Free space – Hard drive (Windows XP)

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Hello everyone:

I have noticed that my capacity is 37.27, and my free space is 31.43; and %free space is 84%. It would appear that everyday my free space GB is getting less, and less on a daily basis. Is it possible that I could have a memory leak, and if so how could I check for the leak?

Regards,

dillon65

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Two types of auditing you can do that might be helpful:

1) You can go to Windows Explorer or My Computer>View>Show in Groups>Arrange Icons by Size then Tools>Folder View>Apply to all Folders.
2) You can do this more elaborately with two popular 3rd party downloads:

DX Hog Hunt

Sequoia is another but I can’t find it for the moment–and manual search isn’t working for me.

2) For memory you might try:

Free Analog X’s Max Mem

SMBP

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Two types of auditing you can do that might be helpful:

1) You can go to Windows Explorer or My Computer>View>Show in Groups>Arrange Icons by Size then Tools>Folder View>Apply to all Folders.
2) You can do this more elaborately with two popular 3rd party downloads:

DX Hog Hunt

Sequoia is another but I can’t find it for the moment–and manual search isn’t working for me.

2) For memory you might try:

Free Analog X’s Max Mem

SMBP

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We have had recent threads IE, XP, Windows, and Win 2K sections where a considerable amount of real estate has been taken up by the darndest things–so my money is on that kind of situation and the culprit may turn up by looking at folder size. XP can and does leak memory, but considerably less than Win 9X and ME in particular does.

SMBP

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We have had recent threads IE, XP, Windows, and Win 2K sections where a considerable amount of real estate has been taken up by the darndest things–so my money is on that kind of situation and the culprit may turn up by looking at folder size. XP can and does leak memory, but considerably less than Win 9X and ME in particular does.

SMBP

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Are you really saying that your hard disk has a memory leak?

Hard disks don’t have memory leaks! They may have a raft of inefficiencies that cause the creation of unwanted files, or if NTFS may have a large Master File Table, or will “waste” on average half a sector per file, and so on, so that there appears to be “missing space”.

Go into a Command Prompt window and run
CHKDSK > RESULTS.TXT
and then inspect/post the numbers in the last dozen lines or so of RESULTS.TXT. This will tell you most of what you want to know! Really!

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John,

When I read the initial post, I thought exactly the same thing.
———————————-
Are you really saying that your hard disk has a memory leak?

———————————-

Two different animals, to my way of thinking.

Bob

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Besides which, every day your “free space” probably WILL get smaller and smaller as you do things with your computer. Things like browser cache and all manner of other activities eat up disk space. Now, if the space changes by “leaps and bounds,” you might have a horse (problem) of a different color. I would guess we need more info on this one…..

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Hello Bigdoc;Viking33;Johngray;smbp:

Smbp: Thank you for your links I will give them a try; you are always there with your tremendous amount of experience, and advice; much appreciated.

Viking33;Johngray: I am not sure what the problem is with my hard drive, I am sure it is just me be over protective, I just don’t understand why my free space is becoming less and less on a day-to-day basis; forgive me for my frankness, however I cannot answer your question, as I do not know what the exact problem is myself.

Big doc: Your explanation could be bang on, I am not a techi; however I can see what you mean.

Regards

dillon

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If you want any comments about the state of your hard disk, you’re going to have to provide some evidence, in the way I suggest (for the hard disk partition). Just start a Command Prompt window and type CHKDSK and observe or post the lines with the numbers in at the bottom. These show a low-level view of what is going on on your disk partition.

To get an idea of where all the space is going into files I would recommend you download and install an evaluation copy of Treesize Pro, which gives displays of folder sizes and file sizes for a drive. I use it quite a lot when I have my “oh, no, we’re running out of disk space on the servers again” hat on!

