HDD Capacitiy

Hi, yesterday(2nd day I've reeived my new Y530, my C:drive has 227gb. Somehow, it has lowered little by little and today I only have 217gb left, I am sure I haven't use close to that much yet. If you knw what the problem is, please help.

 

This is likely due to Windows Vista's System Restore (shadow copy), which creates backups that you can restore to. Typically, it uses around ~15% of a hard drive, so on your 250GB hard drive, it can use up to some ~35GB of space. If you would like to lower the space allocated for shadow copy, read this simple tutorial.

In addition, you can run the Disk Cleanup utility to clean up some other files. Windirstat is a good tool for finding out where you hard drive space is going.

 

I just used this laptop for 3 days and I have so many backups already?
Btw, if it's that, it wont go from 227gb to like...100gb in a few days will it? lol

 

Vista backs up when you install any software. But no, it will eventually reach its limit, and when it does, it will stop grabbing for more disk space. Give it a day or two more to stablize, and then if you'd like, make the allocated space for shadow copy smaller.

 

may I ask, then how will the backed up info help me? and how would i use it?

 

Does anyone have any idea?

 

The backed up data isn't a full backup, just a backup of key system files and registry settings. It gives you a bit of a safety net, in that if you happen to install something that later turns out to wreak havoc with your system, you can pick a restore point from before the problem app was installed. Your documents and other data files created and modified since that restore point date should remain intact, as I understand it, but whatever changes the faulty program(s) made that are causing problems will (likely) be undone.

 

Yup. This feature can also help you recover from certain less-harmful viruses and other malware. You can access this feature from the Control Panel. Search for "System Restore", then choose "Restore system files and settings from a restore point." It isn't recommended that you turn the feature off.

 

Can you also tell me a way how to delete the restore points if I wanted to, because it already took up 35gigs of mine =/

 

Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> System -> Advanced System Settings -> System Protection tab (maybe someone knows a shortcut to this)

Uncheck the boxes for any drives for which you don't want restore points created.