Appearing and disappearing GBs

After I cleaned my 250 GB HDD, including getting rid of shadow copies and all
but the most recent system restore, earlier today, about 75% free space became
81% free space. I didn't add anything to it, but a few hours later, when I ran
the defragmenter, it said 81% free space became 75% free space again. This
happens all the time. After I add a new graphics driver or such and free up
space on the HDD, it goes back up to 81% free space. What is that--shadow
copies appearing again? Would it be good to use a way to prevent it?

glenster

It probably did another backup before the defrag, check how many are stored.


ken

What do you mean by "backup"s and how do you check them? I only deliberately
make copies of files I want to save onto an external hard disk. Do you mean
Vista automatically creates the kind of backups described at the next link?
http://www.petri.co.il/using_backup_status_and_configuration_in_vista.htm

Would it be good to disable those as described at the next link?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927014

Normally, I have a percentage of free space in the lower or mid-70's no matter
how often I run the free up disk space utility to get rid of all but the latest
system restore point and shadow copies.

The exception is if I add an update that creates a system restore point then
run the free up disk space utility to get rid of shadow copies and all but the
latest system restore point.

At that time, the percent of free space will go up to 81% briefly, then later
go down to the lower or mid-70's again.

Shadow Copy and System Restore. You can place limits...
How to Change and Limit System Restore Storage Space Usage Size in Vista with VSSAdmin » My Digital Life