Missing Hard Drive space in Windows Vista

by Jason on June 25, 2007

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UPDATE: I Fixed the problem on my computer.

Thanks to Belal’s suggestion down below, I reduced the “missing” gap of HDD space to 6GB, which is both fine and probably just the space required for my most recent restore point.

The upshot, if you’re too lazy to scroll to the comment, is that Vista automatically takes backup copies of your hard drive and system settings, and it doesn’t automatically delete the out-of-date ones. So you might have a giant buildup of useless backup data.

To get rid of it all, go to the Disk Cleanup utility, click the “More Options” tab, and choose the second option–delete the old restore points. Doing that cleared 65GB off my drive. Good luck.

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I installed Vista Ultimate on the rig I made myself for gaming. So far, it’s been running great, it looks sweet, and I like the way it feels.

But for some reason, it seems to have hijacked about 70GB of my hard drive space. At the moment it’s not that big of a deal, because I have a 500gb hard drive on this machine that I’m using exclusively for video games. By the time I fill this monster up, it will probably be time to scrap it and make a new computer anyway.

However, the missing space is about twice as much as the “used” space. So if that grows…that means I max out my HDD at around 150 GB, which is ridiculous.

The weird thing is that Windows itself can’t decide how much space is used. If I select the HDD properties, it tells me I’ve used 114 GB. But if I select everything IN drive C, and click properties, I get the 43GB reading which should be correct (That’s about as much stuff as I’ve installed on the machine).

Here’s a screenshot. Click to biggie-size it.

hdpsace

Anyone else having this issue?

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{ 1 trackback }

Vista for video games: compatibility and features at [Jason Preston]
07.18.07 at 4:47 pm

{ 16 comments }

1

Charles 06.28.07 at 10:15 pm

…I don’t have an answer for you… but if it makes you feel better, I have the same problem and am looking for a solution too.

2

Duane 06.29.07 at 2:03 pm

I’m having a similar problem with only a 60G harddrive. I ran across this post a min ago and will look into the indexing and system restore. Also, I noticed that it asks me to backup the harddrive just about every day, so that may be to blame as well.

http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vista/545460-vista-taking-up-hard-drive.html

3

Jason 06.29.07 at 2:13 pm

Hey Duane, I sent a mail to Charles this morning because I’ve read about a backup issue, although the link escapes me:

The only thing I’ve spotted so far is that some Lenovo laptops come with a backup software package that eats hard drive space like marlon brando ate souffle. If you’ve got a lenovo you might poke around for that.

I know I’ve used TreeSize to poke around my HDD as well as the windows tools, but TreeSize agrees with the smaller number (which makes sense since I BUILT this computer and I personally loaded every megabyte of data that’s on it…)

Anyways I’ll poke around this thread and see if I discover anything new.

4

Belal 07.01.07 at 5:40 am

I have had a similar problem. I’m running Vista Business and I have approx 20GB missing from a 80GB HD. This has been making me pull all my hair out for the last few days as I can’t understand where all this space is being used up. I’m sure you’ve heard this on so may threads with no real solution.

Anyway, I’m feeling better about the situation as I have managed to recover at least 12GB of space which is better than nothing. How? I hear you ask.

Well my friends, Vista creates restore points and shadow copies of your C:\ drive on a daily basis. On my system this equated to 12GB. On larger dives it would be more.

When using Disk Cleanup, if you click on the more options tab, and choose to clean up the restore points and shadow copies, you will find a hell of a lot of disk space reappear. Don’t worry, it does still keep your most recent restore points and shadow copies but removes all the old crap that you’re never going to use. Hope this helps.

5

Duane 07.01.07 at 12:23 pm

Thanks Belal, thats good to hear. I’ll see what settings I can tweak and search the MSKB for more info.

6

Graybee 07.03.07 at 12:33 am

Thanks for that - WOW, doing a simple cleanup with the advance option gave me back 70GB, didn’t relise how much Vista hogs in restore points and shadow copies - Will now do this action more often ;0)

7

Belal 07.04.07 at 6:05 am

You are most welcome guys, i’m glad I could help.

8

Bronson 07.14.07 at 4:37 pm

I have this same problem and i first discovered it was my restore points in vista when i use my mcafee to remove all the use space (freed 20 gigs). But even by doing this once in a while I can see a decline in the space of my hard drive. I have used Disk space explorer from Tune up utilities which tells me the amount of space on my computer and cannot pin-point the place where all my missing space is. I have also gone into the C drive and selected everything and clicked properties and the space there does not add up to what My Computer tells me. So I am assuming that window vista My computer is giving me wrong info?

9

josh 07.25.07 at 9:48 am

I also have been missing 15 gb of hard drive after i cleared up all my system restore and shadow copies. i was doing the same thing as you guys are doing now. Then i found out why am missing 15 Gb is because thats how much free space vista first needs to be available when you are upgrading or if it’s a brand new one. So am guessing that 15 GB thats missing is what is helping vista to run.

10

Jason 07.25.07 at 10:07 am

That’s an interesting idea. Build in the HDD buffer so that new users don’t accidentally fill their drive all the way up and end up with a really slow computer?

11

bobby 07.30.07 at 8:08 am

Worked like a champ. Came across this on a google search and has helped free up 60 gigs.

Thank you very much!

12

ETTY 08.01.07 at 4:16 pm

Vista backup’s system everyday… that is why space is decrising…
You can turn it off.
Right click on My Computer -> Properties -> System Protection (click Continue) -> uncheck the automatic restore…

13

Jason 08.02.07 at 10:38 am

Cool, Etty, thanks for the tip!

14

Trevor 08.05.07 at 8:24 am

HEY! Thanks a lot for that tip!! Cleared 20 GB of space for me! Been looking for this tip for a looooooooooooooooong time….

Trevor

15

Sam 08.14.07 at 1:49 am

I hv similar problems w missing hdd space. My usage was 39G of 120G but Vista says i have used 95G. Managed to recover about 11GB by deleting the restore points and shadow. However i still find about 40GB missing after all this. Any other ideas out there which Bermuda triangle my hdd space has gone to? Cheers Sam

16

Sam 08.14.07 at 8:20 pm

Following up to my posting on 14th Aug, i found out that my Thinkpad T61 also has a Rescue and Recovery setting which backs up my hdd data automatically. Undoing the setting and deleting the backup file got me back all my HDD space that were missing except for about 8GB which is probably the OS and recovery disk which is embedded by IBM and should not be removed. Believe many notebook manufacturers have same features. Interested see http://forums.cnet.com/5208-12546_102-0.html?forumID=133&threadID=246619&messageID=2513537
Hope this helps anyone out there with similar problems.

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