Vista eats OS partition

H

hanmar25

New Member
Hi,

I was wondering if anybody could help shed some light on an issue i've been having with vista (home version running on a Dell XPS 420)

I've set it up with 2 partitions (one with the OS and the other with everything else) My problem is that however big i make up the OS partition vista eats it like there's no tomorrow. I've left it at 40GB but already have around 9GB free......(i completely reinstalled from scratch on Tuesday) so just waiting for more massive updates from Microsoft and that'll be gone. The real trouble is that using the OS installation disk i was given with the machine i cant extend an active partition with out erasing and formatting the partition. Could anyone advise me how to do this without erasing any data? please dont say i have to buy partition magic! surely the chaps at Microsoft envisged this as a potential issue :confused:

cheers
 

My Computer

System One

hi,
i had same issue (ish) it is usually microsoft update that eats os , for me i was losin a gig everyday , so reinstall , turn them off n see what happens , if i helped dont thank me just add me some rep :)
 

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System One

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hello hanmar25

by default, every time vista updates or has a program installed,it creates a restore point....that being said,if you are happy with the way your system is running you can delete all the restore points except the last one...

to do that: start > all programs > accessories > system tools > disk cleanup > click OK when prompt by UAC ,select the drive you want to clean up: click OK (this will take 5-15 seconds) when it comes back select the "more options" tab: then select the bottom "clean up" button ...then select OK or delete whatever comes up... and check out how much space you gained ....this may take a minute or two to complete as it is deleting a few GBs worth of shadow copies.

you should only do this if you are OK with the way your system is running!!

good luck ,post back when done and you can set the space for shadow copies to be smaller. (thats a different class) lol
 

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System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    acer aspire 6930
    Memory
    3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    onboard
    Sound Card
    onboard
    Hard Drives
    320GB

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System One

thats so weird!" thanks for the link

"System Restore needs to be turned on to be able to change it's storage size. To turn on System Restore and select what drives Vista is to create restore points for, see: How to Turn System Restore On or Off in Vista"

Just checked and my system restore is turned off! doh! not sure why vista just keeps eating. maybe just the updates are responsible?
 

My Computer

System One

For your 40GB OS Partition there is a maximum of 6GB of shadowstorage (that's where the shadows = restore points will be stored). 6GB is good for 5 to 10 restore points which will be written at the tune of 1 per day and one with every install - program or update. So the shadowstorage will be full very fast. If you want to reduce it, run this command in elevated command prompt (but you must run as admin - right click on cmd > run as admin). Note that you lose all your current restore points in the process.

vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=300MB

Now this would set it to the minimum allowed which is 300MB. But you can set it to any greater value - just make sure you put MB or GB behind the number - e.g. 2GB.

For your partition expansion project I can make you a little (long) tutorial - it is possible but you have to go thru several steps. But first let me know whether you have an external disk large enough to hold all the data that is on your second partition. Because if you have no way to park the data from the second partition temporarily, it cannot be done.

PS: A 40GB system partition is too small for Vista. I recommend 60GB at least.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell
    CPU
    Q6600
    Memory
    4GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP w2207h
    Hard Drives
    2x250GB HDDs
    1x60GB OCZ SSD
    6 external disks 60 to 640GBs
    Other Info
    Also 1xHP desktop, 1xHP laptop, 1xGateway laptop
sorry about all this - but i've checked and dont think i have system restore enabled so not sure why vitsa takes so much. is the situation the same with the updates? does vista know how much disk space to allocate for them?

Sorry for all this!

If you could provide a tutorial about how to expand the OS partition that would be very good to read, since if i can't stop this situation i'll have to do that soon! your help would be greatly appreciated!
 

My Computer

System One

OK - here you go. But you did not tell me yet whether you have an external disk which is absolutely required because you first have to delete D (your second partition).

For the purpose of this discussion I assume your second disk is D. Now do these steps:
1. Copy everything from D to an external drive
2. Go to Disk Management, right click on D and "delete volume" - now all of D is unallocated.
3. Also in Disk Management, right click on C and "extend volume" - I suggest you give it a total of 60GB - you probably have enough space on the disk.
4. For the rest of the free space, you can define a new D. You may have to "initialize" first - right click on the left pane area where it says Disk 0, Disk 1, etc. Then right click on the right pane and "Format". There you can also give it the D drive letter - if that was not the default the system picked anyhow. Note that formatting may take a looong time - depending on the size of the space.
5. Now you can move your files back to D from the external disk.

PS : It may be a good idea to move all your own data files ( Pictures, Documents, Videos, Downloads, Music, Saved Games, etc) to D. But you must do that with the Properties > Location tab > Move. Then your files are safe in case the system ever crashes. But if you want to do that, make sure you first define folders like Pictures, Documents, etc. on D and move the stuff to their corresponding folders. Failure to do that will get you into a big mess because the path will then be D and not the proper folder.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell
    CPU
    Q6600
    Memory
    4GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP w2207h
    Hard Drives
    2x250GB HDDs
    1x60GB OCZ SSD
    6 external disks 60 to 640GBs
    Other Info
    Also 1xHP desktop, 1xHP laptop, 1xGateway laptop
You could use this free partition manager :

BEST FREE Partition Manager Software for Windows supports all 32-bit & 64 bit Windows No-server OS.


By the way - partition magic should not be used on Vista or 7.





hanmar25 said:
Hi,

I was wondering if anybody could help shed some light on an issue i've been having with vista (home version running on a Dell XPS 420)

I've set it up with 2 partitions (one with the OS and the other with everything else) My problem is that however big i make up the OS partition vista eats it like there's no tomorrow. I've left it at 40GB but already have around 9GB free......(i completely reinstalled from scratch on Tuesday) so just waiting for more massive updates from Microsoft and that'll be gone. The real trouble is that using the OS installation disk i was given with the machine i cant extend an active partition with out erasing and formatting the partition. Could anyone advise me how to do this without erasing any data? please dont say i have to buy partition magic! surely the chaps at Microsoft envisged this as a potential issue :confused:

cheers
Click to expand...
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Vista
    CPU
    Intel E8400
    Motherboard
    ASRock1333-GLAN R2.0
    Memory
    4gb DDR2 800
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia 9500GT 1gb
  • Operating System
    win7/vista
    CPU
    intel i5-8400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    ballistix 2x8gb 3200
sorry about the slow rely! thanks for all your help. still not really sure whats going on. Looks like system restore is disabled (by default) on my set up so vssadmin doesn't work (as id expect it not to under the circumstances).

After updates vitsa seems to be hovering around the 30GB mark at the mo (10 GB free) doesn't seem to be eating considerably at the mo so wondering if its plateaued?

My set up is:

C: OS partition - 40GB
D: 892GB

any thoughts? trying to avoid a sudden in roads to spare space :) any theories/tips welcome (assuming that vitsa does indeed not know there's a limit on the hard drive space)
 

My Computer

System One

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