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.

    Syncing My documents and missing disc space!

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by stevey5127, Mar 12, 2008.

  1. stevey5127

    stevey5127 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    40
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Hi there

    I have two issues I need some help with. First off, and less importantly (as I have plenty of disc space at the moment) I seem to be missing about 35-40GB of hard disc space. My laptop has a 200GB HDD (186GB in real terms), and I apparently have 75GB free. However, if I add the space occupied by My Programs, my documents, user files etc...inlcuding all hidden folders, and subtract that from 186 I should have about 110GB free...most mysterious. Any ideas?

    Secondly, I am looking for a programe which I can use to automatically backup my documents to my external WD passport drive...i.e. any changes I make on my laptop will be copied to the external drive. What is the simples way to do this? The WD sync software included may be fine, for all i know, but since reformatting to NTSF I havn't been able to run it!

    Thanks in advance.
     
  2. Xirurg

    Xirurg ORLY???

    Reputations:
    3,189
    Messages:
    7,375
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    206
    using vista right?
     
  3. FusiveResonance

    FusiveResonance Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    143
    Messages:
    421
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Secondly:

    Acronis True Image i hear is good. also try Paragon drive backup.
     
  4. orev

    orev Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    809
    Messages:
    2,829
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    56
    To find your missing disk space, take a look at the guide in my sig, "Where's my disk space? (vista)". That should answer your questions.

    As for backups, Vista has backup software built-in, which is OK. Another option is to use "robocopy", which is a command-line copy tool that's also built-in.
     
  5. Hiker

    Hiker Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    448
    Messages:
    1,715
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    56
    I'm not sure where you space is going or how your partition are set up but here's what I did. Originally Dell sent me my laptop with XP programs and My Documents on C with a small back up D.

    First I cloned my existing HDD with Seagate DiscWizard (Acronis True Image) upgraded my HDD to a 120 GB doubling my space. (I did have a problem with Dell's Media Direct but that's another topic)

    I then moved My Documents to D drive using Christer's guide. Next I repartitioned the entire HDD, using GParted, leaving the diagnostic partition, the C drive to 30 GB with XP and programs, and D drive to 80+ GB

    Once that was done, I downloaded Karen's Replicator which is a great way to back up My Documents to an Passport (I deleted WD's sync program). I back up C drive to my old Seagate using DiscWizard.

    All the programs are free but you need at least one Seagate HDD to use DiscWizard. Otherwise you could buy True Image.

    Added: rather than GParted I used PartedMagic which has several tools and the same as GParted if I'm not mistaken.