free space 2 GB loss after disk defrag

P

pappi

Banned
Cannot explain losing so much, instead of gaining. My restore point in SR remains just one and there is less than 4 MB of deletable files in Disk Cleanup(as usual). What happened?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    pavilion dv7-1170us
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Generic PnP
    Screen Resolution
    1440 x 900
    Hard Drives
    1 298.09 fujitsu G2 ATA Device
    Keyboard
    IBM enhanced 102-key
    Mouse
    Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad
Could be a potential shadow copy. What defragmentation program did you use?

Also defragmenting a HDD will not gain any free space itself but rather just moving files so it can be read more quickly by the HDD needle head.

Josh :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Built
    CPU
    Intel Core i5 2400 @ 3.10GHz
    Motherboard
    Foxconn H67MP-S/-V/H67MP
    Memory
    8.0GB DDR3 @ 665MHz (2GBx4)
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD HD Radeon 6870
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    SMB1930NW (1440x900@60Hz)
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800
    Hard Drives
    977GB Seagate ST31000524AS ATA Device (SATA) + 250GB WD iSCSI attached Drive
    Case
    Novatech Night
    Keyboard
    Standard PS/2 Keyboard
    Mouse
    Dell HID-compliant mouse
Hi Josh...in the past, after defrag i either gained at least 1 GB...or no gain. But never lost, never mind 2 GB loss.

I have always used Auslogic defrag. (Vista defrag takes way too much time).
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    pavilion dv7-1170us
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Generic PnP
    Screen Resolution
    1440 x 900
    Hard Drives
    1 298.09 fujitsu G2 ATA Device
    Keyboard
    IBM enhanced 102-key
    Mouse
    Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    Dual L5639 // i7 950 @ 4.0Ghz
    Motherboard
    Evga SR-2 // Gigabyte x58a-ud3r
    Memory
    12Gig Corsair XMS3 // 6Gig OCZ Gold
    Graphics Card(s)
    gtx 560 ti // gtx 260-216
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual 22" // Headless
    Hard Drives
    OCZ aGILITY 3, 120Gig + Seagate 500Gig x 2
    PSU
    Silverstone da700 // Corsair 520hx
    Case
    Rosewill BlackHawk Ultra // Antec 900v1
    Cooling
    Twin CM Hyper 212+ // Noctua NH-u12
    Other Info
    Acer 8930 laptop with x9100...
Normally a disk defrag would not change disk free space at all. That is not it's purpose and it should not happen. If it does the file system may have problems. Check this with chkdsk at the command line.
 

My Computer

System One

I had something similar happen with one version of Puran Defrag. I "lost" a bunch of free space. Evidently there was a glitch that didn't dispose of the shadow copy it makes in case a file needs to be recovered due to a falty move etc..

I backed off to the previous version of Puran until the next update, to side-step the issue. Whatever you are using to defrag, try something else. To get rid of garbage shadow copies you can turn retore points off, then back on. Also a good idea to use an image backup and have one in reserve anytime you kill all your restore point though.

edit: also note that in Vista if you turn off restore points, then turn them back on, the storage max will be reset to the default 15%. To set to annother value use the vssadmin command in an Administrator command prompt. It's been detailed many times on this forum so a search should give the details of the command.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion m9515y
    CPU
    Phenom X4 9850
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Some Radeon Cheapie with 512 MB Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    CRT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    750 GB SATA 3G
    2 SIIG Superspeed docks w/WD Caviar Black Sata II or III

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    pavilion dv7-1170us
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Generic PnP
    Screen Resolution
    1440 x 900
    Hard Drives
    1 298.09 fujitsu G2 ATA Device
    Keyboard
    IBM enhanced 102-key
    Mouse
    Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad
Another thing you could do is download Shadow Explorer. It's a freeware that lets you extract individual files from shadow storage. The interface is just like an undelete program. You can look through the storage with it and see if you have tons of duplicates or other strange things.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion m9515y
    CPU
    Phenom X4 9850
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Some Radeon Cheapie with 512 MB Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    CRT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    750 GB SATA 3G
    2 SIIG Superspeed docks w/WD Caviar Black Sata II or III
The missing 2GB is recovered and I am not sure how.

One thing I had done was click ADVANCE TOOLS from Performance info and Tools window(I was trying to update my score) and I was informed that one NVDIA graphic driver was slowing me down and should be uninstalled if no longer being used. I located the driver in Device Manager and had it uninstalled.

