I think the true question should be why are you having to system restore so many times? If the way you gave and explanation is how you are using the resore, once you turned it on then restored to a point prior to the system restore on it will show the origional 2gigs. Then you restore again and it goes to 1.9 gigs I am lost on that. I have noticed with out using system restore that Vista sometimes has an issue with calculating drive space.

Hope that you figure out why you need to restore so much and why the restore drive calculation happens.

Space`

Thanks for responding Scott, after a system restore, I'd go around and clean up any temp files, memory errors, unnecessary files and then I would turn off the system restore function so to purge all the unwanted restore points. What I notice is a small disk space being eat up. So I'm checking files or dumps that were created from using system restore, but could not locate what was doing so. I'm speculating that it could be some log that is getting bigger from this function, but I don't really know and will not delete any file(s) without fully comprehending what they are. I like to get to the bottom of this. Thanks for the helpful suggestion, but it's not amount of space the system restore use.

Thanks for responding Michael, I had done what you had suggested with the Disk Cleanup, but the result is the same.

I know what CCleaner is and I'm not using CCleaner because the problem reside on a separate offline computer. I had been checking folders and files one by one to verify them in order to know what they are. I had also look into the subject and even Microsoft home page for documentation, but this peculiarity isn't address. My guess is using system restore utility will bring Window back to the snapshot state, but at the same time, certain files get modify and that's what is eating up the hard drive (with or without system restore on). If that's the trade off, then there's not much to address. The unremitting aspect is that new computer don't come with a Window Vista disc, so reformatting and reinstalling Window to purge it from everything isn't an option.

Hi Scott, one of the folder that I suspect is the Prefetch folder, since that folder is part of how Window optimize itself, it's a no touch area. I don't see any other files that are change along with system restore. I know there was a log file that I purge, but that's a normal none critical file that Window document itself on any OS, so it's not that. Could it be it's the registry that is growing? That is beyond my ability to check and figure out.

I just want to figure this out because in the long haul (Vista is design to be) users will notice the same thing and will most likely inquire on the same matter. It’s not an issue in the short run, but down the road years from now people will want their disk space back.

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the respond. It's good to know I can delete the contents of the Prefetch folder, I will surely take another look into it.

The computer that I'm referring to is an Acer Aspire notebook. There's no Vista utility disk, not even driver backup. I had to download the entire set from Acer's home page. I had read from other forums that other who had brought Acer Notebook also don't have a Vista disk, so I guess that's just how it is. If Vista takes a hard crash, my only option is to buy another Vista OS, which I think isn't right.

You may want to backup the entire drive. What's the fun in computing (used loosely) if you live in fear of a crash that requires a format?

My suggestion is to start a new thread on how best to achieve that.

Hi Scott,

I too love living on the edge, I always thought computer is suppose to facilitate life, not bring more issue to it (lol). I like to thank everyone for your helpful suggestions, I think the culprit is probably certain files expanding itself with the system restore utility upon usage. For now, I digress because it really is like an old cliché of looking for a needle in a haystack.