Vista Ultimate x64 taking more HDD space on a daily basis...

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Moonfrost

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Mar 14, 2009
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Hi, I just installed Vista x64 for the first time (first time I use a 64bit Windows OS, I have used Ultimate 32bit before back in 2007) and realized updates are being installed almost EVERY day, the disc I have is already updated with Service Pack 1 so I don't understand why there are so many updates being installed all the time...

Anyway, that's not the issue, the issue seems to be I'm losing around 5-10gb of hard drive space every 2 days or so, seems vista updates are HUGE, when I installed the first time (I have a 500gb drive, in reality it's 465gb) I had 451gb free...fair enough, then after some updates the next day I had 440gb! where did the 11gb go? I mean 11gb in updates? THAT'S CRAZY!

Then a day later I had around 425gb! without me putting all my music, games, pictures etc etc!!, after I installed 2 games I had around 409gb which is fair considering they are big games, then I put my pictures in which is not that much, around 1gb or so...

And now, a day later without having any extra files myself I already have 398gb free!!, does Vista install something all the time that takes that much space? I know the OS after updates and such it's supposed to take approximately 15gb or so...so I should have (providing I had not installed my things yet) around 450gb or so...

I would just like to know if this is normal and if it's going to keep going that way, why are updates so big, I mean it's not like EVERY update is critical and even critical updates aren't that big on ANY other OS I have used...
 
Solution
system restore is what is taking up all the space, vista will keep adding to the system restore without limit (by default no limit is set). This has the effect of consuming a lot of hard disk space - even completely filling it up.

to fix it:
run vssadmin from an elevated command shell using the following steps:
go to All programs, accessories, right click on Command Prompt
go to properties, advanced, select "Run as Administrator".
you may be asked for an admin password at this stage.
click OK a few times to close down the dialog boxes.

go to All programs, accessories, click on Command Prompt (maybe will be asked for admin credentials again), then type (or copy/paste it in): "vssadmin resize shadowstorage /for=c: /on=c: /maxsize=2GB"...

BoyFromAuckland

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Aug 9, 2009
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system restore is what is taking up all the space, vista will keep adding to the system restore without limit (by default no limit is set). This has the effect of consuming a lot of hard disk space - even completely filling it up.

to fix it:
run vssadmin from an elevated command shell using the following steps:
go to All programs, accessories, right click on Command Prompt
go to properties, advanced, select "Run as Administrator".
you may be asked for an admin password at this stage.
click OK a few times to close down the dialog boxes.

go to All programs, accessories, click on Command Prompt (maybe will be asked for admin credentials again), then type (or copy/paste it in): "vssadmin resize shadowstorage /for=c: /on=c: /maxsize=2GB" WITHOUT THE QUOTES. Hit Enter.
After running the command, you should see the message Successfully resized the shadow copy storage association in the Command Prompt.

Now all the shadowstorage will be limited to 2GB (whatever was over the limit will be deleted) and your hard disk storage will be available again!

mike van doorn
 
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