C-Partition gets bigger and bigger

[sygnus21]

I am usually not recommending to reduce the shadowstorage - unless the disk is on a real squeeze. The more restore points you have, the better it is - also for recovering lost data with Shadow Explorer. For that, "old" restore points are often very handy.

Note though that you lose your current restore points with that operation.

Actually you only start losing the older restore point as you reduce the size. The operation will tell you that as you reduce size. You will still have you most current files/restore points, you'll just start losing the older ones. I just did this operation a few days ago on my SSD drive

We all have different suggestions. I was explaining why he's also losing space, and a way to slow it down or stop it. I also recommended against completely turning it off.

Thanks.

 

[whs]

I am usually not recommending to reduce the shadowstorage - unless the disk is on a real squeeze. The more restore points you have, the better it is - also for recovering lost data with Shadow Explorer. For that, "old" restore points are often very handy.

Note though that you lose your current restore points with that operation.

Actually you only start losing the older restore point as you reduce the size. The operation will tell you that as you reduce size. You will still have you most current files/restore points, you'll just start losing the older ones. I just did this operation a few days ago on my SSD drive

We all have different suggestions. I was explaining why he's also losing space, and a way to slow it down or stop it. I also recommended against completely turning it off.

Thanks.

You are right - it keeps the most recent one. I shall add that to my post.

 

[seekermeister]

The advantage of old shadow copies does not extend to those shown as ghosts in the Device Manager, they simply occupy space. If you select "Show Hidden Devices" in the View tab of the Device Manager, then to to Storage Volumes Shadow Copies and uninstall the ghosted shadow copies, leaving the non-ghosted ones, you can save some space, and it will help organize the volume when defragging.

Are you sure those ghosted copies take up any space at all?

Yes, I noted the amount of locked blocks on the partition with O&O, both before and after uninstalling the ghosts, and there was much less locked space afterward.

 

[sygnus21]

You are right - it keeps the most recent one. I shall add that to my post.

Thanks.

 

[whs]

The advantage of old shadow copies does not extend to those shown as ghosts in the Device Manager, they simply occupy space. If you select "Show Hidden Devices" in the View tab of the Device Manager, then to to Storage Volumes Shadow Copies and uninstall the ghosted shadow copies, leaving the non-ghosted ones, you can save some space, and it will help organize the volume when defragging.

Are you sure those ghosted copies take up any space at all?

Yes, I noted the amount of locked blocks on the partition with O&O, both before and after uninstalling the ghosts, and there was much less locked space afterward.

Interesting - I did not know that. Thanks for the info.

 

[seekermeister]

I am usually not recommending to reduce the shadowstorage - unless the disk is on a real squeeze. The more restore points you have, the better it is - also for recovering lost data with Shadow Explorer. For that, "old" restore points are often very handy.

Note though that you lose your current restore points with that operation.

Actually you only start losing the older restore point as you reduce the size. The operation will tell you that as you reduce size. You will still have you most current files/restore points, you'll just start losing the older ones. I just did this operation a few days ago on my SSD drive

We all have different suggestions. I was explaining why he's also losing space, and a way to slow it down or stop it. I also recommended against completely turning it off.

Thanks.

Here is a quote from O&O Defrag's help file"

At the moment of installation Windows Vista (or newer) the shadow copy mechanism is set as default. With Windows XP64 and Windows Server 2003/2008 systems it is deactivated by default.

During defragmentation, files on a volume get moved. Vista perceives this as a deletion and creates a new Shadow Copy for the moved file. Because defragmentation requires the moving of multiple files, many Shadow Copies are created, which in turn leads to the higher demand on disk space. This behaviour may overwrite older shadow copies with newer ones. Unfortunately, this can also lead to the deletion of the system recovery points! These consequences are most frequent when using the COMPLETE method.

Shadow copies are filed in the folder “System Volume Information” and cannot be defragmented. This can end up having a negative influence on the result of the defragmentation. There is, on the other hand, almost hardly any loss in performance caused by fragmented shadow copies. Although these files will be displayed as fragmented, they still have only a minimal influence on the operating speed of your system

If I'm reading this right, anything that alters the files within a shadow copy will make it invalid, and it then remains as a ghost, as I described.

I have never reduced the size of anything on my C:, yet I get a lot of ghosts, and the only shadow copy available when I try to do a System Restore, is a non-ghosted shadow.

 

[sygnus21]

If I'm reading this right, anything that alters the files within a shadow copy will make it invalid, and it then remains as a ghost, as I described.

