Solved C: partition running out of space, need advice

[DavidE]

Do you use Avast AV ?
There is a known problem with that where it sets System Restore max space to 50%.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Sorry late reply but yes I was really pointing out what was in that link. Personally I do not like large drives large amounts od data to be lost it it goes belly up I prefer to keep several smaller drives internal or external for data storage.

In any case I wonder if you have thought of the oS on a 250GB SSD and the user data on a large drive at least that preserves the OS and we know what installing that is like

Now the board is getting on a bit anyway so if the budget allowed it I would be going for a new build to e honest but that is only because I think it would make for a quicker machine and the choice is yours eh?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...Personally I do not like large drives large amounts od data to be lost it it goes belly up I prefer to keep several smaller drives internal or external for data storage...

As long as a good backup scheme is in place, there really is no need to worry about losing large amounts of data from a large drive failing.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

...Personally I do not like large drives large amounts od data to be lost it it goes belly up I prefer to keep several smaller drives internal or external for data storage...

As long as a good backup scheme is in place, there really is no need to worry about losing large amounts of data from a large drive failing.

Yes Jeannie I have Macrium backing up weekly (image) and I just found that CCleaner has a nice little feature too in Tools > Disk Analyser probably about the simplest app I have seen so far - didn't know it was there and seems easier to read straight up than Wiz Tree or WinDir Stat .

 

[ICIT2LOL]

A bit OT I know but this as well in CCleaner

Cripes have more restore points than I do in Windows

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...Personally I do not like large drives large amounts od data to be lost it it goes belly up I prefer to keep several smaller drives internal or external for data storage...

As long as a good backup scheme is in place, there really is no need to worry about losing large amounts of data from a large drive failing.

Yes Jeannie I have Macrium backing up weekly (image)...

Are you backing up both your system files and data by imaging?

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yes Jeannie as far as I know it is an image you can use for reinstall I am using Wolfgang's method. They are onto an external for the laptops even though I do have a second drive in the new one. The machine that is in trouble has a 1TB (as large as I like to got to) as the image drive sometimes.

The images I keep trimmed down to ones that I know are when the machine is stable. When it s playingup I sully dump it.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Yes Jeannie as far as I know it is an image you can use for reinstall I am using Wolfgang's method. They are onto an external for the laptops even though I do have a second drive in the new one. The machine that is in trouble has a 1TB (as large as I like to got to) as the image drive sometimes.

The images I keep trimmed down to ones that I know are when the machine is stable. When it s playingup I sully dump it.

While imaging both system files and data is an effective and reliable way to backup your computer, it's a grossly inefficient use of time and space. While imaging is absolutely the best (and pretty much the only effective) way to back up your OS and programs, there are better ways to back up data.

If you don't already, you might want to consider having your OS and programs (aka system) only on your C: drive or partition and your data on other drives or partitions. That way you could make images of just your C: drive/partition for easy restoration should it ever be needed. Also, the images would take up much less space, making having multiple images on hand easier. How often you make images would depend on how often you make changes and updates to your system. I image my C: drive every Friday after running full scans with my AV and anti-malware programs. I also make an image of my C: before making any changes. Others may find a monthly image, such as just before running M$ updates, to be plenty.

Folder/file syncing programs are far more efficient and faster than imaging for backing up data and take up a lot less room than multiple images. A folder/file syncing program, when set to Mirror mode (not the same thing as RAID1), will compare the data on the drive to be backed up to the data on the backup drive, then will copy and paste or delete files on the destination drive as necessary to make it essentially a clone of the original data drive/partition. Since only files that have changed since the previous backup update are affected, updating the backup can be very fast; fast enough, in fact, that daily backups become possible. I average about then minutes per day to backup a drive with roughly 1.5TB of data on it.

While FreeFileSync is the folder/file syncing program of choice for me, there are others out there. SyncToy is a popular one. I like FreeFileSync because I can tell it to recognize the destination drive by the name of the drive instead of the drive letter. That way, if the drive letter on the destination drive (external ones are best for backups) should ever change, it will still be able to recognize it. Also, FreeFileSync has a versioning feature that allows one to send files deleted from the backup to a versioning folder or drive you designate. That will allow you to recover accidental deletions.