Hard disk usage

[Guest]

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I've noticed that usage of my hard disk varies (up and down) by as much as
500Mb. My usage is reasonably consistent and I don't install / uninstall
software so that can't be the cause. My working theory is that the cause of
this phenomena is that every now and then information an old restore point
is discarded. Any other ideas please?

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway

 

[map]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers (More info?)

Bill Ridgeway wrote:
> I've noticed that usage of my hard disk varies (up and down) by as
> much as 500Mb. My usage is reasonably consistent and I don't install
> / uninstall software so that can't be the cause. My working theory
> is that the cause of this phenomena is that every now and then
> information an old restore point is discarded. Any other ideas
> please?
>
> Regards.
>
> Bill Ridgeway

Each restore point is approx, 200mb and are deleted one at a time when space
is needed.
A geuss would be that your temp. internet folder is set way too large.

--
Mike Pawlak

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers (More info?)

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 12:08:09 +0100, Bill Ridgeway wrote:

> I've noticed that usage of my hard disk varies (up and down) by as much as
> 500Mb. My usage is reasonably consistent and I don't install / uninstall
> software so that can't be the cause. My working theory is that the cause of
> this phenomena is that every now and then information an old restore point
> is discarded. Any other ideas please?
>
> Regards.
>
> Bill Ridgeway

That's a possibility. Restore points are automatically removed to make room
for newer ones. If there is room, they are only retained for 90 days.

The size of the system file, pagefile.sys, is dynamic. You usually don't
see much change here but it's possible that computer usage is causing the
file to grow beyond the normal reserved size. When done with the memory
intensive process, the pagefile would eventually shrink back down.

Deleted files count against disk usage until they're removed from the
Recycle Bin. If you use Norton's Protected Bin, that holds onto deleted
files a little longer. These hold-ons don't always show up in the Windows
file management tools so it's all too easy to forget they're present. If
the Protected Bin is configured to flush out older files on a regular basis
(or you empty it manually), you would end up with reclaimed disk space that
you weren't expecting.

Temporary Internet Files is a possible explanation as MAP points out.

There's probably more but that's all I can think of at the moment.

--
Sharon F
MS-MVP ~ Windows Shell/User