Vista - Vista Makes HD Storage Capacity Deteriorate

Hi! I bought a Lenovo T60 with Win Vista Business some 2 months ago, and have
a mysterious problem that even the Lenovo or Microsoft ground level support
people haven't been able to solve:

My hard disk drive (120GB of which 105GB available for use) has been filling
up approximately double the pace I put data in it: I have only 47,2GB on my
drive C: (all the hidden files included in the count, as well as the Recycle
Bin) but Vista claims I only have 9,6GB free out of 105GB, so 95,4GB in use.
This means I would have pretty much double the quantity of data hidden
somewhere on my hard disk drive that I have in reality.

Now, my Automatic File Backup is switched off, as it has been during the 2
months that I have had the computer. And in any case, I haven't touched the
factory settings in a way that could cause the problem.

This really is frustrating, as all the Lenovo and Microsoft support
personnel (in Finland) suggest as a solution is that I use the recovery disk
set to restore the factory config. However, I don't believe it's good
business not to solve the problem itself. I also wouldn't like to go through
the process of re-installing all the applications, files etc.

Has anyone any idea about what might cause the problem? Lenovo people are
certain this is a software issue. I'm not a very advanced computer user, but
I should be pretty much familiar with the basics to tell that something's not
right here. Also all advice about how to best solve the problem are more than
welcome.

Thank you sincerely for any replies.

Try a program called Treesizefree. When run as administrator it will give you
a Tree of all folders on your drive with their sizes.

http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml
--
Paul


"Henri" wrote:

> Hi! I bought a Lenovo T60 with Win Vista Business some 2 months ago, and have
> a mysterious problem that even the Lenovo or Microsoft ground level support
> people haven't been able to solve:
>
> My hard disk drive (120GB of which 105GB available for use) has been filling
> up approximately double the pace I put data in it: I have only 47,2GB on my
> drive C: (all the hidden files included in the count, as well as the Recycle
> Bin) but Vista claims I only have 9,6GB free out of 105GB, so 95,4GB in use.
> This means I would have pretty much double the quantity of data hidden
> somewhere on my hard disk drive that I have in reality.
>
> Now, my Automatic File Backup is switched off, as it has been during the 2
> months that I have had the computer. And in any case, I haven't touched the
> factory settings in a way that could cause the problem.
>
> This really is frustrating, as all the Lenovo and Microsoft support
> personnel (in Finland) suggest as a solution is that I use the recovery disk
> set to restore the factory config. However, I don't believe it's good
> business not to solve the problem itself. I also wouldn't like to go through
> the process of re-installing all the applications, files etc.
>
> Has anyone any idea about what might cause the problem? Lenovo people are
> certain this is a software issue. I'm not a very advanced computer user, but
> I should be pretty much familiar with the basics to tell that something's not
> right here. Also all advice about how to best solve the problem are more than
> welcome.
>
> Thank you sincerely for any replies.

Yep, tried that, and it still gives me the same result: now 49,3GB in use,
but only 10,04GB free of 108,02GB. I can't access files named "RRbackups" or
"System Volume Information" (Access is denied) so I can't tell whether the
might have the excess data embedded somewhere.

Henri

"PaulB" wrote:

When I right click on Treesize and select "Run as administrator" it shows me
all the folder sizes including "system volume information".
--
Paul


"Henri" wrote:

I have experienced a similar problem. I found that Vista occasionally makes recovery snapshots using the Shadow Copy service. Eats up about 10GB a time on my system. Even more anoying, the space used doesn't show up when you select all files and go to properties.

To free up this eaten space I simply went to the properties of the C: drive and clicked on "Disk Cleanup". Once it has finished scanning, click on the second tab and click the "Cleanup" button under the Shadow Copies or Restore (Can't remember exactly the name) section. Say "yes" to the warning and click ok. It will then do it's thing. This part could take a while. Once it's finished churning away, check the free disk space. Looks better doesn't it!?

I do the same thing but for me access to "System Volume Information" is
denied, as well as to "RRbackups". Funny. I am just about to run the system
recovery disc set and hopefully the error will disappear with it. Just very
frustrating...

Henri

"PaulB" wrote: