Computer hard drive thing

Hello

I have a small issue of missing hard drive memory. Look at the attched pictures...





My hard drive says it's used 164GB on C: drive, however, inside the C: drive there has only been 98.8GB used.

Any idea where this extra 66GB has been lost? Or something?

Because I want it back!

its more than likely hidden as a separate system partition in case you need to restore your machine using the dvd's provided on purchase only if you delete the system partition and format it will you see the other space available.

I always strip any new machine right back and re install windows from scratch as I cannot abide recovery systems,

Either that or something completely opposite to what I have said.

Not sure how Vista manages its Virtual memory, might be that. In the older OS versions it just used free space so if it got low your PC would have a fit. I might be a fixed block in Vista, but don't quote me, its a awful OS anyway.

If you do a little search on 'tinternet' you find this -

Well, it turns out Windows Vista handles system restore a little differently than Windows XP. Whereas with XP, you could adjust how much memory system restore took up with a little slider bar, there's no visible way to adjust your system restore memory settings on Vista. And by default, Windows sets aside a hefty 15% of your hard drive.

On a 120GB hard drive, it'll take about 20 GB after a few months.

First, let's see how much storage space is currently allocated.

1. Click the start menu
2. Click on All Programs, and then Accessories
3. From the accessories menu, right click on Command Prompt and select "run as administrator"
4. Type "vssadmin list shadowstorage" into the command prompt
5. The results should tell you the amount of storage used and the maximum amount alloted

If you're not happy with those numbers, here's how to resize them. Keep in mind, you will lose some older system restore points when you do this.

1. Repeat steps 1-3 to get bring up the Command Prompt
2. Type "vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=[your hard disk]: /On=[your hard disk]: /MaxSize=[how much space you want to allocate]"
3. For example: "vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=2GB"
4. You should get a message saying Successfully resized the shadow copy storage association, and you should have more free space on your hard drive.

Also make sure your recycle bin is empty.

no idea if that was the problem or not, but having done the resize shadow storage, I've regain about 50GB of space!

Thanks very much, good tip

You can just keep letting it take up what space it wants, when you need more it will delete old system restore points automagically

More to the point....

Friends series 6?!

Yep