HDD Red Indicator Bar

[dregatar]

i have a 1TB hdd (700+GB in 1 partition).. i have 50+ GB left on that partition but explorer shows the capacity bar as red.. why is this?? is there a way to set min volume before the bar changes red?? tq for ur help..

 

[whs]

It shows red when the free space is less than 10% of the total. So in your case that is normal. It is not "harmful" - just an indicator. No need to make any settings.
If this were the system partition/disk, you could not install anything any more.

PS: I just see that your C is pretty small. For the system only, that may be OK. But don't put anything else on it. You need 10% freespace for installation and 15% for Defrag.

 

[dregatar]

tnx whs.. C is only for system files.. i know it has nothing to do with hdd health.. i just dont like it to be red.. is there any settings that will make it red when only 2 or 3 gb is left??

 

[whs]

tnx whs.. C is only for system files.. i know it has nothing to do with hdd health.. i just dont like it to be red.. is there any settings that will make it red when only 2 or 3 gb is left??

I am sure you can tweak something. But I have never researched it because it does not really matter - other than the optics. But then, how often do you open Computer.

 

[mon3104]

tnx whs.. C is only for system files.. i know it has nothing to do with hdd health.. i just dont like it to be red.. is there any settings that will make it red when only 2 or 3 gb is left??

I am sure you can tweak something. But I have never researched it because it does not really matter - other than the optics. But then, how often do you open Computer.

Hi have you found a way to arrange this? I'm getting frustrated about this too

 

[whs]

tnx whs.. C is only for system files.. i know it has nothing to do with hdd health.. i just dont like it to be red.. is there any settings that will make it red when only 2 or 3 gb is left??

I am sure you can tweak something. But I have never researched it because it does not really matter - other than the optics. But then, how often do you open Computer.

Hi have you found a way to arrange this? I'm getting frustrated about this too

Hmm, how did you find this old post. But regarding your problem I would say - it depends. I am sure there was sufficient free space in the partition at the outset. You must have moved someting to that partition that does not belong there (possibly with file backup).
I suggest you open the partition and see what's there and delete everything that is not part of the recovery partition. That should fix it.
If you don't want to do that, just hide the partition (take the drive letter off). Then you do not see it in Computer.

 

[mon3104]

i googled it.... partition?... i know what a partition is but i don't think that what you said is needed to be done... the "problem" is that win7 changer the blue bar (of the hdd) to red when it reaches 10% to be full.. is there a way to change that 10%.. it just bothers me that its not blue (i know that there is nothing wrong with it..just style)

 

[whs]

the blue bar (of the hdd) to red when it reaches 10% to be full. should read:" less than 10% empty"

I am sure the 10% value is set in some registry entry. But a) I do not know which one it is and b) I do not think it is worth playing with the registry for such a nit. If it really bothers you, hide the partition (take the drive letter off in Disk Management).

 

[mjf]

I think the red bar warning is there for a reason. Apart from obviously telling you you are about to run out of space you can start to see slower access speeds (a fragmentation issue maybe?).
Basically it's time to treat the disk as effectively full and either clean it up or get another disk.

 

[whs]

In addition what mjf says, there are certain operations you cannot perform when the disk is that low in space - e.g. a defrag. For a data disk like this one that is not a big problem, but fr the system disk it would be because it can also shut down installation of new programs.

 

[stahlhutd]

Surely as HDD sizes increase Microsoft will recognise that a fixed 10% setting is inappropriate.

I have a 3TB HDD which is used as file storage only (it's not a System partition and not used for OS or Apps). To think that its going to be marked red with approx 250GB remaining is absurd.

It seems the best option is to have a setting per disk/partition offering user set % or size.

Eg Warn me when when 2% free or 50Gb free.

 

[Fuzzbutts]

Agreed. I have 11% available on my 3TB drive (2.72TB formatted) so there is something like 310GB free. I've got plenty of free space and have turned off the warnings but the red bar is drawing attention to something that doesn't need attention yet. Now 11% free on my 74.4GB C: drive (80GB SSD) is a problem. I want that warning. They need to come up with a better level to warn for besides a simple percentage.

Yes mounting the drive in a folder on another drive is one way to get rid of that problem. However if you run Windows Home Server 2011 like I do, you will also get warnings about drives being full from that as well regardless of where the volume is mounted.

 

[Iteejer]

Here a solution from another user in this forum which worked for me (also confirmed working for Windows 8)

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/23665-low-disc-space-partition-color-3.html

You can actually remove the colorbar completely quite easy.

1. Run REGEDIT as administrator
2. Open HKLM\Software\Classes\Drive
3. Change the value for the key TileInfo. Remove the phrase "System.PercentFull;"
The key should read the following:
Before: prop:*System.PercentFull;System.Computer.DecoratedFreeSpace;System.Volume.FileSystem
After: prop:*System.Computer.DecoratedFreeSpace;System.Volume.FileSystem
4. Restart windows explorer (open task manager, and kill the process explorer.exe, choose File, Run and type in explorer.exe)
5. Now open Computer to see the absense of the colorbars

Note: This method does not disable the warning which occurs when free space falls below 10%. It does only remove the anoying red bars.