About two weeks ago I installed vista business on my hp compaq nc4400. I have installed a few basig programs (open office, java, adobe reader). When i check C: it says it is using almost 15 g of harddrive. But if I mark the filesystems and check their sizes in "properties", it only adds up to about 8,5 g. I have disabled system restore, and emptied trash. Does vista reserve 6 g for swap or something like that? I would like vista to occupy as little space as possible since I dual boot with ubuntu, and I only have a 100 g harddrive. Is it possible to free up those extra gigabytes somehow?
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What is occupying hd-space in Vista? Not system restore..
(14 posts)
Just the Vista OS, by itself, usually takes about 9 GB. Then it grows a little as patches are added. My Windows folder alone is over 11 GB now, so your install is pretty light. Except for the extra 6 GB.
There are two things to check for. First, Vista does indeed reserve a swap, called pagefile.sys that is probably about the size of RAM on your system. The file is a hidden, system file which is why you may not see it. To change the size, or disable paging all together, Go to Control Panel -> System -> "Advanced system settings" -> Advanced tab -> Performance Settings button -> Advanced tab -> Change button (virtual memory).
Second, if hibernation is enabled you will probably have a hidden, system file called hiberfile.sys that is also the size of RAM. To disable it, go to Computer, right-click C: and select Properties, General tab, Disk Cleanup button, Files from all users -> (wait for progress bar) -> select "Hibernation file cleaner" and any other settings you choose. That will erase the hibernation file and disable hibernation so it won't come back.
Based on the extra 6 GB of used up storage, you probably have 3 GB of RAM. The 2 files above will each be around 3 GB as well, hence the 6 GB.
Even though you have disabled System restore, have a look on how much shadowstorage was allocated.
Start > type CMD > right click on cmd and "run as administrator" > type VSSADMIN LIST SHADOWSTORAGE into the little black OS window
Here you should see how much shadowstorage is "allocated" for each disk partition. If this is the chunk on C:\ you are missing, you can reduce it. Come back and I'll tell you how.
Ole, you're welcome. I'm glad that I could be of help.
The hibernation file is used to save the contents of memory on the hard drive so that the operating can start up back to where you left off with your applications running. If you are not using hibernation, it is just wasted space and you can safely turn it off. It can be turned on again later if you should ever wish to use hibernation.
As for the Windows swap/page file, I would not recommend disabling it completely unless you have no choice. However, if I'm right about you having 3 GB or system RAM, you could reduce the size of the swap/page file down to 1 GB or slightly less with no noticeable impact.
Aleeve, The Geek already has this covered. My shutdown.exe is in Windows\System32.
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto.....ows-vista/
hi WHS, and SCOTTW i followed your instruction and got the following result:
uSED SHADOW COPY STORAGE SPACE: 10.309 GB
Alloacted Shadow Copy Storage space: 10.57 GB
maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 11.GB
I just reinstalled vista ultimate two days ago, and as it is a clean installation, i only added firefox, ccleaner an digsby yet my hard drive says its only 51.8 GB free of my 74.5 GB. I thinks its too much. How to totally free space? should i reinstall again?
HELP! HELP!
thanks.
warp2k8, 15% of your 74.5 GB drive is given to shadow storage. That is around 11 GB, which matches what you are seeing from vssadmin. Vista itself is another 9 GB or more, so 11+9 = 20 GB at least is taken by Vista an shadow storage. This brings the 74.5 GB down to about 54.5 GB, then take away the size of pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys, if you have them, and you can easily get down to 51.8 GB.
Basically, 75 GB is not a lot of room to run Vista in, especially if you need to install applications and save data files in the same partition. Since the partition is so small, you could cut the shadow storage in half, but that would only net you about 6 GB more free space.
warp2k8, to reduce the shadow storage, follow the steps in this article by The Geek:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto.....-in-vista/
A bigger hard drive, or a second one, would be great for giving Vista more breathing room. If that's not possible, then going back to XP would make better use of that space. However, in these days of broadband connections and high-definition video, that 75 GB of space is going to limit many users whether they run Vista or XP. Also, hard drive storage is very inexpensive these days. A 320 GB SATA hard drive can be had for around $50 US. If you have a desktop system, there should be room for at least one other drive. With a laptop, space is always limited.
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