Partition filling up

[magineer02]

<











Yikes! You let someone you don't know get full remote access to your

computer via Teamviewer?! Not the best idea!

--

Glen Ventura

MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009

CompTIA A+

Yes, I agree and was very hesitant at first and resisted but I was at my wits end. He seemed to know what he was doing and my computer performance literally jumped but as I said for whatever reason he bailed on me.

In passing, I do know how to take screenshots, also I did install a new modem card for the computer because I was having connection issues. The culprit turned out to be the circuit box outside which Verizon replaced with a new one and since then no connection issues.

Just trying to remember all that he did because he did everything so damnedfast but if I remember anything I will let you know.

Robert

 

[Stefan Patric]

I do NOT suggest turning off System Restore, especially for a user who
is not very tech savvy, and may well need it during the troubleshooting
of this issue.

I didn't mean forever. I meant only long enough for the OP to determine
if System Restore is a possible cause for the problem. It probably
isn't, but you won't know until you test for it.

Stef

 

[glee]

I did as you said and it doesn't have 7 it has 5, they are General,
Computer Name, Hardware, Advanced, Remote.

Robert

Automatic Updates and System Restore tabs are missing, and you get
access denied when you try to add a folder to Program Files. That means
you are logged into a Limited User Account instead of an Administrative
Account.

To confirm, go to Start> Control Panel> User Accounts.
Do you just see the one account you are logged into, listed there with
its little picture? Next to the picture under the User Name, does it
say "Limited Account"?

When you start the computer and Windows, do you get a log-in screen
where you can click which user to log in as, and type the password if
there is one? What are the names of the Users listed at that log-in
screen?

At Windows startup, do you see this screen:
http://www.windows-help-central.com/image-files/windows-xp-welcome-screen.jpg

or this screen:
http://www.windows-help-central.com/image-files/windows-xp-logon-screen.jpg

 

[magineer02]

e






Automatic Updates and System Restore tabs are missing, and you get

access denied when you try to add a folder to Program Files. That means

you are logged into a Limited User Account instead of an Administrative

Account.



To confirm, go to Start> Control Panel> User Accounts.

Do you just see the one account you are logged into, listed there with

its little picture? Next to the picture under the User Name, does it

say "Limited Account"?



When you start the computer and Windows, do you get a log-in screen

where you can click which user to log in as, and type the password if

there is one? What are the names of the Users listed at that log-in

screen?



At Windows startup, do you see this screen:

http://www.windows-help-central.com/image-files/windows-xp-welcome-screen..jpg



or this screen:

http://www.windows-help-central.com/image-files/windows-xp-logon-screen.jpg



--

Glen Ventura

MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009

CompTIA A+

Hi Glen,

I normally surf the web on my User Account and only go to my Administrator Account for updates etc. I've logged into the Administrator Account and I now see all the tabs; General , computer name, hardware, advanced, System restore, automatics updates, remote.

When logging on I see the first link and I have (3) accounts; an Administrator Account, an inactive account (limited) which use to be the Administrator Account but the person who was helping me created a new account thinking the old one had issues and this one is now defunct and a User Account. I have tried at one point of deleting the old Administrator Account but it wouldn't let me so I renamed it Inactive and changed it to a limited account.

Also, could you tell me how I can post screen shots? I've tried your pie chart once again and it seems that Mozilla is the largest.

Robert

 

[glee]

I didn't mean forever. I meant only long enough for the OP to
determine
if System Restore is a possible cause for the problem. It probably
isn't, but you won't know until you test for it.

The concern was that turning it off has the side effect of deleting ALL
his current restore points, leaving him nothing.

He posted his results from TreeSize, and his System Volume Information
size is 8,991.5 MB.... that's almost 9GB, WAY too much space for SR to
be using. Apparently he still has the default setting if 12% of the
drive for restore points. That's the setting I am trying to get him to
change but now I see he apparently is logged in to a Limited User
account and can't make the changes from there.

