The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Large portion of HD space missing?

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by johnny13oi, Jul 9, 2008.

  1. johnny13oi

    johnny13oi Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    17
    Messages:
    327
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Hey guys, in Windows Vista it says that I have used about 35GB and this is basically what the condition the laptop was sent to me in with everything the same except for the installation of Quake Wars. I added up the totals for all the folders in my C drive and it seems like it only totals up to about 12 or so GB. So where is the other 20gb used?
     
    johnny13oi, Jul 9, 2008
    #1
  2. yuio

    yuio NBR Assistive Tec. Tec.

    Reputations:
    634
    Messages:
    3,637
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    System restore.
     
    yuio, Jul 9, 2008
    #2
  3. PusherRobot

    PusherRobot Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    13
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Also, Hard drive manufactures measure using 1000 MB per GB, but the actual conversion is 1024 MB per GB. So in reality its going to be less even when adding the main partition to system restore partition. :)
     
    PusherRobot, Jul 9, 2008
    #3
  4. johnny13oi

    johnny13oi Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    17
    Messages:
    327
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Oh no I understand the 1000MB and 1024MB thing. And I also understand the system restore thing too it took 10GB, but that has its own partition. What I am looking at is my C drive that has a 220GB partition and should have nothing to do with the system restore partition. out of that 220GB partition for Windows, I have about 35GB in use. What I wanted to know was when I added up all the things in my C drive, I get about 12GB in use. What happened to my other 20GB. The hard drive is a 250GB hard drive and I know that it is going to be less than 250GB probably 220GB + 10GB restore partition = 230GB total.
     
    johnny13oi, Jul 9, 2008
    #4
  5. paper_wastage

    paper_wastage Beat this 7x7x7 Cube

    Reputations:
    486
    Messages:
    2,596
    Likes Received:
    24
    Trophy Points:
    56
    go disk cleanup (Start->accessories->....)

    also, in windows explorer,uncheck 'hide hidden files'

    treesize pro to see where large files are taking up space
     
    paper_wastage, Jul 9, 2008
    #5
  6. sefk

    sefk Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    99
    Messages:
    278
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    "Oh no I understand the 1000MB and 1024MB thing"
    1GB=1,000,000,000 bytes
    1GiB=1024*1024*1024 bytes.

    Windows measure hdds' space in GiB, while hardware manufacture measure in GB.

    Now let's do the conversion:
    250GB=?GiB
     
    sefk, Jul 9, 2008
    #6
  7. johnny13oi

    johnny13oi Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    17
    Messages:
    327
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Yes I understand all that, that is not the problem however. Windows reports usage of 35GB. And from viewing all the folders sizes and adding them up equals about 12GB. So 12GB and 35GB is a big difference and not the bit and byte problem.
     
    johnny13oi, Jul 9, 2008
    #7
  8. ckh20051988

    ckh20051988 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    38
    Messages:
    186
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I think you might have confused between the DELL restore partition and System Restore. System Restore is hidden. Try this:
    1) go to "command prompt" icon, right click and click "run as administrator"
    2) type "vssadmin list shadowstorage"
    That should tell you how much System Restore used. By default, it takes up to 15% of your HDD.
     
    ckh20051988, Jul 9, 2008
    #8
  9. johnny13oi

    johnny13oi Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    17
    Messages:
    327
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Ohhh Thank you very much. Your solution gave me the exact answer I needed. The System Restore is taking up about 16GB. which makes total sense.
     
    johnny13oi, Jul 9, 2008
    #9
  10. MrCrawdad

    MrCrawdad Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    17
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Whenever I get a new computer, I completely wipe the drive and set up two partions. One for programs (60 gig) and the rest for Data. Once I reinstall Vista and configure it I place the backup files on both D drive for conveince and DVD for necesity> Use ghost and it will compress your backup image to about half the size of the partition used. I also regedit ProfileList and move everyone's profile to the D: drive.
     
    MrCrawdad, Jul 13, 2008
    #10