Where did the disk space go?
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I've installed Vista on a box (yes, I know, my first mistake) with a 150 gig hard drive. I've turned on settings to show hidden, system and other such files. Vista is reporting 80g free. Thing is, after inspecting the properties of every root level folder, including the hidden ones and the recycle bin, I can only account for around 40g. Anyone have an idea as to where the other 30 gig is hiding?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
Chris, Come now, you already know the answer to that question: Vista has it. You're not allowed to know where, or why it has it, but it does. It's keeping it "safe". Using it for it's own purposes, that are far too complex for your feeble human brain to comprehend. Stop asking so many questions, or the Vista might decide it doesn't need ... to keep you. :~
:..::. Douglas H. Troy ::..
Bad Astronomy |VCF|wxWidgets|WTL -
I've installed Vista on a box (yes, I know, my first mistake) with a 150 gig hard drive. I've turned on settings to show hidden, system and other such files. Vista is reporting 80g free. Thing is, after inspecting the properties of every root level folder, including the hidden ones and the recycle bin, I can only account for around 40g. Anyone have an idea as to where the other 30 gig is hiding?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
Most likely shadow storage. Vista reserves a ridiculous amount for that. Disabling system restore might get it back. http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/06/26/how-to-change-and-limit-system-restore-storage-space-usage-size-in-vista-with-vssadmin/[^]
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Probably, but I tend to avoid java utilities. Thanks, though!
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
http://www.glaryutilities.com/[^] has similar functionality and more in a non-java app (I have no connection to GlarySoft, just a satisfied customer.)
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
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Probably, but I tend to avoid java utilities. Thanks, though!
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
Christopher Duncan wrote:
I tend to avoid java utilities
Why? :confused:
Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
Think inside the box! ProActive Secure Systems
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While I am aware of alternate data streams in theory, I can't remember having seen one ever. Do you know of some examples in XP and Vista? :)
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]
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Nearly all files that get downloaded from the internet will have an alternate data stream attached to it. That's what Windows uses to put the "This program is from the internet. Do you really want to run it?" message.
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Nearly all files that get downloaded from the internet will have an alternate data stream attached to it. That's what Windows uses to put the "This program is from the internet. Do you really want to run it?" message.
Interesting. I'll look into that. Thanks. :)
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]
DISCLAIMER: this message may have been modified by others; it may no longer reflect what I intended, and may contain bad advice; use at your own risk and with extreme care.
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I've installed Vista on a box (yes, I know, my first mistake) with a 150 gig hard drive. I've turned on settings to show hidden, system and other such files. Vista is reporting 80g free. Thing is, after inspecting the properties of every root level folder, including the hidden ones and the recycle bin, I can only account for around 40g. Anyone have an idea as to where the other 30 gig is hiding?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
Be careful. The emergent AI is using your PC to record store part of its memory. It would be just your luck it's using it to keep copies of its tax returns for 1983 to 1987, 1992, and 1996, as well as extra copies of the Topeka Kansas phone directory.
Software Zen:
delete this;
Fold With Us![^] -
I've installed Vista on a box (yes, I know, my first mistake) with a 150 gig hard drive. I've turned on settings to show hidden, system and other such files. Vista is reporting 80g free. Thing is, after inspecting the properties of every root level folder, including the hidden ones and the recycle bin, I can only account for around 40g. Anyone have an idea as to where the other 30 gig is hiding?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
How big is the swap file?
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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I've installed Vista on a box (yes, I know, my first mistake) with a 150 gig hard drive. I've turned on settings to show hidden, system and other such files. Vista is reporting 80g free. Thing is, after inspecting the properties of every root level folder, including the hidden ones and the recycle bin, I can only account for around 40g. Anyone have an idea as to where the other 30 gig is hiding?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
1: System Restore points - Clear out old ones 2: Shadow Volume Copy - A quick search will give you tons of info on how to check the size of this. 3: Update and Service packs install in a mode so that they are able to be uninstalled, you can make them permanent and free up quite a lot of space, there's a few cmd's for it search it up.
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Christopher Duncan wrote:
with a 150 gig hard drive. I
They still make them that small ? :P
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. "! i don't exactly like or do programming and it only gives me a headache." - spotted in VB forums. I can do things with my brain that I can't even google. I can flex the front part of my brain instantly anytime I want. It can be exhausting and it even causes me vision problems for some reason. - CaptainSeeSharp
Hey, it's a Dell. What can I say? :)
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
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May be it accounts for all the videos and movies from Bunny days hidden somewhere on the disk.
