VISTA HOME PREMIUM HARD DRIVE

[Guest]

I have a 320GB P4M900M2 hard drive. I am using windows vista Home Premium.
When I install Vista hard drive capacity came down to 298GB. Then I have
transferred some files (MP3) from my old computer 20GB. Now my available
space should be 278GB but for some unknown reason every time I use the
computer (listen to music, paly DVD) the hard drive space come down. It came
down from 268GB to 236GB then I have deleted all the files I have transferred
20GB and emptied the recycle bin. But still it shows as 256GB free from
298GB. I have done a search but can't find any big files. 38GB missing from
the hard drive. Why does it do this? Is this a problem with my hard drive?
Please help.

 

[Jane C]

System Restore will be making restore points on a regular basis, which will
account for a lot of that. I think by default System Restore can utilise
15% of your hard drive capacity. Older restore points will get deleted once
it hits that limit.

You can use Disk Cleanup to delete all but the latest restore point from the
'More Options' tab.

 

[Richard Urban]

System restore will eat up a big chunk of your drive. Program installs like
office will keep the installed "files" on drive C: as well as install the
program to wherever you decided you want it to go. Any program you install
will create many temporary files that are not necessarily deleted after the
install.

Go to the start orb. Type Disk Cleanup in search. Highlight in the top
window and then press enter to run disk cleanup. It will get back some of
your used space.

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Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)