Low Disk space Recovery D

Hello,

I'm new to this forum. I don't know everything there is to know about computers, so I might be kind of slow on things. I have a Windows Vista Home Premium computer Dell Inspiron 530S desktop.

Some of my freinds have been talking about backing up your files, so yesterday I went and backed up my files to Recovery D. Right after I started getting the message Low disk Space, you are running out of disk space on D. to free the space by deleting old or unnecessary files. Recovery D is in red and says, 1.33 free 14.6 GB. Disk Cleanup in Recovery D (recylce bin) is o bytes.

I tried to find the answer on my own, but everything is confusing me. What I can gather, I should not of backed up to Recovery D. Is there a way to undo this? Some people mention disabling so the message doesn't come up and leave it alone. My browser ie IE 9. Should I back up to a disk and not on my D drive?

Thank you so much for any help. This is the first time this has happened to me and it was the first time I thought about backing up. I really don't have anything to important to lose, mostly pictures and my email (nothing I would really miss) I don't have personal accounts on my computer. I hope I haven't messed up my computer.

Welcome,
Your mistake is that recovery D is not to be used to back up your stuff, although you should always back up and I will tell you how.
The recovery D partition is a special partition that will allow you to go back to factory setting in the event of a major problem. Factory settings is the way your computer was the day that you took it home. That being said, you may have damaged your D drive to the point that it will no longer function. Dont worry, after you follow my instructions it will no longer be needed. This is what you need to do.
You should buy an external hard drive. If you do not have an external you could use a finger drive (usb drive, or a thumb drive) hopefully you know what that is. Now just back up your stuff. I will assume that you have an external hard drive, for the second part of my instructions.
Download Macriium Reflect.
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html
Now, with Macrium, make an image of your entire hard drive and put it away. Every month or so update it. Now, if you have a problem that cannnot be resolved in the normal fashion, just use your image to replace your Operating System. Now, you no longer need D. D would have put you back the way your were on day 1 and you would have had to update, again, put your stuff back, install all new software etc, but with the Macrium Image, all will be back exactly the way you were. Here is an example of how important an image is.
http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/295454-importance-image-your-hard-drive.html
Please, we are here to help, so anything you do not understand or want to discuss, just post.

Hopefully, I have answered all of your questions. Since, you were not familiar with partition D, you may need help in other areas as well; I will share with you my secrets for good maintenance and hopefully the knowledge will help you as much as it has helped me.
To maintain your computer

10 Tips on How to Properly Maintain Your Computer

Steps that I did not notice on the guide include:

10 Tips on How to Properly Maintain Your Computer

Steps that I did not notice on the guide include:

Running a scan disc before doing a defrag

Using Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes.

Making System Restore points, at least once a week

Makaing a system Image once a month (varies by user)

Not relying on your A/V common sense, should prevail. You know of many sites can cause a problem.

Do not use any reg cleaning or optimizing software.

Download and use Ccleaner about once every two months. Untick any registry entries.
http://www.piriform.com/

Download and use PSI, to to be sure that all of your software is up to date
http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/

If you follow these instructions, you will be trouble free for a long time to come.

Be sure to back up your hard drive about once a month (varies by user) and to keeep system restore points up to date.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...er-performance

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/81176-speed-up-performance-vista.html

You can prevent the message low in Disc space by deleting the backups that you have put in the drive.
Go to the my computer icon on your desktop
Then left click, letft click again on the D drive. Delete the backups that you have made. If you should make an error and delete something that you should not, you will have the image. In addition, Dell has given you Discs, that contain the same information as the D partition and you can use them, if needed. I hope you do not use them, but use the Macrium image instead.

Hi Rich,

Thank you for your help. It will take me awhile to digest all of this. When I went to back up, I went to the Control Panel click on System and Maintenace, back up your computer, back up your files and it said where to save files was recovery D, it did say something about a CD or other place. That's why I thought it's where you back up files.

I don't have the 'My computer' icon on my desktop but when I go to start, on the right side 'computer' is there and you can see the drives Os C, Recovery D and DvD Rw Drive E. I left double click on the D icon and 8 Folders come up, Dell, Eilene Woodpc, program files, sources, tool, users, windows and media Id.Bin, is this the backups I should delete? Will this correct the problem? Will I still have to buy one of those drives (You should buy an external hard drive. If you do not have an external you could use a finger drive (usb drive, or a thumb drive) hopefully you know what that is. Now just back up your stuff. I will assume that you have an external hard drive, for the second part of my instructions). I will need to ask something that knows more about computers to help me with this, I don't want to touch any parts, for fear I might mess this up more than I have already. I will let you know how this turns out. Thank you!! I should of left this alone. My computer is working beautifully, haven't had any problems, until now. I'm using to trouble shoot and fix problems on my own. I do some of the things you have mentioned in the first post.

Eilene,
If you want to contiune to use our help in conjuction with the other person that you mentioned.
We will go as slow as necessary and this will be resolved.
My approach is as follows:
It makes no difference how you get to the D drive, as it appears that you have found it. Since we are not going to use the D drive any longer, due to the External Hard Drive you will buy, it really is not necessary to take action regarding the notice, if it comes up only when you try to back up
If you do not try to back up there, you will no longer get those messages. If any damage was done to the D drive, removing your files will not correct the problem. Actually, based on comments in your last post, I think that the Drive is ok. If you get the message to back up in D, Dell must have configured D to also serve as a back up drive. If it is or isn't should not be your criteria to back up using Macrium, if you read my entire post, you will see even I needed a back up for my OS.
Others may come by and tell you what you can delete, but lets do this the safe and logical way. Buy the External Hard Drive, that you mentioned. Together, we will back up both your C drive and then your D drive. Then we will make changes if you want. If we can make any necessary changes without fear of making a mistake, why do it now?

