Windows, select
> Properties, it calculates 12.7 GB. Is this a true number? If so, I've
> done
> this for every folder and the large ones are Program Files 12.1 and my
> user
> is 17.7GB. No other users. Pagefile.sys 3.1GB and hiberfil.sys 3.4GB.
> Many
> other misc folders add up to 5.75 GB.
>
> All these files add up to 55.15 GB. That leaves 17GB that I can't account
> for. Where's that missing 17GB?

Vista uses up to 15% of your hard disc space for system restore points which
you don't see as files on your hard disc.

Stuart

"Wendy Kelly Budd" <> wrote in message
news:7093C3BA-2F8A-4938-B5EA-...
> Hi,
> I'm trying to figure out how I managed to use up so much space on my hard
> drive in just 9 months. I have a 120GB hdd, which converts to approx
> 111GB.
> HP Recovery used 8.34 leaving me 103GB.
>
> Out of 103GB, I currently have 30.8 free space. This is incredible that
> I've used 72.2 GB in 9 months. My 7-year old desktop with XP has 80GB
> with
> 55GB free space.
>
> Does Vista use this much space? If I right click on Windows, select
> Properties, it calculates 12.7 GB. Is this a true number? If so, I've
> done
> this for every folder and the large ones are Program Files 12.1 and my
> user
> is 17.7GB. No other users. Pagefile.sys 3.1GB and hiberfil.sys 3.4GB.
> Many
> other misc folders add up to 5.75 GB.
>
> All these files add up to 55.15 GB. That leaves 17GB that I can't account
> for. Where's that missing 17GB?

Billy's got it...
Sorry just had to say that... :-)

--
ZÿRiX
(¯`'..(<>..<>)..'´¯)

alt.alien.zyrix

"Wendy Kelly Budd" <> wrote in message
news:7093C3BA-2F8A-4938-B5EA-...
> Hi,
> I'm trying to figure out how I managed to use up so much space on my hard
> drive in just 9 months. I have a 120GB hdd, which converts to approx
> 111GB.
> HP Recovery used 8.34 leaving me 103GB.
>
> Out of 103GB, I currently have 30.8 free space. This is incredible that
> I've used 72.2 GB in 9 months. My 7-year old desktop with XP has 80GB
> with
> 55GB free space.
>
> Does Vista use this much space? If I right click on Windows, select
> Properties, it calculates 12.7 GB. Is this a true number? If so, I've
> done
> this for every folder and the large ones are Program Files 12.1 and my
> user
> is 17.7GB. No other users. Pagefile.sys 3.1GB and hiberfil.sys 3.4GB.
> Many
> other misc folders add up to 5.75 GB.
>
> All these files add up to 55.15 GB. That leaves 17GB that I can't account
> for. Where's that missing 17GB?

On Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:50:00 -0700, Wendy Kelly Budd
<> wrote:

>Hi,
>I'm trying to figure out how I managed to use up so much space on my hard
>drive in just 9 months. I have a 120GB hdd, which converts to approx 111GB.
>HP Recovery used 8.34 leaving me 103GB.
>
>Out of 103GB, I currently have 30.8 free space. This is incredible that
>I've used 72.2 GB in 9 months. My 7-year old desktop with XP has 80GB with
>55GB free space.
>
>Does Vista use this much space? If I right click on Windows, select
>Properties, it calculates 12.7 GB. Is this a true number? If so, I've done
>this for every folder and the large ones are Program Files 12.1 and my user
>is 17.7GB. No other users. Pagefile.sys 3.1GB and hiberfil.sys 3.4GB. Many
>other misc folders add up to 5.75 GB.
>
>All these files add up to 55.15 GB. That leaves 17GB that I can't account
>for. Where's that missing 17GB?

By default, with a drive that size, 17 gigs are probably reserved (and
eventually used) for restore points. Vista uses HUGE amounts of space
for each restore point compared to XP.

Check the number of restore points you have on your system (if UAC is
on, make sure you check the box to show all older than 5 days).

You'll be surprised at how few there are.

Note that you can reduce that 17 gig amount, but you will also lose
restore point space by doing so.

XP used 12% of total Hard Drive space for System Restore.
Vista, by default, uses 15%.
There is not much difference!

