Windows 7: Where is my disk space going?

Apparently I only have 3.5gigs left on my 25gig partition for Windows7, but I can only find where like 10gigs are. These are the folders in the partition







shadowstorage is limited to less than 1gb

Any ideas?

go to control panel -> Folder Options -> Tab View and uncheck "Hide protected Operating System Files" as well as select "Show hidden files and folders" and then you'll see a lot more folders...
For example the folder "System Volume Information" (after taking ownership either via properties dialog or you can install a rightclick menu for that) shows some Gigs more (3.5 gigs for me) ... and there is the recycle bin ... so if you've never emptied that one a lot of space is used by it...
I don't know if you destroy anything by taking ownership of those files ... i just did it to see if it then shows the size of the folder (in the properties)... it does and hopefully everything works...

I'd say your "missing space" is somewhere in those hidden folders...

Don't mess with the System Volume Information folder - you could screw up your OS. There's an easier and official way of dealing with that one - that's where restore point recovery files go.

Go to System properties from the CP or right-click Computer/Properties. Click on System Protection link on the left.

When that pops up, click on the Configure button on the lower right. The pop-up has a slider that lets you set how much maximum space will be used for restore point information. If you turn System Protection off then nothing will be save in the System Volume Information, but you will not have any restore points.

You need to do this for each volume.

well i said i dunno if i destroy anything, but by merely taking ownership it *should* be impossible to destroy anything...
i restarted once since I did that and everything worked like it did before (i rehid my operating system files because I don't wanna see that "System volume information" folder ...

but it's true, better do it your way than mine, mine is more dangerous but ... as it was a new Windows 7 install it doesn't matter a lot I didn't configure much up to now

Something to keep in mind: if you are the new owner because you wanted to do something only the owner can do, then the previous owner isn't, and may not be able to do what it has to .

But as long as you're just experimenting on a test system, who cares ... just have fun and keep those backups handy .

Well I regained 11 gigs by removing Norton Internet Security 2010. Idk how the hell it was taking so much. Thanks everyone

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There are a couple of utilities that present graphic maps of disk space usage, ie SequoiaView and WinDirStat. Using these you will be able to easy see where the disk space is going. Both are freeware.

You could also check out my utility; FileTreeView, which is based on the ideas that SequoiaView presents (but, in my biased opinion, runs faster). You can download FileTreeView free from FileTreeView – a SequioaView-like Application « Scott's code and other ponderings…

Cheers
Scott