Cannot reclaim hd space by deleting files

T

tinalind

New Member
Hi,

My C drive shows 2.98 GB free. I have deleted tons of programs and files, and it remains at 2.98 GB free. I'm also getting messages that my D: partition is full (I have never messed with it, so ???). Have run chkdsk /f, ran the dell repair utility that took all day yesterday, said everything was fine. Tried to reinstall Vista from the DVD and got a message that I need 7 GB of free space, so it aborts. You can hopefully see my problem, i.e., not enough space to reinstall Vista, but can't get the space I need no matter what I do. Have run disk cleaner and everything else, too. Hibernation is not turned on. System restore is not turned on.

My c drive is 288 GB on a Dell Inspiron 530 Desktop with 4 GB of ram. Vista Home Premium 32 bit.

I have wasted 2 days on this and need help BADLY! Thanks in advance for insights!
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 530

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
Thanks for your reply, but, as I stated in my post, I have used disk cleanup (gained 10 GB but my C drive remained at 2.98 GB free space) AND system restore is not turned on - I do not have any system restore points. Also, I uninstalled over 50 GB of programs, and my C drive still showed 2.98 GB of free space. This is not your typical full drive scenario.

Any other ideas?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 530

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
I just checked for shadow copies using cmd as administrator and it showed Used Shadow Copy Storage Space: 0 bytes, and Allocated Shadow copy storage space: 0 bytes. It showed that 30.697 GB is allocated for this, but is apparently not being used.

It seems more like whatever it is that controls file allocation is screwed up, like the NTFS master table (or something) is not recognizing free space at all. This is beyond me, but in my research the past couple of days I've come across this concept, just never saw anything to do about it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 530
PROBLEM SOLVED! Talking about shadow copies got me to thinking about the fact that I have Rollback RX installed on my computer and, in fact, have "rolled back" twice to try to solve my disk space problem. Well, it WAS the problem! I uninstalled it and instantly my hard drive space of 2.98 GB was restored to 208 GB! Talk about shadow copies! For this reason alone I do NOT recommend Rollback RX! I have totally screwed up my computer by rolling back 6 months - now I have major work to do to update programs, Vista, etc., not to mention wasting two whole days trying to solve this problem, when all I had to do was uninstall the %$@#$ program :mad:. BEWARE!
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 530
In any event, I am glad that it is solved, with a little help from the Forum. Best of luck to you and thanks for reporting back so that others may be helped.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
I wonder if it is possible to copy the vssadmin.exe app from Server 2008 and plant it in Vista to give complete control over Shadow Copies. Are there drivers as well that have to be copied over. As I'm having the same problem and suspect that it is Shadow Storage that is causing the problem, I thought that maybe this approach might work and wanted some feedback. As it is I can only resize Shadow Storage, rather than move it to another drive altogether and delete it from C: drive that I have partitioned to just hold Windows and Program files and not more. I have moved c:/users to another partition already. Actually I wold like to move Program Files as well, but though it can be done, I have read a Microsoft memo that discourages it because IE is hardwired to look for Program Files on the Windows partition.
 

My Computer

System One

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo Thinkpad T400
    CPU
    Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo P8700 @ 2.53GHz
    Motherboard
    LENOVO 64734VM
    Memory
    2.00GB Single-Channel DDR3 @ 531MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Mobile Intel 4 Series Express Chipset Family
    Sound Card
    Conexant 20561 SmartAudio HD
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15 inch
    Screen Resolution
    1280 x 800
    Hard Drives
    1x 180GB Intel 530 series SSD
    1 x 120GB Hitachi 5400rmp
    1 x 650GB Western Digital Elements 5400rpm
    1x 1Tb Western Digital Elements 5400rpm
    Internet Speed
    Medium for New Zealand
    Other Info
    Weakest part of my computer is the graphics chipset.
    Only ever used a laptop.
    Also use USB Freeview TV Card
    Lenovo Docking Station
    External Speakers
    Other bits a pieces as needed
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