Case of the missing GB [SOLVED!]

[LaRoza]

Post edited to point out the useful information on getting space back on Vista

It all started on a rather normal day, checking e-mails, browsing the forum, writing code, and so on. It occured to me, as it does every so often, that I hadn't booted into Windows for a while. This task is getting rarer, but I use Windows for testing web sites, so it has its own partition, an ample size of about 35 GB. It uses less than half, and since I don't install anything, it should be enough forever. You see, I store all data on other drives and partitions, and the C: and \ partitions (of Windows and Ubuntu) are ever used for storing any files that I create or download.

I booted into Windows, which is painless enough after its initial disk thrashing. It is Windows Vista, but I have it configured to be efficient and least memory intensive. It has worked for me, and although I dislike it, it does what I want and I am happy with our arrangement.

After doing a clean of the system, with CCleaner, and checking the registry, I went to do a defrag. I had uninstalled a lot of software recently, so it may be fragmented. I started up Auslogics Disk Defrag, a reliable program that I recommend, and it shocked me with its visual representation of my disk. All but 1.5 GB were used! A defrag is impossible with that amount, but I was more concerned with the missing space.

The hunt began. I checked the size of each directory in the root of the partition, the totals didn't add up to over 30 GB. I found prefetch had taken the liberty of trying to load my applications at start up, which results in hard drive thrashing when ever I log in. I disabled that and deleted all the prefetch records. It freed less than a GB.

I disabled hibernation, which should have freed some space (up to 2.5 GB, which is how much RAM I have). The command to do so is:

powercfg -h off

Because Vista has no GUI method of doing that task. That didn't free any space.

So I thought to check the pagefile, which I thought I disabled. It was small, but I disabled it anyway, as I don't come close to using all of my RAM.

My final stop was the System Restore feature. This feature is something I am trying to make for Linux, and I know how restore points build up. Still, my program would have to be run more times than I could realistically do to use even 1 GB. I disabled system restore (which deletes restore points) and checked with the defragger again.

It freed 24 GB, and the 12 GB's were for my system, just like I left it. Case solved.

Given that I use Vista rarely, and that it was able to use twice as much space for restore points than for the actual system, I no wonder why TB drives are being developed. Anyone using Vista daily will need that space for the restore points it creates behind the scenes.