Shhhhhhh! :laugh:
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
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Chris, Come now, you already know the answer to that question: Vista has it. You're not allowed to know where, or why it has it, but it does. It's keeping it "safe". Using it for it's own purposes, that are far too complex for your feeble human brain to comprehend. Stop asking so many questions, or the Vista might decide it doesn't need ... to keep you. :~
:..::. Douglas H. Troy ::..
Bad Astronomy |VCF|wxWidgets|WTLYikes. Taxi! :)
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
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How big is the swap file?
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Only a gig or two. Turns out the culprit was system restore, the greedy bastard.
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
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Be careful. The emergent AI is using your PC to record store part of its memory. It would be just your luck it's using it to keep copies of its tax returns for 1983 to 1987, 1992, and 1996, as well as extra copies of the Topeka Kansas phone directory.
Software Zen:
delete this;
Fold With Us![^]I promise you, tax returns from my musician days in the 80s wouldn't use up 20 bytes. :)
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
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Christopher Duncan wrote:
Anyone have an idea as to where the other 30 gig is hiding?
If you have System Restore activated they can be there or you might have an extra partition on the hard disk.
jhaga
This is indeed the most likely answer i had the same problem on my 100GB os partition the System Information Volume folder was 15GB so 15% of your 150Gig is 22.5GB Click here to found out how to decrease it. Basicly it's just the command:
vssadmin resize shadowstorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=2GB -
I've installed Vista on a box (yes, I know, my first mistake) with a 150 gig hard drive. I've turned on settings to show hidden, system and other such files. Vista is reporting 80g free. Thing is, after inspecting the properties of every root level folder, including the hidden ones and the recycle bin, I can only account for around 40g. Anyone have an idea as to where the other 30 gig is hiding?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
Is Volume Shadow Copy service enabled by default? (That's the "previous versions" thing in file properties, but the proeprty sheet is independent of the service). It eats disk space, sure - but it's a great feature. (We use it on the W2K3 file server).
Don't attribute to stupidity what can be equally well explained by buerocracy.
My latest article | Linkify!| FoldWithUs! | sighist -
Christopher Duncan wrote:
Anyone have an idea as to where the other 30 gig is hiding?
If you have System Restore activated they can be there or you might have an extra partition on the hard disk.
jhaga
jhaga wrote:
Christopher Duncan wrote: Anyone have an idea as to where the other 30 gig is hiding?
In the past I've found that the Recycle Bin by default takes 10% of disk space and locks that away for itself. System Restore takes another 10% for its restore points. Mathematically that (10%+10%)*150GB = 30GB! Ta-da! :cool: Neil
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I've installed Vista on a box (yes, I know, my first mistake) with a 150 gig hard drive. I've turned on settings to show hidden, system and other such files. Vista is reporting 80g free. Thing is, after inspecting the properties of every root level folder, including the hidden ones and the recycle bin, I can only account for around 40g. Anyone have an idea as to where the other 30 gig is hiding?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
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I've installed Vista on a box (yes, I know, my first mistake) with a 150 gig hard drive. I've turned on settings to show hidden, system and other such files. Vista is reporting 80g free. Thing is, after inspecting the properties of every root level folder, including the hidden ones and the recycle bin, I can only account for around 40g. Anyone have an idea as to where the other 30 gig is hiding?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
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Interesting. I'll look into that. Thanks. :)
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]
DISCLAIMER: this message may have been modified by others; it may no longer reflect what I intended, and may contain bad advice; use at your own risk and with extreme care.
Starting with Vista, the cmd shell has been enhanced to display alternate data streams. just do a dir with /R switch, and it will report names and sizes of ADS. Nota that downloaded files DO have and ADS called Zone.Identifier, but on my system (W7 RC), this alternate file is just 26 bytes. if you want to get at content without getting visual studio started, just do: more filename:stream_name > whatever>.txt this will copy your stream to a file. Note that your problem is most probably not ADS's, but Volume Shadow Copies (for system restore and uninstall), which are stored in the System Volume Information directory. Access is limited to the system account on this dir, so you can't see them. You could change permissions on the dir, but I would'nt recommend it (you can really screw your restore capabilities if you mess around with those files). a better way to seem them is to use the vssadmin command: vssadmin list shadows or vssadmin list shadowstorage Michel Godfroid