 

[glee]

Hi Glen,

I normally surf the web on my User Account and only go to my
Administrator Account for
updates etc. I've logged into the Administrator Account and I now see
all the tabs;
General , computer name, hardware, advanced, System restore, automatics
updates, remote.

When logging on I see the first link and I have (3) accounts; an
Administrator Account, an
inactive account (limited) which use to be the Administrator Account
but the person who
was helping me created a new account thinking the old one had issues
and this one is now
defunct and a User Account. I have tried at one point of deleting the
old Administrator
Account but it wouldn't let me so I renamed it Inactive and changed it
to a limited
account.

Also, could you tell me how I can post screen shots? I've tried your
pie chart once again
and it seems that Mozilla is the largest.

Robert

The first thing you need to do, from your Admin account, is adjust the
slider in the Settings of the System Restore tab, as a I described in an
earlier post. Get it down to 1 or 2 gigabytes, or if the drive is very
large, as close to that as you can get the slider.... I don't know what
size your hard drive is, so it's hard to say what the lower limit will
be for the slider. Be SURE to click OK all the way out after adjusting
the slider.

The Mozilla folder could be large for a lot of reasons. In all your web
browsers, you need to adjust the size limit of the browser cache to
something reasonable.... 50MB or less, and to enable any available
setting to clear the temporary Internet files upon browser exit.

 

[Paul]

The concern was that turning it off has the side effect of deleting ALL
his current restore points, leaving him nothing.

He posted his results from TreeSize, and his System Volume Information
size is 8,991.5 MB.... that's almost 9GB, WAY too much space for SR to
be using. Apparently he still has the default setting if 12% of the
drive for restore points. That's the setting I am trying to get him to
change but now I see he apparently is logged in to a Limited User
account and can't make the changes from there.

If the slider was set to 12%, and the space taken is 9GB, then the
partition size is 75GB (1/0.12 * 9GB). And I don't see evidence yet,
that the partition is that big. My suspicion, based on what's been posted
so far, is there *could* be something other than restore points in there.

Does SVI folder get used, when doing VSS related things ? Does
any other software have a reason to use SVI ?

Paul

 

[glee]

If the slider was set to 12%, and the space taken is 9GB, then the
partition size is 75GB (1/0.12 * 9GB). And I don't see evidence yet,
that the partition is that big. My suspicion, based on what's been
posted
so far, is there *could* be something other than restore points in
there.

Does SVI folder get used, when doing VSS related things ? Does
any other software have a reason to use SVI ?

From Raymond Chen:
What's the deal with the System Volume Information folder? -
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2003/11/20/55764.aspx

The partition could be most any size, what we've seen so far doesn't
give a clue as to the total size or how much free space there is. The
OP has used cleaners more than once, and may have removed old SR points
with one of them (even Disk Cleanup has that option), which means SR may
be set to 12% but hasn't reached that limit yet since the last
clean-out. So, that 9GB may only be a portion of the 12% limit at this
point in time.

 

[glee]

From Raymond Chen:
What's the deal with the System Volume Information folder? -
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2003/11/20/55764.aspx

The partition could be most any size, what we've seen so far doesn't
give a clue as to the total size or how much free space there is. The
OP has used cleaners more than once, and may have removed old SR
points with one of them (even Disk Cleanup has that option), which
means SR may be set to 12% but hasn't reached that limit yet since the
last clean-out. So, that 9GB may only be a portion of the 12% limit
at this point in time.

....and Robert stated in his original post: "...even though I have
deleted all the system restore points and used disk cleaner but it keeps
growing..."
So, he may not have reached the top limit yet since the last clean-up.

 

[magineer02]

...and Robert stated in his original post: "...even though I have

deleted all the system restore points and used disk cleaner but it keeps

growing..."

So, he may not have reached the top limit yet since the last clean-up.

--

Glen Ventura

MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009

CompTIA A+

Ok, I was able to adjust the System Restore Setting to 2GB using the slider bar.

