"Missing" HDD space in Vista

DiscoKandy · 8 May 2009 at 16:31

Hi,

I have a laptop with a 80GB, which in Windows shows a capacity of 74.4GB, fine.

Vista states that I have used 60GB of space giving me 14GB free, however there really is very little stored on this laptop and when I select all the files on the drive to see what they add up to it comes to only 20GB.......I understand that Vista has hidden Hibernation files, Swap files, recovery files etc. But 40GB is ridiculous.

After reading this website I have also removed the old recovery points on my HDD, which gave me back 500mb, but where is the other 40GB gone....I need the space back :----(

http://www.jason-preston.com/index.php/2007/06/25/missing-hard-drive-space-in-windows-vista/

Mark

bledd · 8 May 2009 at 16:36

disable system restore
run disk cleanup
run ccleaner slim (download first)

likely the windows folder is using tons

DiscoKandy · 8 May 2009 at 16:50

Just done all three and picked up another 2-3GB for turning off systems restore and another 300MB for running disc cleanup and CCcleaner, still 17GB un-accounted for.....

reflux · 8 May 2009 at 16:53

Use hibernate? If not, turn it off and save space.

powercfg.exe -h off into CMD.

DiscoKandy · 8 May 2009 at 16:57

already off matey

JohnJan · 8 May 2009 at 17:27

Download TreeSize Free (or similar app) and find out what folder is taking up the space.

DiscoKandy · 8 May 2009 at 17:33

Tired treesize and JdiskReader, both confirm that approx 20GB of the disk is being used....

eXor · 8 May 2009 at 18:07

Checked 'Show hidden files and folders' ?

Unchecked 'Hide protected operating system files' ?

If not, do so. Then select again to see total.

DiscoKandy · 8 May 2009 at 19:15

Already selected those options matey... I seem to have no end of problems with Vista

bledd · 8 May 2009 at 19:20

try this..

click start, type 'cmd' right click cmd.exe, "run as admin"

paste this..

vssadmin resize shadowstorage /for=c: /on=c: /maxsize=300mb

press enter