Our plan
Buy the external hard drive
Back up your Operating System

Back up your stuff. Even though your stuff will be on the OS that we back up, its best to have separate back ups. If you accidentally delete a picture, we do not want to have to replace the entire hard drive to get it back.
Then we will remove any uneeded files from D (optional if you do not get any notices) We may want to leave it alone if your computer is working the way it should. We will not even need it if we use Macrium to Back up.

Then we will maintain as suggested.

Richard,

The message comes up all the time, there is the disk icon that stays at the bottom of my task bar (that's what it's called right?) right next to my email, security, time etc. icons. Sunday was the first day I ever tried to back up something and it didn't even back up all the way, I guess because there's not enough room. Trying to get information to explain to you, I did go there and click on some things, so I would be able to tell you what I see, it started to back up but I stopped it. I will not touch that again. I did get the message that to back up that it would back up in D. When I clicked on something else it gave me the choice of D, CD, or something else, or the web (or another place and it said to browse for it) I never had the option to back up to C.

What do you mean by deleting a picture?

When we do the backing up it's all done on the computer, do I have to buy disks or do some installation of other things? I remember this was a long time ago, when I first was using I think an Apple computer at work, I backed up everything to a disk and I had another disk as a back up to the back up.

Let me get with my other people and I will get back to you, how much approximately does the external hard drive cost? Can I go and buy this at Best Buy? What do I need to tell them I need, model and serial #. I appreciate everything you are trying to do to help.

My computer is working beautiful, so I assume this will not interfere with anything, just can't back up.

So I don't need to do anything, restore points, defrag until I get back to you?

Eilene said:

Richard,

The message comes up all the time, there is the disk icon that stays at the bottom of my task bar (that's what it's called right?) right next to my email, security, time etc. icons. Sunday was the first day I ever tried to back up something and it didn't even back up all the way, I guess because there's not enough room. Trying to get information to explain to you, I did go there and click on some things, so I would be able to tell you what I see, it started to back up but I stopped it. I will not touch that again. I did get the message that to back up that it would back up in D. When I clicked on something else it gave me the choice of D, CD, or something else, or the web (or another place and it said to browse for it) I never had the option to back up to C.



What do you mean by deleting a picture?

By deleting a picture I meant if you accidentally delted some of your personal documents, such as a picture, your would be able to restore it without resorting to restoring your entire hard drive.

When we do the backing up it's all done on the computer, do I have to buy disks or do some installation of other things?

I would suggest that you buy an external hard drive and some small usb/finger drivers that is all you need to back up


I remember this was a long time ago, when I first was using I think an Apple computer at work, I backed up everything to a disk and I had another disk as a back up to the back up.

You back up all your stuff and you can put it on the finger drive, my personal preference or on the external hard drive. When you back up the Operating System, you put it on the External Hard Drive.



Let me get with my other people and I will get back to you, how much approximately does the external hard drive cost?

A good External for your purposes should cost just in excess of $100.00. You can get great ones at Costco, or for a bit more at Best Buy.
The cost depends on the quality, size and features. If you do not have much stuff to back up you can get a smaller size. Ask your friend, What size he suggests.


Can I go and buy this at Best Buy? What do I need to tell them I need, model and serial #. I appreciate everything you are trying to do to help.

,
Portable Hard Drives - What to Know Before Buying an External Hard Drive - How to Buy an External Hard Drive

My computer is working beautiful, so I assume this will not interfere with anything, just can't back up.

So I don't need to do anything, restore points, defrag until I get back to you?

Click to expand...

I would not do anything, until you get the hard drive. If you make your image first and then you make a mistake following instructions, you can always replace you OS with the image.

I will get back to you, I sent out a couple of emails.

I know you will be laughing on this one, I just realized by external hard drive is what my monitor sits on and my modem. That silver box that I turn on every day. I thought it was something inside the computer, a part, that I would have to install.

I can just bring in the hard drive I have now and then they will know the correct hard drive. I don't download music, movies, or do spreadsheets, every now and then I do word processing. Just mainly, my emails, facebook and some forums I'm on. I do watch alot of YouTube, I don't make any vidoes. Use the internet alot to look up things.

I got myself upset and so mad at myself last night, I was going to ask someone first and I'm usually very cautious and err on not doing anything. I followed the instructions my computer said to do.

I'm learning though.......

I doubt that your monitor is on your external hard drive. Your montior may be on top of your computer, which has an internal hard drive.

Ok. so the internal hard drive is inside the silver box. Come to think of it I believe at work we may of had an external hard drive. I just babbling here, I looked again on the internet and it is familiar, like at work I'm almost positive, sometimes they are alongside the computer, or on the desk under the monitor, or on the floor.

This is what I have now, that my monitor sits on.

Http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/insp530s/en/om/HTML/parts.htm

Just ignore me, I'll get it straight.

OK Eilene
That is a picture of your computer. An external hard drive would be connected with a cable to the computer. The size of the esternal hard drive may be about 9 inches long and 6 inches high. They are small.
May I suggest speak to your friend, buy an external hard drive together and have him connect it for you. We will then be ready to make an image of your hard drive and to back up your stuff.

Hi Richard,

Can you believe I just now got the external hard drive up and running. It took awhile for me to buy one and then connecting with my friend took awhile, both of us had conflicting scheudules, anyway, everything is running fine now.

Thank you so much for all your help.

Your welcome and I am glad that it all worked out the way that you wanted.