File Space Used

[denret]

Still working with the issue of used space on my hard drive. I took the advice from a previous post, and installed Treesize. I did a scan and I'm not surprised by the results.

Treesize shows 57.5gb used, but Windows Explorer shows 95.6gb used. (Attached)

Am confused about where and what to do next????

 

[tom982]

Hello denret and welcome to the forums

I seem to remember coming across something like this in the past - if only I could remember the solution!

Did you run TreeSize as an administrator? If not, please repeat as an admin

If you did, try with WinDirStat:

WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics

I may be completely wrong here, but I seem to remember that the problem resided with Windows having full permissions over the system, and can therefore get the statistics for every folder - including system restore etc. Whereas a 3rd party program may not be able to access these, and will therefore show less used space

Try with TreeSize as an admin, then with WinDirStat and let us know how it goes!

Tom

 

[richc46]

Welcome
Most of the time its restore points taking up space. Did you look into that possiblity?
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76227-system-restore-disk-space.html
If windirstat does not show anything, look into restorepoints

 

[denret]

Thank you for the prompt feedback.

The attachment in my original post was run as Admin.

The command "vssadmin list shadowstorage"
did not work for me. DOS box flashes open briefly and closes.

I'll download windirstat, work with that and let you know.

 

[richc46]

You have to click run as administrator for it to work.
For Vista, too
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/783-elevated-command-prompt.html

 

[MilesAhead]

Also I think 32 bit apps may not be able to access the entire 64 bit system, since they run under SysWow64. I know using FreeCommander 32 bit there were folders it just wouldn't show. I'd look for a similar utility coded as 64 bit.

You might take a look here:
http://www.start64.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=69&Itemid=137

Hmmmmmm, I just came from sourceforge listing for WinDirStat (which I've used for years)

It does claim 64 bit Windows support. But for some reason it doesn't list an OS later than XP. Maybe the author is an XP die hard.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/windirstat/

 

[townsbg]

Are you trying to figure out why the difference or what to do about the space? You can free up disk space by clearing out all but the most recent restore point using disk cleanup. From the start menu, accessories, system tools, disk clean up. Select files from all users and click on ok on the drive you want to clean up. Select more options and click on the clean up button where it says system restore and shadow copies.

 

[MilesAhead]

I think the discrepancy is the issue. Almost 40 GB is quite a difference. I haven't seen any disparity even close to that with WinDirStat.

 

[denret]

Thanks to all for the feedback. Yes, my concern is with the 40mb of "mystery" space. I did run the vssadmin list shadowstorage command as suggested and am attaching the results. The machine is a 64 bit HP Vista laptop.

The results of the shadow storage inquiry kind of confirms the 40gb of mystery space. I'm not sure where to go next.

 

[richc46]

What are you trying to do? You were concerend about the lost space. I mentioned, and as have others, that it could be shadow copies and now you know that it is.

 

[denret]

I'm trying to figure out why the operating system is using almost 30% of my hard disk space. A little excessive in my estimation....even for Microsoft.

I have HP Desktop running 32bit Vista that uses 40gb less.

 

[richc46]

You found the 40mb that were missing. Just use windirstat to see what is using the hard drive.

 

[whs]

Thank you for the prompt feedback.

The attachment in my original post was run as Admin.

The command "vssadmin list shadowstorage"
did not work for me. DOS box flashes open briefly and closes.

I'll download windirstat, work with that and let you know.

You have to run Command Prompt as Administrator. I suspect your 40 lost gigs are restore points in the shadowstorage.

Update: Reading firther I just saw that you found the 40 gigs in shadowstorage. Now you can run this command:

vssadmin resize shadowstorage /for=C: /on=C: /maxsize=10GB

That would resize it to 10GB. If you do not like 10, enter another number. But 10 would give you space for appr. 15 restore points which should be enough.

Note: with this operaion you will loose all your current restore points except one. You can check that with:

vssadmin list shadows

The restore points are dated.

 

[MilesAhead]

WinDirStat shows system volume information as well as page file usage. I would try that and see if it also has the discrepancy.

When I have a bunch of restore points WinDirStat shows it as a big block. I click it and it goes right to System Volume Information.

Did you do a custom install by any chance? Windows.old can easily be quite large.