Hard Disk Capacity

[Arpan]

My system has both Windows 2000 Pro & Windows XP Pro installed - the
former in the C:\ drive & the latter in the D:\ drive.

I logged into Windows XP & navigated to My Computer--->D:\. As per
Windows, about 650MB hard disk space was free in D:. When I refreshed,
to my surprise, I find that the free hard disk space got reduced to
600MB. On further refreshing, the free hard disk space got reduced
after each refresh & finally showed that there isn't any hard disk
space left in the D:\ drive & the most strange part is that I wasn't
even downloading anything from the Net when Windows was showing (after
each refresh) the free hard disk space decreasing!

I checked for viruses, worms, trojans etc. but my anti-virus couldn't
locate anything as such.

What's causing this insanity?

 

[Detlev Dreyer]

What's causing this insanity?

Find out using "TreeSize Free"
http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml

 

[Edwin vMierlo]

besides finding out using the offending file/tree

running XP on a partition which only has 650MB free is an insanity in itself

consider running XP on a larger disk/partition.

rgds,
edwin.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Go to Start, Control Panel, Folder Options, View,
Advanced Settings and verify that the box before "Show hidden
files and folders" is checked and "Hide protected operating
system files " is unchecked. You may need to scroll down to
see the second item. You should also make certain that the
box before "Hide extensions for known file types" is not
checked. Next in Windows Explorer make sure View, Details
is selected and then select View, Choose Details and check
before Name, Type, Total Size, and Free Space.

How large is each partition and much free space in each?

What do you mean when you refresh? In which application
are you refreshing?

To increase you free space on your XP partition select Start,
All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp,
More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest
System Restore points? Restore points can be quite large.

You should use Disk CleanUp regularly to Empty your
Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files.
Whenever you remove redundant files you should always
run Disk Defragmenter by selecting Start, All Programs,
Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. You will
most likely have problems running Disk Defragmenter if
as seems likely there is less than 15% free disk space
in your XP partition.

Do you have either Bootvis or Adobe Acrobat Reader
installed? Also use Windows Explorer to search My
Computer for "*.log" without the computers. Are there
any abnormally large?

Are you using any Norton products?

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Detlev Dreyer]

besides finding out using the offending file/tree

running XP on a partition which only has 650MB free is an insanity in
itself

consider running XP on a larger disk/partition.

Besides the fact that I'm not the person having these problems, this is
not always true. Many people do not disable Hibernation although running
a Desktop PC. No Hibernation mode allows for extra space equal to the
amount of RAM installed. In addition, WinXP allows for deleting all of
the system restore points except the latest point. This winds up with
1-2 GB of extra free space when doing this from time to time, depending
on the settings. In most cases, it's no big deal to gain 2-3 GB of free
space and that's enough to run WinXP for pretty long time when instal-
ling future programs on another internal/external disk/partition.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Detlev

Default disk allocations can be reset downwards

System Restore 12% > ?? 700 mb ??

Recycle Bin 10% > ??

Temporary Internet Files 5% > ??


--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Detlev Dreyer]

Detlev

Default disk allocations can be reset downwards

System Restore 12% > ?? 700 mb ??

Correct, however, this was not my point. It makes sense to reserve that
space because this allows for selecting from *older* restore points in
case of emergency. If the system runs stable for a while after applying
some system changes (updates etc.), these old restore points will not be
needed anymore and can be removed safely from time to time, except the
latest one. In other words, my point was how to increase the amount of
free space without decreasing the performance (security) of the System
Restore tool.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Detlev

System Restore can be problematic. On my computer I really
ought to have an easy to use back up capability. Something I have
been thinking about recently.

Alex Nichols was, so far as I recollect, of the opinion that Restore
Points more than 10 / 14 days old were of little value. This is for a
computer used daily.

--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Detlev Dreyer]

System Restore can be problematic. On my computer I really
ought to have an easy to use back up capability. Something I have
been thinking about recently.

ACK. The System Restore tool does not replace a system or data backup.

Alex Nichols was, so far as I recollect, of the opinion that Restore
Points more than 10 / 14 days old were of little value. This is for a
computer used daily.

Well, that depends in my opinion. Let me give you an example: After
installing the optional update KB918005 (v4), all connected USB devices
were working fine and so I removed the corresponding backup folders. It
took a while until my son connected an USB memory stick to one of our
laptops, winding up with an instant blue screen. The same happened when
connecting any USB stick to other machines having that update installed
*and* supporting USB 2.0. Using an older system restore point prior to
that installation resolved that issue.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Detlev

My Uninstall KB Articles are compressed not deleted. I must admit
I find USB another problematic area.

An instant blue screen. What fun. Another new crossword puzzle
to solve<g>.

Is Erunt a better solution?


--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Detlev Dreyer]

My Uninstall KB Articles are compressed not deleted.

In fact, the NTFS compression does not save too much space compared
with other methods. Since I do not intend to uninstall any system
updates usually, I use Doug Knox's tool in order to remove these
folders, log files and entries in Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm

Is Erunt a better solution?

Better than what?

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Detlev

System Restore or are you gong to say they do a
different job?

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Detlev Dreyer]

System Restore or are you gong to say they do a
different job?

Okay, so you want to compare the System Restore tool with "ERUNT":
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/ (excerpt)

| Registry Backup and Restore for Windows NT/2000/2003/XP

Well, I do not use that tool under WinXP since the built-in System
Restore tool takes a snapshot of the registry anyway when creating
a system restore point. And it does a lot more:

"Understanding System Restore"
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...p_system_restore_hss_understand.mspx?mfr=true

 

[Rock]

Detlev

System Restore or are you gong to say they do a
different job?

ERUNT just backs up the registry. System Restore does that plus monitored
system files. Their purposes differ but there is overlap. System restore
can get corrupted. ERUNT is straightforward, and set up properly, the
registry can be restored from a copy using the recovery console. I use
both.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Thanks Rock for the clarification.

--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Thanks Detlev for the clarification.

--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Scorpion]

I think you have used BootVis.exe on your computer and tried to trace
startup things that's why after every refresh 1 or 2 MB are
decreasing...I was facing the same problem and finally I solved it
thanks to Defrag utility report indicated the trace.log file into
\WINDOWS\system32\Logfiles\WMI directory.

If you have used above utility then solution is:

Step1: Open command prompt window
Step2: Go into "Microsoft Bootvis" directory for e.g C:\>cd "Program
Files\Microsoft Bootvis" (Note: If you have uninstall the BootVis then
install first)
Step3: Type the command at prompt as C:\Program Files\Microsoft
Bootvis>bootvis -off

That's all. Now you can refresh as many times you like in windows
explorer and free space will remain same....now uninstall the BootVis
utility via Add/Remove programs and delete the Trace.log file from
"\WINDOWS\system32\Logfiles\WMI" directory.

I hope above info will solve your problem.

Thanks,
Azeem Siddiqui (SSUETian 96 batch 081)
Senior Software Engineer