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Hello JohnGray:

Here is the infromation that I received from the TreeSize Professional

Hard drive
17.4% Windows
17.1% Files
14.3% Programs
0% – 0.2% Document Settings
49.8% System Volume Information

CHKDSK Information :
39078080 KB total disk space
6019172 KB in 26119 Files
7496 KB in 1695 indexes
0 KB in bad sectors
95860 KB in use by the system
65536 KB occupied by the log
32955552 KB avail on disk

4096 bytes in each allocation disk
9769520 total allcoation units on
8238888 allocation units available

dillon

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Dillon

I think you have your answer, which Joe has already guessed correctly!. Half your disk is taken up with System Restore points!

Go into Windows Explorer, and click on System Volume Information, then on the folder that starts “_restore” (you may need to turn on the viewing of system and/or hidden files to see these).

You will see a large number of folders whose names are “RP” followed by (probably) three numbers. These are the system restore points, and you can see how often they’re done by the timestamps!

By default, XP should allocate 12% (no idea why!) of the hard disk for system restore information. See how much yours is allocating by clicking on Start => Control Panel => System then on the System Restore tab, and look in the “Disk Space Usage” section. (I think we’d be interested to know what the slider was set to!) I don’t know whether, if you reduce the slider to (say) 10%, the oldest RPnnn folders get deleted. But try it and see. Otherwise I think you could safely delete the oldest RPnnn folders, leaving (say), those for the last 30 days.

Good luck!

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Hello JG;Joe:

I will follow your advice, and see what happens, thank you for your time and support.

dillon

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Dilon–

You wrote me:

“Are you saying that I should delete the SR-EVENTLOGS.TXT;SR-RP.LOG ;SR-RSTRLOG.TXT?

I went to google-groups and type in the system restore, and I found some information that advise me on how to get back some of my disk space. I have already turned of system restore, boot up; and reset system restore at 12% boot up again. My free space went from 84% back to 90%, What should I do SMBP?”
_______________________________________________________________________________

Not any more you don’t have to delete them. You already just nuked them when you turned it off or at least corrupted them.Your free space will cut down if you slide that slider down. When you turn it off you destroy or corrupt them–slide the slider down to 3-5%. What’s 1-2% of 90 days–most people who say to keep it at a high percent don’t realize you’re talking 90 days. It saves the latest. It’s policy is FIFO–first in, first out.

So 5% of 90 days is 4.5 days. How many people need more than that in reality? Very few if any ever go back further although I’m sure someone will say they have. My restores always go back to just before the problem happened.

I don’t know if you have a data only drive–you didn’t tell me or if you have divided your hard drive(s) into one or 50 but if you like many have all your data on one drive, then slide it to the left all the way on that particular data drive because it’s not doing anything on data–I wish it did but it doesn’t.

After you slide that slider into reality–remember it saves the latest points when you reduce the per cent, if you still show the space used up, then the corrupted corpses are hanging around and then I’d go to those files and delete the old dates but keep enough new ones around that make sense.

BTW Woody Leaonhard agrees with my assessment that using F8 to system restore in an emergency via Safe Mode from the Command Prompt is a very valuable thing to do on p. 500 of his new book.

SMBP

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Hello SMBP:

I only have one drive, can you please give me clarification on the following:

if you still show the space used up, then the corrupted corpses are hanging around and then I’d go to those files and delete the old dates but keep enough new ones around that make sense.

Please correct me if I am wrong; would it be the SR-Eventlogs or the SR-Restrlog that would have the corrupted corpses hanging around?

Thanks

dillon

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Dillon–

You also wrote me:

“You are correct. I have all my data is on one hard drive. I realize the analogy of what you mean concerning the 4.5 day; I will adjust the system restore tab, but the next time should I just delete those files; better yet do I just completely deleted them all look for anything previous to the 4.5 days and then delete, I think if I looked for the previous it would certainly corrupt the data; what is your take?”
_______________________________________________________________________________

4.5 days is not carved in stone; it’s just what I think is a reasonable average based on so much % of the slider. One reason for partitioning your drive next time you load an OS is that you can keep all your data on one drive, apart from the OS, and then if anything happened to the drive with the OS, then the drive with your data would hopefully be safe. Another perk would be you wouldn’t need to run System Restore on the data containing drive because it simply doesn’t moniter that data–I only wish it could. You and everyone else should make up your own mind where you put that slider, depending on how much surplus real estate you can afford to use up.