But this extra driver had alwas been there. So I am not sure its uninstallation was the reason for the 2GB recovery.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    pavilion dv7-1170us
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Generic PnP
    Screen Resolution
    1440 x 900
    Hard Drives
    1 298.09 fujitsu G2 ATA Device
    Keyboard
    IBM enhanced 102-key
    Mouse
    Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad
It is possible that the uninstallation created a system restore point which removed the shadow copy that took up the 2GB however I cannot be for certain.

Josh :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Built
    CPU
    Intel Core i5 2400 @ 3.10GHz
    Motherboard
    Foxconn H67MP-S/-V/H67MP
    Memory
    8.0GB DDR3 @ 665MHz (2GBx4)
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD HD Radeon 6870
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    SMB1930NW (1440x900@60Hz)
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800
    Hard Drives
    977GB Seagate ST31000524AS ATA Device (SATA) + 250GB WD iSCSI attached Drive
    Case
    Novatech Night
    Keyboard
    Standard PS/2 Keyboard
    Mouse
    Dell HID-compliant mouse
I always wonder why some restore points are bigger sized than others. RP's are usually 1GB but sometimes they can be as large as 4GB.

Once I was going nuts for being 4 GB short with just one RP in System Restore; so, curiously I created a restore point that allowed me to delete the previous RP. And as I suspected that particular RP deletion instantly restored the missing 4GB.

But I still cannot explain why Disk defrag cost me 2 GB.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    pavilion dv7-1170us
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Generic PnP
    Screen Resolution
    1440 x 900
    Hard Drives
    1 298.09 fujitsu G2 ATA Device
    Keyboard
    IBM enhanced 102-key
    Mouse
    Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad
As miles said it would most likely be the program that you're using. Try to temporarily try a different program to see if it still affects free space.

Josh! :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Built
    CPU
    Intel Core i5 2400 @ 3.10GHz
    Motherboard
    Foxconn H67MP-S/-V/H67MP
    Memory
    8.0GB DDR3 @ 665MHz (2GBx4)
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD HD Radeon 6870
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    SMB1930NW (1440x900@60Hz)
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800
    Hard Drives
    977GB Seagate ST31000524AS ATA Device (SATA) + 250GB WD iSCSI attached Drive
    Case
    Novatech Night
    Keyboard
    Standard PS/2 Keyboard
    Mouse
    Dell HID-compliant mouse
pappi said:
I always wonder why some restore points are bigger sized than others. RP's are usually 1GB but sometimes they can be as large as 4GB.
Click to expand...

Even larger if you have video files. Sometimes I would forget to delete DVD image files when done with them. A few of those can create really big restore points. :)

edit: if you haven't recovered the shadow copy space already I recommend the method of turning System Restore off, then back on, as the safest. A 3rd party program might get confused by shadow copies that are corrupted or not correctly saved.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion m9515y
    CPU
    Phenom X4 9850
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Some Radeon Cheapie with 512 MB Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    CRT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    750 GB SATA 3G
    2 SIIG Superspeed docks w/WD Caviar Black Sata II or III
It seems not all restore points are the same. Some are 4GB while most are 1GB and others are in-between. Manually created RP's are 1GB. Automatically created RP's after software /hardware/program installation or deletion are bigger sized...as big as 4GB.

So...it seems 2GB loss after defrag is due to automatic RP it creates.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    pavilion dv7-1170us
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Generic PnP
    Screen Resolution
    1440 x 900
    Hard Drives
    1 298.09 fujitsu G2 ATA Device
    Keyboard
    IBM enhanced 102-key
    Mouse
    Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad
Man, you are learning things in leaps and bounds! Keep this up and you'll be schooling the Grandkid!
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    Dual L5639 // i7 950 @ 4.0Ghz
    Motherboard
    Evga SR-2 // Gigabyte x58a-ud3r
    Memory
    12Gig Corsair XMS3 // 6Gig OCZ Gold
    Graphics Card(s)
    gtx 560 ti // gtx 260-216
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual 22" // Headless
    Hard Drives
    OCZ aGILITY 3, 120Gig + Seagate 500Gig x 2
    PSU
    Silverstone da700 // Corsair 520hx
    Case
    Rosewill BlackHawk Ultra // Antec 900v1
    Cooling
    Twin CM Hyper 212+ // Noctua NH-u12
    Other Info
    Acer 8930 laptop with x9100...
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top