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Thread ID: 43446 2004-03-15 04:09:00 harddrive losing space effie C (772) Press F1
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222631 2004-03-15 04:09:00 Hi,
A new topic , from an old codger!
In my secondhand 14.3 hardrive, - and with a lot of programs involved etc (ie Excell,Photoshop Pro etc)and as well as Microsoft, in- built programs- I found I had used 3.31 Gb of space.

Now I see I have got to 3.82 Gb used.

I accept the auto updates from XP and Norton's Spybot,etc must build up , but I frequently clean out any surplus/spare files and even so am losing at a surprising rate.
I have run Reg Clean and gained some space, though not as much as the first time when I took a lot of unneeded files out.

In theory in "X" number of months/years I will not have any space to use.

For a while XP appeared to clean out itself and might drop from say 3.25 back to 3.21 - even without my efforts, now that does not happen.

Now days so many people have 40 gb upwards H/d which this amount would have minimal effect on reserves- so I must keep my 14.3 as clear as I can, in a weekly housekeeping that I do do.

What is the story please?

effie c
effie C (772)
222632 2004-03-15 04:49:00 You will have System Restore monitoring that drive which will use up to 12% of free space as a default. It is best that this is left running, but you can reduce the amount of free hard drive space it can take up. You can adjust this by right-clicking on My Computer > Properties > System Restore tab > Settings. Move the slider bar along to say 6%.

By reducing the amount of space it can take up, will mean less stored restore points available to choose from should things go pear-shaped, as you will not be able to go back in time as much as you currently can. This however should not be a problem if you keep a fairly stable OS (not forever adding/removing programs).

You still have heaps of space to spare so I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you start saving large audio or video files. In this case you might want to add a slave hard drive specifically to store data on if things get a bit cramped. :)
Jen C (20)
222633 2004-03-15 19:57:00 Hi Jen c,
Thank you;
That was dramatic- my slider was on the maximum- brought back to 6% I immediately regained 60mb of space.
Question: does this slide move of it's own accord as according to usuage or will it stay at 6%?
Though this has made a sharp improvement in free space, why was the increase constantly comsuming space without any effort of mine?
effie c
effie C (772)
222634 2004-03-15 20:47:00 It will stay at the % you set it.

The disk usage would increase up to a limit of the % it was set at as it stored more restore info.
godfather (25)
222635 2004-03-15 20:48:00 The slider will now stay at 6% as the maximum free hard drive space to use unless you change it yourself again.

>why was the increase constantly comsuming space without any effort of mine?

System Restore automatically generates a new restore point after X amount of time the computer is running - this could mean a new point every 1-3 days. It will also automatically generate a restore point before certain activities such as installing Window Updates and the installation/removal of programs.

Again, I wouldn't worry too much over your hard drive space at this stage as you have heaps free. :)
Jen C (20)
222636 2004-03-15 21:06:00 Thank you Godfather & Jen c-
as I read the % sign in my reply it showed as 96- I see that Jen C and BF and me have supposedly pressed 96 instead of % also- I did not.
I thought I was going more stupid until I saw you two have the same peculiarity- why is that?
A somewhat flippant enquiry after you valued ones but it is peculiar surely
effie c
effie C (772)
222637 2004-03-15 21:08:00 Hi,
It's done it again - after I pressed post- are our putas also going cockeyed ? :-)
effie c
effie C (772)
222638 2004-03-15 21:16:00 It is probably the particular font and setting in your browser that makes it look that way. tommy (2826)
222639 2004-03-15 21:18:00 > Hi,
> It's done it again - after I pressed post- are our
> putas also going cockeyed ? :-)
> effie c

Nah, it is just your eyesight :p. For me the percent symbol views correctly (two different quality monitors as well), but for some the symbol resembles a 96 unless you really get up close it to (watch out for nose marks on the screen though :D). I am using Firefox (linux version) which may display fonts a little bit differently to IE.
Jen C (20)
222640 2004-03-15 21:25:00 Hi,
O K clever clogs :-) if that be so how come Godfather's initial reply -in BOLD shows the% as correct but in standard type- it is 96--( and even with a wet mark on my svreen it still looks like 96 -instead of %
:-)
effie c
effie C (772)
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