loss of hard drive space

BDK · 11 Aug 2010

I'm thinking of upgrading to Windows 7, but wanted to know which is best? I was thinking of going to ultimate but is it worth it? But my main question is why am I continually losing hard drive space. I recently updated to Vista from XP and that's when it really started. (That I noticed anyways). Yesterday it was at 227 GB of free space but now it's at 215 GB. Almost a week ago I had like 240 GB of space. Does it have something to do with updating to Vista? If so, will updating to Windows 7 do something similar?

Wishmaster · 11 Aug 2010

You may have a folder on C called "Windows Old"

Aslo, may be a lot of System restore points.

For most poeple, including myself, Ultimate is not worth it for what it offers over home premium. This will be the case for many users.

However, this may not be the case for you.

Have a look here to compare the features of each:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...e/default.aspx

I would also highly recommend backing up important DATA you want to keep and do a clean instal of Win7. (meaning completely erase the HD then install)

Petey7 · 11 Aug 2010

Continuing to lose hard drive space can be caused by a few different things including, but not limited to, temp folders that need to be cleared, system restore points being created, and the page file being used. The last two will eventual stop using more space, as they only use a set amount.

To delete temporary files, you need to right-click your C drive and click properties. From there click disk cleanup. A wizard (no the harry potter kind) will come up and you can choose what folders you want to be cleared.

You can also decrease the amount of space system restore and the page file uses.

I also recommend doing a clean install to install 7, and use this tutorial for cleaning the hard drive completely before hand for increased performance: SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

tylergard702 · 11 Aug 2010

It is probably System restore points and temporary files.

Don't worry about the system restore points, they only take up so much room then start deleting themselves but a good free tool for cleaning your systems temporary files is called 'CCleaner', i have used it for years and it has some useful features. It is also a registry cleaner.

Download it here: http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

Also look at Priform's defragmenting tool, it is the best free one i have seen. :)

BDK · 11 Aug 2010

I ran disk clean up and it came up with:

Temporary Internet Files: 7.48 MB
Hibernation File Cleaner: 1.98 GB
Previous Windows Instillation: 5.48 GB
Temporary Files: 528 MB
Temporary Sync files: 101 MB

Getting rid of those won't put me back up to where I was when I brought my computer downstairs (for the internet .. different issue for a different time) it was at probably about 266 GB free space. Would the system restore points really take up that much room? I guess I'm sort of fine with that as long as I know it's not a major issue, to which I'll end up losing all of my space.

I ran anti-virus (and anti-spyware etc.) and most of them found nothing. Anti-spyware found a few things but got rid of it. I'll run the other programs suggested.

tylergard702 · 11 Aug 2010

BDK said:

I ran disk clean up and it came up with:

Temporary Internet Files: 7.48 MB
Hibernation File Cleaner: 1.98 GB
Previous Windows Instillation: 5.48 GB
Temporary Files: 528 MB
Temporary Sync files: 101 MB

At least it got rid of about 15 and a half GB, Defraggler is the name of the defragmenting program, but that just rearranges the files on your hard drives so they can be read faster, speeding up your machine a bit. Defragmenting wont get loads of free space back, it will probably only get back around 100MB.

Wishmaster · 11 Aug 2010

the Temp Files completely slipped my mind :-/

As suggested, CCleaner is an excellent tool for cleaning up temporary files.

Another alternative is an advanced disk clean up.
Disk Cleanup : Extended

Petey7 · 11 Aug 2010

Like we said before, system restore will only use a set amount of space, and its good to have it on because the list of problems that can be fixed with it is almost endless. Even some viruses that can be nearly impossible to remove otherwise can be dealt with by using system restore followed by a virus scan. Like I said, the list goes on and on.

If you want to reduce the amount used, you can right click my computer, click properties, then advanced system settings. From there, go to the system protection tab and click configure. I have mine set to 5%, which is what most people would need as a minimum.