Robert

 

[magineer02]

...and Robert stated in his original post: "...even though I have

deleted all the system restore points and used disk cleaner but it keeps

growing..."

So, he may not have reached the top limit yet since the last clean-up.

--

Glen Ventura

MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009

CompTIA A+

I just checked my C: partition after I adjusted the System restore slider bar and it seemed to have resolved the problem!! Way to go Glen !!!


I want to thank everyone for for their good help and advice.

One last question, I've heard both sides on this and just want to make sure.. Am I at risk if I use my administrator account to surf the Internet or does it even matter? I've heard that by using a limited account 'if' I get infected it can only do some much damage because its on a limited account whereas if it was a administrator account it could seriously damage my computer because it would have unlimited access. So to play it safe I only use my User Account to surf the Internet.

I have other questions about back ups and dedicated storage etc but I'll start another thread for those.

Many thanks
Robert

 

[glee]

I just checked my C: partition after I adjusted the System restore
slider bar and it
seemed to have resolved the problem!! Way to go Glen !!!


I want to thank everyone for for their good help and advice.

One last question, I've heard both sides on this and just want to make
sure. Am I at risk
if I use my administrator account to surf the Internet or does it even
matter? I've heard
that by using a limited account 'if' I get infected it can only do some
much damage
because its on a limited account whereas if it was a administrator
account it could
seriously damage my computer because it would have unlimited access. So
to play it safe I
only use my User Account to surf the Internet.

I have other questions about back ups and dedicated storage etc but
I'll start another
thread for those.

Many thanks
Robert

I'm glad that helped.

Yes, a Limited User account is safer for surfing the net.... it won't
prevent all exploits, but it helps. Malware won't be able to install
files in the Windows system folders, and can't access the system-related
keys of the Registry. Your user profile can still be infected, other
non-system files can still be infected and your user Registry can be
modified..... so even using an LUA you can still get a key-logger, user
root kit or trojan, and can still have your information stolen
(passwords online, credit card info, identity theft). For that reason,
you must still run a good anti-virus and keep the firewall enabled, even
when in your limited account.

Some older programs don't work correctly under an LUA, but most do.
It's a good idea to surf the net using a limited account, as long as you
understand that alone does not make you safe, you still need AV
protection at the least.

 

[magineer02]

I'm glad that helped.



Yes, a Limited User account is safer for surfing the net.... it won't

prevent all exploits, but it helps. Malware won't be able to install

files in the Windows system folders, and can't access the system-related

keys of the Registry. Your user profile can still be infected, other

non-system files can still be infected and your user Registry can be

modified..... so even using an LUA you can still get a key-logger, user

root kit or trojan, and can still have your information stolen

(passwords online, credit card info, identity theft). For that reason,

you must still run a good anti-virus and keep the firewall enabled, even

when in your limited account.



Some older programs don't work correctly under an LUA, but most do.

It's a good idea to surf the net using a limited account, as long as you

understand that alone does not make you safe, you still need AV

protection at the least.

--

Glen Ventura

MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009

CompTIA A+

Understood.

Again, thank you for all your help and good advice.

Best Regards,
Robert

 

[Stefan Patric]

The concern was that turning it off has the side effect of deleting ALL
his current restore points, leaving him nothing.

It doesn't on my XP SP3 system. The restore points created prior to
System Restore being disabled remain. It's just no new ones are
automatically created. You can create them manually though, which is
what I do when I need to, and System Restore stays off.

Besides, didn't the OP say in an earlier post that he deleted all his
restore points anyway? So, either way, it doesn't really matter.

Stef

 

[glee]

It doesn't on my XP SP3 system. The restore points created prior to
System Restore being disabled remain. It's just no new ones are
automatically created. You can create them manually though, which is
what I do when I need to, and System Restore stays off.

Besides, didn't the OP say in an earlier post that he deleted all his
restore points anyway? So, either way, it doesn't really matter.

Are you sure about that?

