How to delete system copies from partition?

SanderO · 03 Jun 2014

Hi.

I got a Fujitsu Amilo Xi 3670 laptop and i'm having some problems with it.

There are 2 partitions each worth little under 300 GB of space: 1 for normal use of the laptop (C:) and 1 to store back ups and system copies (D:).

The (D:) partition has a back up of 76,35 GB, so you'd think that it would leave me with more than enough space to use for other purposes. Regrettably, this is not the case. There appears to be a system copy stored on this partition, swallowing up a huge total of 206.70 GB of space. I've been scouring my pc for ways to delete or shrink this system copy. When that didn't work, I searched on the web and e-mailed tech support to solve this problem, but all to no avail.

To top it off, there's another 4.53 GB occupied by 'other files'.

Can someone please tell me how to delete this system copy? I thought about formatting the partition, but I fear that doing so would leave me with an empty partition that lacks an OS, requiring me to reinstal windows 7 on it. This would be a problem, because I no longer have the install CD.

Thanks in advance.

mjf · 03 Jun 2014

I'm not sure what you mean by "system copy".
For system images deleting WindowsImageBackup will delete the image. BUT there goes your system image. I recommend making only one independent system image at a time. Do it manually using "Create a system image".

To delete shadow copies:
Shadow Copies - Delete

SanderO · 04 Jun 2014

That's how it's called... system copy. Well actually it's called 'systeemkopie' in Dutch, but that litterally translates to system copy :P

I don't understand what you're saying about images.

I've allready checked for shadow copies. There apparently is one, but it's only little under 10 GB.

UsernameIssues · 04 Jun 2014

For computing, systeemkopie is best translated into English as system image.

See this MS article:
http://windows.microsoft.com/nl-nl/w...a-system-image

Notice that the article's title in the URL is: what-is-a-system-image

How to delete system copies from partition?-dutch.png

:::back to lurking:::

SanderO · 04 Jun 2014

ok so i've located the image that's taking up all the space.

wtf do i do with it...?

UsernameIssues · 04 Jun 2014

We can both find out what you should do with it when mjf comes back

mjf · 04 Jun 2014

It's a large system image from a partition which must have a large amount of data on it in addition to the operating system and installed programs. A system image will image everything except a few thinks like pagefile contents.
IMO:
1) It is not a good idea to store system images on another partition of the HDD containing the OS. If the HDD fails you have lost everything. It is best to invest in an external USB HDD for backups.
2) A longer term option would be to get large amounts of data (eg videos, photos, games) off the OS partition so your system images have a more manageable size (say 30-50GB). If you use a program like (free or paid) Macrium Reflect you will also get some compression when making a system image.

Finally, if you feel comfortable with repartitioning using say Partition Wizard boot CD you could break your 300GB OS partition into 100GB for the OS, 200GB for another data partition. You cannot go to more than 4 primary partitions or your HDD will become dynamic. If you want to go down this path you should clean up your data and provide a full disk management screenshot.

SanderO · 05 Jun 2014

thanks for the reply.

I've removed some stuff from my pc, but there's still 226 GB in use on my C: partition... not sure where all this stuff comes from :-/ i've got diablo 3 and starcraft 2 installed, but together, they only take up 30 GB or something... I've checked my program files folder and it only contained 45 GB of data. Weird...

Anyway, this isn't my primary pc, so backing up data is really no priority. You think i would be safe by just deleting the back up image?

mjf · 05 Jun 2014

WinDirStat will show the breakdown of the data on a drive.
Deleting the system image will just mean you don't have an image to recover in the event of some problem (HDD crash, malware etc.). Your PC will still function. Use an external HDD for backups as I've suggested.

SanderO · 05 Jun 2014

ok this looks like a fun program ^^

i've found something i don't quite get. i think i used to have TuneUp installed on this PC, but it appears to be gone. The program you mentioned in your last post, shows a huge folder with what appear to be files related to TuneUp. See image below.

apparently they're crashdumps... a lot of them... they're located in the 'Guest' folder under AppData, but when i go to this Guest folder, the AppData folder is nowhere to be found. It's probably hidden to prevent the unknowing from screwing up their pc. I also used to have AVG antivirus installed on this PC... do you think the AVG folder you can see on the image is related to this, or is this a coincidental resemblace?

As you've probably noticed, i'm new to this kind of stuff, so the questions i ask may seem kind of dumb. So here's probably another stupid question: are these crashdump files vital for my PC or can i delete them? Because, as you can see, they take up a huge portion of space on my PC... same with the Winzip files (green). These are also back up files. Safe to remove?