Annoying Vista HD issue.

[QuickFix]

okay, why is my harddrive space slowely disapearing. i have disabled system restore thinking that would be the issue. being that the issue has continued, im assuming otherwise. all input is appreciated.
-QuickFix

[Allan]

Download Treesize Personal and see where the files are. And by the way, a little more information would be nice.

[QuickFix]

alright, well i will try to give a clearer definition.
its almost like every day my harddrive is missing another gb. its almost like if i donwload a 1gb game 2b go missing. almost exactly like if something was backing the programs up. i cant seem to figure out where all the extra space is going to. i dont really know how to make it any clearer.

and thank you, i will download the program and see what i find.
-QuickFix

[QuickFix]

alirght, on treesize what is the meaning of allocated. because it says. Drive C: 56.2gb Allocated: 56.3.

[Allan]

Ignore that column. Look at a chart and see where the files are distributed

[QuickFix]

what..?

[Broni]

i have disabled system restore

Not a good idea.

[smeezekitty]

set system restore disk space to its lowest setting
but DO NOT disable it

[Allan]

It's okay to disable system restore for now - the restore points do chew up a lot of disc space. In fact, I strongly urge you (and everyone else) to use a disc imaging utility on a regular basis. It is more efficient and more reliable than system restore and you can then leave system restore disabled.

[Broni]

I strongly urge you (and everyone else) to use a disc imaging utility on a regular basis.

This is an excellent advice as a long run solution, however...
System restore is not a perfect tool, and in number of cases won't work, or won't help, but there are number of cases, where simply restoring registry to yesterday will cure some stupid mistake, we made today.
As for disk space, with today's hard drive prices, I see no reason to struggle for a free space. Either stop downloading 700 MB movies, or get bigger drive.

We still don't know any details about poster's hard drive: size, free space, TreeSize findings.

[Allan]

but there are number of cases, where simply restoring registry to yesterday will cure some stupid mistake, we made today.

Well, I guess I grudgingly agree. And truth be told I keep system restore active for the system partition (only) on all of my systems. But it's so buggy that I would only think about trying to use it if all else failed.

I create Acronis True Image images of the system partition on all computers at least once or twice a week. I store them on the second HD on the computers. I also create monthly images to be stored on external HD's.

[patio]

I also agree with Allans approach...
However the real world people in general could care less about backups; regular maintenence and or running regular malware scans and updates...
They would rather ignore all that stuff and then land here wondering why all their data is gone and the machine won't even boot...

If even the casual user would learn to use ERUNT...it backs up periodically automatically so it's not even difficult...(thus system restore is not needed) and grab a good imaging app ( there are even FREE alternatives ) learn to use them and make a regimented schedule then most issues would go away...

I've preached 'til i'm blue in the face and my head hurts that all that's needed is to grab a FREE image app...learn it and run it at least once a month and your troubles are gone......but alas all this falls on deaf ears.

There...i feel much better.
Time for a Pint.

[Allan]

And you know, the funny part is that a backup image is almost a "cureall". It can provide painless recovery from viruses (much better than trying to "disinfect" since you never know if you get it all), user errors, software errors --- pretty much everything except hardware problems. And even then, if that problem causes some form of corruption to the OS it will get you back up in literally no time.

[patio]

I have a slightly different regimen than yours but whatever works...

Once a week:
Update and run all malware scans.
Run diskclean; CCleaner and Auslogics Defrag.
Grab any Windows updates if need be.
Create an image and save it to my image partition.

Then Monthly i take the latest image file and burn it to DVD; date it and put it in the archives vault. Delete all images except the latest and move on...

Even though the above takes 2 - 3 hours late every Sunday evening i have been doing it so long it's just routine....worst case scenario both of my HDD's fail...the external won't run and the machine won't boot at all.
New HDD...restore the latest image and i'm back in business in under 20 minutes...

Works for me.

[Allan]

There are a number of humorous comments that come to mind, but I'm just going to go with: Nice routine