When you turn off SR in XP, Windows brings up a confirmation box which
states:
"You have chosen to turn off System Restore. If you continue, all
existing restore points will be deleted, and you will not be able to
track or undo changes to your computer."

Disabling SR and then re-enabling it has been a common procedure for
years for some techs, to remove all restore points prior to cleaning off
malware..... even though it's safer to use the Disk Cleanup option to
remove all but the most recent point instead.

Robert cleaned up his restore points, but obviously he did not *just* do
it and had points, since his SVI folder was bigger than his Windows
folder as I recall, looking at his TreeSize results.

How to turn off and turn on System Restore in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310405

 

[Six Underground]

Find a utility, that can list the entire contents of the partition,
file sizes and so on. Figure out which kind of file is responsible.

http://www.jam-software.com/product_overview.shtml

I've been using Treesize Personal for a long time, and it does come in
handy. There is a free version on the site. It's not much to look
at, but it might give the OP some useful info.

6U

 

[glee]

"When logging on I see the first link and I have (3) accounts; an
Administrator Account, an inactive account (limited) which use to be
the Administrator Account but the person who was helping me created a
new account thinking the old one had issues and this one is now
defunct and a User Account. I have tried at one point of deleting the
old Administrator Account but it wouldn't let me so I renamed it
Inactive and changed it to a limited account."

***********

That sounds to me like you have the built-in Administrator profile
active in your Windows Welcome Screen log-in, and that's the
administrative profile you are using when you say you log in as
Administrator. That's a bad idea, and I think the person who was
helping you online may have done that. Using the built-in Administrator
profile is not good for general use because if you corrupt that one, you
won't be able to use it for what it was really put there for.

You should have made a new profile with Administrator privileges to
replace the one you now call "Inactive". Then you should be allowed to
delete the "Inactive" profile. Once there is a user profile with admin
privileges (besides the system's Administrator profile), you can hide
the built-in system Administrator profile. There are instructions for
hiding it, that I can tell you if you decide to do those other steps.

To be sure what accounts you have right now, click Start> Run (OR hold
down the Windows key and press R, then release both).
In the Run box, type the following and click OK:

control userpasswords2

(the only space is after the word 'control')

In the User Account dialog box that appears, there is a list of "Users
for this computer" with 'User Name' and 'Group' listed. Please post
back with all the User Names in that box, along with what Group each is
in. If you don't want to reveal the name of the Limited User Account
you use, just tell us a different name.... we don't need to know the
exact name of that profile.

 

[BillW50]

Yes, I agree and was very hesitant at first and resisted but I was at my wits end. He seemed to know what he was doing and my computer performance literally jumped but as I said for whatever reason he bailed on me.

Hi Robert! Well somebody wanting remote access to your computer will
know what they are doing. And once they steal what they wanted, they
will bail on you.

 

[BillW50]

It doesn't on my XP SP3 system. The restore points created prior to
System Restore being disabled remain. It's just no new ones are
automatically created. You can create them manually though, which is
what I do when I need to, and System Restore stays off.

Wow! Where did you get your XP copy from? I have a dozen XP machines
here (some with SP2 and some with SP3) and they all zero out all of the
restore points when you turn it off.

 

[BillW50]

Yes, a Limited User account is safer for surfing the net.... it won't
prevent all exploits, but it helps. Malware won't be able to install
files in the Windows system folders, and can't access the system-related
keys of the Registry. Your user profile can still be infected, other
non-system files can still be infected and your user Registry can be
modified..... so even using an LUA you can still get a key-logger, user
root kit or trojan, and can still have your information stolen
(passwords online, credit card info, identity theft). For that reason,
you must still run a good anti-virus and keep the firewall enabled, even
when in your limited account.

Some older programs don't work correctly under an LUA, but most do. It's
a good idea to surf the net using a limited account, as long as you
understand that alone does not make you safe, you still need AV
protection at the least.

Why not just use a sandbox? It is more secure and you don't have to keep
logging off and on all of the time and closing and reopening your
applications all over again.