--
Mick Murphy - Qld - Australia


"PD43" wrote:

> On Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:50:00 -0700, Wendy Kelly Budd
> <> wrote:
>
> >Hi,
> >I'm trying to figure out how I managed to use up so much space on my hard
> >drive in just 9 months. I have a 120GB hdd, which converts to approx 111GB.
> >HP Recovery used 8.34 leaving me 103GB.
> >
> >Out of 103GB, I currently have 30.8 free space. This is incredible that
> >I've used 72.2 GB in 9 months. My 7-year old desktop with XP has 80GB with
> >55GB free space.
> >
> >Does Vista use this much space? If I right click on Windows, select
> >Properties, it calculates 12.7 GB. Is this a true number? If so, I've done
> >this for every folder and the large ones are Program Files 12.1 and my user
> >is 17.7GB. No other users. Pagefile.sys 3.1GB and hiberfil.sys 3.4GB. Many
> >other misc folders add up to 5.75 GB.
> >
> >All these files add up to 55.15 GB. That leaves 17GB that I can't account
> >for. Where's that missing 17GB?
>
> By default, with a drive that size, 17 gigs are probably reserved (and
> eventually used) for restore points. Vista uses HUGE amounts of space
> for each restore point compared to XP.
>
> Check the number of restore points you have on your system (if UAC is
> on, make sure you check the box to show all older than 5 days).
>
> You'll be surprised at how few there are.
>
> Note that you can reduce that 17 gig amount, but you will also lose
> restore point space by doing so.
>

Mick Murphy <> wrote:

>XP used 12% of total Hard Drive space for System Restore.
>Vista, by default, uses 15%.
>There is not much difference!
>
>--
>Mick Murphy - Qld - Australia

Yes there is... it's in the size of the restore point. AND in the
ease of adjusting the amount of space reserved... or haven't you
noticed either of those?

In the words of an esteemed MVP:

>Mick, why not leave the troubleshooting to the experts?
>
>--
>Gary VanderMolen, MS-MVP (Mail)

Yes, my experience is that Vista uses that much hard drive space. System
Restore is not really the culprit nor is the NTFS filesystem data store.
Playing with SR is only of slight and temporary help. I know it is common
wisdom that SR is the culprit but that is because most folks can't think of
anything else. The truth is that there is no one thing.

For an example of places where your filespace is really going check out the
size of the winsxs folder in the System folder. That's just one example.
For a (vague) idea of what winsxs is for see:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa374224.aspx
(Winsxs exists in XP also) After six months my Vista Ultimate x64 system
has a 6.57GB winsxs folder. The general consensus on the web is don't mess
with this stuff. Leave it alone.

All this levels off over time, however. It doesn't continue to grow and
grow and grow. My advice is, don't worry about it unless you are saving
incremental backups to the drive. That you should not do (but I doubt that
you are).



"Wendy Kelly Budd" <> wrote in message
news:7093C3BA-2F8A-4938-B5EA-...
> Hi,
> I'm trying to figure out how I managed to use up so much space on my hard
> drive in just 9 months. I have a 120GB hdd, which converts to approx
> 111GB.
> HP Recovery used 8.34 leaving me 103GB.
>
> Out of 103GB, I currently have 30.8 free space. This is incredible that
> I've used 72.2 GB in 9 months. My 7-year old desktop with XP has 80GB
> with
> 55GB free space.
>
> Does Vista use this much space? If I right click on Windows, select
> Properties, it calculates 12.7 GB. Is this a true number? If so, I've
> done
> this for every folder and the large ones are Program Files 12.1 and my
> user
> is 17.7GB. No other users. Pagefile.sys 3.1GB and hiberfil.sys 3.4GB.
> Many
> other misc folders add up to 5.75 GB.
>
> All these files add up to 55.15 GB. That leaves 17GB that I can't account
> for. Where's that missing 17GB?

On Sat, 28 Jun 2008 14:37:00 -0700, Mick Murphy
<> wrote:

>XP used 12% of total Hard Drive space for System Restore.

And a user could reduce it to whatever amount desired by moving a
slider.

>Vista, by default, uses 15%.

And a user has to use the command line interface and know all the
cryptic commands to change it now.

>There is not much difference!

That's a huge difference...but wait, there's MORE!

Want to talk about the size of Vista's restore points compared to
XP's?

Another huge difference.

I used 3 gigs of space for XP's restore points and that would keep a
month's worth - or about 30 restore points.

I'm using 20 gigs with Vista... gets me 12 restore points.