Missing some space!

oxygene · 12 Feb 2009 at 17:51

Ok my boot disk currently has around 80gb I cant find. It says 114gb is used up but only about 40gb is. I tried chkdsk but nothing has come up, and I do suffer from occasioanl resets / freezes was wondering if it was orphaned files or something. Nothing.
Can someone recommend a good disk check program that might find where this space has gone?

hegemon · 12 Feb 2009 at 18:13

A good chunk of your missing space is most likely system restore points.

oxygene · 12 Feb 2009 at 18:26

doesnt that still show up under hidden files?
I have all hidden files shown and checked properties, or am I being stupid here

hegemon · 12 Feb 2009 at 18:36

No you cannot see these files as they are stored in the inaccessible System Volume Information folder. You can get access to the folder but there is more to it that the changes you made as you are most likely using ntfs.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309531

Craig321 · 12 Feb 2009 at 18:46

oxygene said:
doesnt that still show up under hidden files?
I have all hidden files shown and checked properties, or am I being stupid here

Make sure you unhide both system files and hidden files and the restore points should show up

oxygene · 12 Feb 2009 at 19:06

Yeah both are unhidden and cant access system volume info, but surely nothing should use up 80gb?

Craig321 · 12 Feb 2009 at 19:10

oxygene said:
Yeah both are unhidden and cant access system volume info, but surely nothing should use up 80gb?

IIRC system restore uses 15% of your disk. ~70GB on a 500GB disk

oxygene · 12 Feb 2009 at 19:14

yah of a full disk maybe, but mine only has 80gb in use?

_Jimlad_ · 12 Feb 2009 at 19:18

how can you delete them?

there is a free proggy called tree size or something that shows where all you megs and gigs are hiding.

Craig321 · 12 Feb 2009 at 19:36

WinDirStat might be what you're thinking off.

Just turn system restore off to free the space up.

hegemon · 12 Feb 2009 at 20:05

oxygene said:
Yeah both are unhidden and cant access system volume info, but surely nothing should use up 80gb?

If you followed the instructions in the link provided you could. As Craig has already pointed out 80gb is entirely possible and is not related to how full your disk is. As has already been recommended turn system restore off and reboot, this will free the space up and you can always turn system restore back on and create a fresh restore point which should only be about 300mb in size.

SimonC · 12 Feb 2009 at 20:18

Craig321 said:
WinDirStat might be what you're thinking off.

Just turn system restore off to free the space up.

I take it you can turn system restore off to get some space back, then turn it back on and create a restore point, no harm in doing it like that?

_Jimlad_ · 12 Feb 2009 at 22:12

so if you turn off system restore will that delete the old files ? i could do with some gigs back, and would never use system restore as i have my files backed up in two locations and quite fancy a format fairly soon

oxygene · 12 Feb 2009 at 22:28

Yeah that definately did it. I used one of the above programs to look into that dir and it was def volume information using 80gb. Removed system restore freed up loads. added it back on again and its fine

bledd · 13 Feb 2009 at 09:08

just leave system restore off

the only decent part of it is driver rollback and that still works even when SR is totally disabled

_Jimlad_ · 13 Feb 2009 at 10:02

yeah i'm at the point where if anything did go **** i would do a reinstall, as i could do with one soon anyway, anyone know how much other system resources system restore uses apart from space?

bledd · 13 Feb 2009 at 10:06

it's not really resources it uses up, just time and space.

ie when installing programs it creates a restore point etc..

uv · 13 Feb 2009 at 11:53

run ccleaner - on old installs, it can removed tens of gigs of rubbish

_Jimlad_ · 13 Feb 2009 at 13:43

uvmain said:
run ccleaner - on old installs, it can removed tens of gigs of rubbish

that is true and after a clean install you would be surprised what it finds in the temp folders locations