Installing Windows 7 removes several GB of additional space each time

Hello,
I am having a problem where Windows 7 re-installations keep eating up large amounts of space on the drive.

The first time I had to re-install the OS I did a "clean re-install" and found I was using 6 more GB than before. I shrugged it off as temporary files and I'm not sure if the space ever returned.

The second time (today) I did a "repair install" and found I was using 8 more GB after than I was before. I've used CCleaner but it's only finding a few hundred MB of data to delete.

My "Windows" directory is 16.5GB

There is a folder called "System Volume Information" with files all created today that is 7.9GB
I'm going to guess this is where that space has gone?


What should I do? Will the space return on it's own?

Are you formatting the partition during the install ?

I'm not sure about the first time.
This time though I followed the instructions here (http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html?ltr=R) using step 4. No formatting.

Then you are carrying data over from the last install. When you install windows you need to format the partition you are installing windows on so the free space matches the partition size.

Example 149GB free of a 149GB partition.

Make sense ?

After the install Windows should be between 15 and 17 GBs roughly.

It is 16.5GB though
Where else would these old files maybe be stored?