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Where has my HDD SPACE gone?!


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#1
bigheart_19

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I really hope I've posted in the right place. My OS is Vista Home Premium and this system is new to me I'm still learning things about it but what has happened is causing me serious concerns. It's been almost 2 days now since I've posted and NO response. I know you guys are busy but Please spare a moment in this regard.

A couple weeks ago I tried to download the anti-virus software from my ISP. As the page to do this opened I noticed "Free online scan" and "click here" somewhere on the page. I followed the prompt and after that went on to download the program I'd originally intended to download. I had been backing up my files on an external drive and I checked to see how much space I had on my hdd. To my amazement, half my hdd space had disappeared. I have a 200GB hdd, after backing up my pics movies etc. I should have about 100GB left. Unfortunately I only had 50+GB remaining!! I forgot to do a restore at that point instead, I panicked and had been trying other methods to solve the problem. When I remember restore it was too late. Someone..., help me out here. Where did the space go?? Will Vista Optimizer help?? ...or how can I regain the space I've lost?? :)

Thanking you for an early response.

bigheart_19

Edited by bigheart_19, 16 March 2008 - 12:31 PM.

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#2
Ax238

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Hello bigheart_19 and welcome to Geeks to Go!

Sorry for the belated response. Do you happen to know the name of the antivirus software you downloaded?

I'd like you to run a diagnostic that should be able to guide us in resolving your issue.

Please Run the PCPitstop Full Tests, here:
PCPitstop Full Tests
Note: Vista users with UAC must first Right-click IE - Select "Run as Administrator"
If you haven't already registered, Click - Sign up now! (left hand column in User Login)
Register and create a password
Accept the ActiveX component to allow your machine to run the Full Tests
Registering and accepting the ActiveX are both SAFE and FREE.


The Full Tests take less than 5 minutes for most machines.
Once you have your Results, please post the TechExpress Link back here into this thread for review.
TechExpress is the last item on the list in the yellow box in upper right area of any Results page.
Post the entire URL link information back here into this Forum thread.
Note: Vista users, please close your instance of IE "Running as Administrator" after you are finished reviewing your Results.

Caution: During the testing of Video Adapter, a variety of patterns, shapes, colors and text are “flashed” onto the users monitor screen. In the many thousands of daily uses of the PCPitstop Full Tests over several years, two individuals who suffer epilepsy experienced discomfort and temporary dizziness when viewing the flashing patterns.
If you know that you are susceptible to photo driven seizure, please look away from your screen during the Video Adapter testing sequence.
Note: The PCPitstop Full Tests Results is a free service, but is supported by various paid product advertisements for utilities that "could" remedy the OP's problem.
Since G2G is a "free-help" forum, we do not recommend or endorse purchase of automated utilities, and will assist you in manually correcting any problems and settings necessary to optimize your machine's performance. Ask your questions here. We'll help you walk through any necessary steps.


Regards,

Ax
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#3
SRX660

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One of the big problems i have seen with Vista is that it uses way too much space making restore points for the OS.

1. Click the start menu
2. Click on All Programs, and then Accessories
3. From the accessories menu, right click on Command Prompt and select “run as administrator”
4. Type “vssadmin list shadowstorage” into the command prompt
5. The results should tell you the amount of storage used and the maximum amount alloted

If you’re not happy with those numbers, here’s how to resize them. Keep in mind, you will lose some older system restore points when you do this.

1. Repeat steps 1-3 to get bring up the Command Prompt
2. Type “vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=[your hard disk]: /On=[your hard disk]: /MaxSize=[how much space you want to allocate]”
3. For example: “vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=2GB”
4. You should get a message saying Successfully resized the shadow copy storage association, and you should have more free space on your hard drive.

the above from

http://keznews.com/2..._System_Restore

On one computer i recovered 33 gigs of HD space doing this.

SRX660
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#4
cathudog

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There is one other way with disc cleanup by clicking on more options and clicking on the bottom part which is clean up of shadow copy's and restore points only leaving the most recent restore point and shadow copy's. Plus you can also right click on command prompt and type this cleanmgr /sagetset: 1 and you will get a chance to delete possibly some thing on your drive to clean up come hard drive space. I recovered 2.1 gig of space the first time i ran the option. Use at your own risk.
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#5
bigheart_19

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A big THANK YOU for responding to my plea for help guys. I just want to acknowledge your individual responses AX, SRX660 and Cathudog respectively: guys much apprecition.

Ax: I've tried the Pit-Stop scan. I did everything that the instructions and prompts asked and the scan went as expected, however, at the end of the scan IE quit abruptly without giving a report on the scan. I tried again after it happened the first time but same result. At that point I didn't know what else to do. It was like 3:00 am and I figured it was time to quit. I don't know if IE was the problem because after it quitted, it actually restarted but without anything to do with Pit-Stop; just the default page. I don't know what's up with that. What are your thoughts? Did I do something wrong?


SRX660 and Cathudog, I'll definitely look into your recommendations as soon as I get a chance. Once again, much appreciation!!

Keep up the good work guys!!

bigheart_19 (Leroy).
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#6
bigheart_19

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Wow!! This Board REALLY rock!! What more can I tell you? P R O B L E M S O L V E D

SRX660: Your recommendation was very useful. I did as your instructions or the link you added to your post said. That method worked like magic. Thanx a heap!! I'm now enlightened as to how I can control the space on my HDD while running Vista. Excellent!


Cathudog: I tried your first recommendation and instantly regained 10GB. I was kind of sceptical with the 2nd suggestion though, because it involved the word "risk". I do appreciate you frankness in your post man. Much respect and thanks much for your response and help regarding my post.

By the way, just for the record, how does one approach a similar problem with XP? I have an older machine with XP and I also lost some space after reloading the system following a devastating crash. I actually noticed some duplicate files which is a part of the promblem but I suspect that other processes are in play.

Thanks guys and keep up the good work!!

bigheart_19 (Leroy)
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