low disk space on recovery d

A few years ago i had norton for security ,and it told me it was neccessary to back up all my files. At the time i didnt have any disks laying around ,so i backed it up onto my hard drive. But there were more files than space. Now I get a low disk space message every time i turn on my cpu, but when i clicked the remove files button that comes up it wont let me. And I'm the admin on my pc what do i do?

truedave, I thought someone would have offered you advice by now. I am getting the same thing with my Recovery (E) disk. It shows a capacity of 14.6GB, with a free space of 9.96 MB. I have downloaded all files from the Recovery (E) disk onto a USB memory key, but am not sure whether I should delete all items, or some items from the Recovery (E).

Hello Dave and Fred,

This is most likely your OEM factory recovery partition. You do not just want to delete everything on it, and you do not want to be saving anything to it as well. If you do, you will not be able to use to do a factory recovery to restore Windows back to factory conditions.

Double check to see if you have System Protection turned on for the recovery drive. If you do, then turn it off to free up the space it's using.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66971-system-restore.html

Hope this helps for now,
Shawn

Hello Brink, Thank you for your reply. Have not replied sooner as I have been trying to download files to a USB memory stick, and that has failed due to not enough space. I will have a look at your suggestion which you posted earlier, tomorrow (time for bed) and let you know the result. Thanks.

You're welcome. I'll see you tomorrow.

I would remove the driver letter for that partition. http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/114767-drive-letter-add-change-remove.html

brink, and townsbg, What you are both suggesting is a bit out of my depth. I have successfully loaded the contents/files from the Recovery (E), to a usb memory stick. The Recovery (E) shows properties as 14.6GB, and Freespace - 9.96 MB.

No worries Fred.

Double check using step 7 in the tutorial at the link below with your (E: ) drive selected to make sure it's turned off (unchecked).

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66971-system-restore.html

If you follow the tutorial that I posted you should be able to remove the drive letter. Did you even look at it?

townsbg, Yes, I had a look at it, and again this morning, but being a novice I am loathe to attempt it for fear of 'knacking' the computer.
brink, Also had a look at your remedy, but I still feel that it might be beyond me.

I have been into Sytem Properties in the last few minutes. It shows the following :
Available Disks. Most Recent Restore Point.
Recovery (E unticked. 4.11.2011 14:18:40
OS(C(System) ticked. 21.042013 23:24;36

As regards the recovery (E) that date is definitely 2011, and not a misprint by me.

I suggest that you turn off restore points for that partition and remove the drive letter because you don't want to mess with that partition unless you know what you are doing. Removing the drive letter will make it inaccessible but the data will still be there.

townsbg, Thanks for your suggestion. I have been pondering over the problem for a week - not being computer wise I was/am afraid of causing serious problmes on the laptop.
However, I now grasp what you are suggesting - remove the drive letter and the 'content' will still be here on the computer; but not visible.
Would it also make sense to download contents of the Recovery(E) to a USB memory stick, prior to removing the letter. ?

Yiknaa,

No worries. Removing the drive letter will not harm it's content. It will only prevent access to it in Windows to keep anything from being saved to it anymore.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/114767-drive-letter-add-change-remove.html

Yiknaa said:

townsbg, Thanks for your suggestion. I have been pondering over the problem for a week - not being computer wise I was/am afraid of causing serious problmes on the laptop.
However, I now grasp what you are suggesting - remove the drive letter and the 'content' will still be here on the computer; but not visible.
Would it also make sense to download contents of the Recovery(E) to a USB memory stick, prior to removing the letter. ?

Click to expand...

That's not needed because as previously stated removing the drive letter won't touch the data and you can always add the drive letter back. In fact removing the drive letter is a good idea since you shouldn't touch that partition. You don't want to have to reinstall vista only to find that your restore partition has been damaged.

townsbg, Thanks for the help. I have now managed to remove the Recovery(E, so hopefully the warning - "Low Disk Space" will cease.
As I mentioned earlier I downloaded contents of Recovery(E last week onto a USB memory stick (4GB). Since then I formatted the same stick, and again, yesterday, tried to downlaod the contents again. Warned that there was not enough memory on the USB stick !! Was it a case of the contents of Recovery (E having been duplicated and increasing in size ?

Thanks for all the help re this problem, As stated earlier I have removed the constant pop-up warning re low disk space. I have bought an external hard drive (1TB). I installed that yesterday, and the automatic back up & restore went through without a hitch.