I have never reduced the size of anything on my C:, yet I get a lot of ghosts, and the only shadow copy available when I try to do a System Restore, is a non-ghosted shadow.

Not sure if you're adressing me Seekermeister but I was strictly talking about "System Protection" as seen here.....



All I know it that as you reduce the size, it deletes the older save points. It also states that as the space fills up, it will delete the older save points as well.

 

[seekermeister]

I never used that method to control the shadow copies, only vssadmin in the command prompt, and even when I reduced the space to the least possible (I think that it was zero) it did not delete the old shadow copies, the only way that I could get rid of them was to uninstall shadow copy ghosts in the Device Manager as I described. Deleting ghosts had no effect on what restore points were available at all.

 

[whs]

I never used that method to control the shadow copies, only vssadmin in the command prompt, and even when I reduced the space to the least possible (I think that it was zero) it did not delete the old shadow copies, the only way that I could get rid of them was to uninstall shadow copy ghosts in the Device Manager as I described. Deleting ghosts had no effect on what restore points were available at all.

That is strange indeed. I lost my shadows each time I mucked around with them - and even without intervention at times. Fortunately I do not really rely on them because I have frequent images. But sometimes they are more useful than images.

 

[DeVandal]

Is your pagefile on C? If Yes, is the size variable?

I do not us tools like ccleaner... perhaps it is NOT set to empty any temp folders, but rather set to delete generic temp file extensions (which your encoder may not use).

 

[seekermeister]

I never used that method to control the shadow copies, only vssadmin in the command prompt, and even when I reduced the space to the least possible (I think that it was zero) it did not delete the old shadow copies, the only way that I could get rid of them was to uninstall shadow copy ghosts in the Device Manager as I described. Deleting ghosts had no effect on what restore points were available at all.

That is strange indeed. I lost my shadows each time I mucked around with them - and even without intervention at times. Fortunately I do not really rely on them because I have frequent images. But sometimes they are more useful than images.

It's not that strange, because I only recently (within the last month), deleted all of my shadow copies in order to best organize C: for defragging, and then made a new one. While checking for this thread, I saw that I had 19 ghosts collected, and only 1 valid shadow copy. It is not totally clear to me, but it seems that any time that files are altered on C: to any extent, the system makes a new shadow copy, some of which are just added to other valid shadow copies. What causes a shadow copy to become a ghost is unknown to me as supernatural ghosts.

EDIT: I know that Windows Updates often creates a new restore point, which I assume means a new shadow copy, as well as some programs when they are installed do the same. This accounts for multiple valid shadows, but again, I'm uncertain about the ghosts.

 

[whs]

As far as I know, a restore point is created with every install or uninstall (programs or updates). One is also created periodically - used to be one per day in Vista, in Win7 it is only 1 per week (I think).

The ghosted ones are probably marked as "deleted" in the MFT but hang around as long as that space is not needed - same as with deleted files. With a program like Recuva you could probably retrieve them.

 

[seekermeister]

When files are deleted, they do remain on the hard drive, but not recognized by the OS, and they do not show as occupied space in O&O, like ghost shadows copies do. I have no idea of why the files remain, since the OS can't use them, but if they were deleted from the MFT, then I would think that O&O wouldn't see them either.

You are correct about the OS making a new restore point periodically, but I can't remember what the interval is.

 

[whs]

I have no idea of why the files remain

Any deleted file remains on the drive until the space is reused or you do a defrag.

if they were deleted from the MFT

They are not deleted from the MFT but in the MFT. A bit is being set that marks them as deleted.

 

[seekermeister]

Ghost shadows will remain on the drive even after a defrag. I'm not certain about the space being reused, because that space remains locked...at least as far as O&O is concerned. That is the reason that I removed the ghosts manually myself, because they were occupying too much space. I can't swear to it, but I really don't think that the OS will overwrite that space either, unless it has no other choice. Shadow ghost are not treated the same as other files.

 

[blackdot]

Is your pagefile on C? If Yes, is the size variable?

I do not us tools like ccleaner... perhaps it is NOT set to empty any temp folders, but rather set to delete generic temp file extensions (which your encoder may not use).

yes, pagefile is on C. This is the virtual memory, right (not sure here). If thats correct, then it says here "system managed" and not 'custom size', which means, i guess, that its size is variable? it currently has 4 Gb allocated.

 

[whs]

The page file is variable in it's usage but fix in it's allocation. If you run WinDirStat, you will see the big blip on the colored picture.