I have barely any space left, should I delete my old restore points?

[TialaLL]

So in September I noticed that my space was gradually disappearing, but I'd usually get it back. I asked about it on here and a couple other forums and was told it's just a Vista thing. About a month ago I had 5 gigs, and then yesterday I had 800 megabytes. It's down to about 500 mb now. I don't remember adding anything to my computer except for a couple pictures and songs.

It would get low before and then eventually go up, but I want to free up disk space before it goes down to nothing. (it's gone down to about 1 gig and eventually gone up, but never this low before.)

So, should I delete my old restore points? I've had this computer about a year and I haven't really installed any programs on here. (It's mostly used for internet, listening to ripped cds and resizing pictures. I have dialup so I can't game on it or anything.) The only reason I know to have restore points is so if you install a program and it messes your computer up you can fix it, but I don't install much so I don't think I really need all those restore points.
I wanted to keep my first and last restore points, but I read you can only delete everything but your last restore point. (Also, my first restore pojnt was probably writren over long ago, wouldn't it be?) I have back up cds that I made in case something goes really wrong (hopefully they work. Is there an easy way to check before I delete the restore points?)

There are files I could delete to free up space, but last time I did that the computer just used it up again. I'm leaving some files on my comp as placeholders, until I know how to keep Vista from sucking up all my space.

I was going to just shrink the amount System Restore can use by using the vssadmin resize thing, but I read this article and it kind of made me worry, but then I started thinking about it and I don't use my computer for anything really really important like some people do.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/vista-hands-on-16-a-smarter-way-to-manage-system-restore-space/243

So, what do you think? Should I delete my restore points or just limit the amount system restore can use? thanks for any help
(I have Vista Home Basic. It's an Acer Aspire AM1201-E1701B computer. I have a 160 GB hard drive that contains a C and D drive. D drive is totally empty. 2 GB RAM)


Also, this probably doesn't have anything to do with anything, but the reason I started thinking about all this is because this morning, when my little brother was on the comp, he got a message that said 'the display driver atikmdag stopped responding and has recovered.' The computer had been turned on not long before, and he was just on wikipedia. He was unable to save pages or pictures for a little while and we didn't know why, but then he got that message and it worked again. Should I restore my computer before I delete restore points (if I decided to delete them?)

[Allan]

So, what do you think? Should I delete my restore points or just limit the amount system restore can use? thanks for any help

Yes

[2x3i5x]

delete old restore points. they take up too much space.  Use the windows disk cleaner tool or use ccleaner to clean out those stuff.

[lostcoast]

I have a sneaking hunch you may be infected if you lose space at an alarming rate like this.

I suggest you take the time to let our pro's take a look: Start here if you believe your computer is infected: http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,46313.0.html follow instructions and post in the forum the results and wait for a reply.

Even if its not the reason you can be sure your system is clean.

*TIP* Always be ready for a computer crash by backing up personal files to another hard drive internal/external or online storage. Some infections and corrupt windows issues can cause complete crashes and recovering the files then costs you un-needed time you could spend installing windows as new.

[killerb255]

(I have Vista Home Basic. It's an Acer Aspire AM1201-E1701B computer. I have a 160 GB hard drive that contains a C and D drive. D drive is totally empty. 2 GB RAM)

How big is the C partition?  Vista alone has a 20 GB footprint.  If the C partition is only about, say, 60 GB out of that 160 GB of space, and a ton of programs have been installed to their default location over time (the C drive), then of course it's going to fill up...

[BC_Programmer]

How big is the C partition?  Vista alone has a 20 GB footprint.  If the C partition is only about, say, 60 GB out of that 160 GB of space, and a ton of programs have been installed to their default location over time (the C drive), then of course it's going to fill up...

I don't remember adding anything to my computer except for a couple pictures and songs.

[killerb255]

I don't remember adding anything to my computer except for a couple pictures and songs.

We all know very well that what people say happened and what's really happened aren't always the same thing.  It's not that TialaLL is intentionally hiding anything...it's just that there's a lot more going on behind the scenes in his OS than what he's aware of, for better (i.e.: updates, system restore in some cases, Previous Versions of files if that's turned on) or worse (i.e.: malware). 

Even if that is the case (just a few songs and pics), if the C partition is small and there were only a few GB left to begin with, that space is going to disappear.  Even Windows Updates in Vista can take up quite a bit of space.  It all adds up over time.

In any case, limiting the amount of space System Restore uses to the bare minimum would be a good start. 

TialaLL: The next thing to try is DIRUSE:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=955D7F2F-73D9-4018-9DD7-42DA210E62EE&displaylang=en

Yes, I know it says that it's for Windows 2000, but it works in later versions of Windows as well. 

After installing, open up an elevated command prompt (Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> right-click Command Prompt, left-click "Run as Administrator" -> Allow).  Type in the following in the command prompt, pressing Enter after each line:

c:
cd "C:\Program Files\Resource Kit"
diruse /s /m /q:1024 /l /* c:\

You'll see the command prompt go nuts at this point while it's going through directories on your C drive.  Once it's done, close the command prompt.

Now navigate to C:\Program Files\Resource Kit.  Under that directory, there should be a file called diruse.log.  Check the log to see what files (or folders) are over 1024 MB (1 GB) in size.  If the log's not giving you enough information, run DIRUSE again and adjust the number after the /q: to fine-tune the scan a bit (like 2048 MB for 2 GB...or perhaps go lower like 512 MB).