Keep in mind that for purposes of doing an effective degrag, you want each drive to ideally have about 30% free sapce if you can. MS recommends 20% in their defrag KB, but Diskeeper recommends 30%.

I know what you should see Dillon when you look at those SR files in System Volume, but what you do depends upon after the slider is moved, how much space is taken up. The corpses reference meant if you turned off Sys Restore you could either wipe out the restore points there or you could corrupt them. Looking for the dates of points isn’t going to “certainly corrupt the data.” If opening files corrupted data, there wouldn’t be computers or software.

Here’s what to do:

1) Put your slider where you want. Personally, I don’t see needing more than 3% but you do the math–if 12% is 90 days, plus every 24 or reboot, program or update or unsigned driver install. When Al said at the beginning that everyday you do stuff with your computer your free space is going to get smaller he sure wasn’t kidding.

2) What you delete in the folders you check depends on what you see, after you’ve decreased the space SR takes up by moving the slider. I named two key folders one of which houses restore points and one the last system restore completed or attempted. After moving the slider use your tree application to assess if you have any file in system volume still hogging space and which one. If it’s hogging a significant amount, then I’d move on blowing it off repecting it’s date–old ones sure, but keep new enough ones to use should they be needed remembering every day and every event I named above means new restore points anyway.

SMBP

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Hello SMBP:

Correction, I didn’t mean to say that looking at the SR-Eventlogs will corrupt the data; I meant to say deleting the old dates; I installed Windows XP August 20th 2003, so if I deleted the restore points up to August 31st 2003, would this corrupt the file?

I understand much more; now that you have taken the time to explain the situation to me; how do I get a copy of Woody’s book that you had mention previously?

Dillon

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You installed System Restore August 20 and it’s roughly 35 days later. The things I know you’ve done are you have attempted one restore and you put the slider at 10% after John helped you. But then you PM’d me that “I have already turned of system restore, boot up; and reset system restore at 12% boot up again.” When you turned off system restore whatever date and time that was–game over for all those restore points prior to that time –they should have been corrupted. There’s only way to know whether a restore point does actually get corrupted and that is to try to restore at that particular point–that’s your lab test. But any of the activity forward from that time should have generated valid restore points whatever that time is. Those should be on your system and viable now. I named the events that cause SR points twice. Keep in mind that if you installed with a program that doesn’t call on Install Shield and/or the Windows Installer you won’t generate a restore point at that particular install.

If you deleted restore points up to August 31, that action wouldn’t corrupt any file–they’d just be gone. Any turn off would corrupt points prior to the turn off. Once on, you acquire points.

Practically speaking you would have viable restore points from the time probably yesterday that you turned off and restarted. There is always the clinical possibility that somehow restore points survived being corrupted when you turned off but I doubt that. Shouldn’t be a big deal, because you will generate plenty of restore points and can create as many as you want right now–and even if you don’t name them Windows will date and time them via your clock.

Woody’s book, a very good one, can be found atJosseyBass: Windows XP Timesaving Techniques For Dummies Woody Leonhard ISBN: 0-7645-3748-2

SMBP

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SMBP, I have been following this thread with great interest, as I do with all your great help here. You must devote so much time to helping us and seem to have endless patience giving us detailed explanations in language we can understand.Thank you very,very much.
To return to this topic. I have known about System Restore being a resource hog for a while now and have had it set way down to 4%. In this thread you say you have your OS one one partition and all your important data on another. I understand all your reasons for this but am not clear on one point. Where do you keep all the program files? Most of them want , by default, to install to “C”, which is presumably where the OS is. Do you have them on “C” or on another partition? I have 2 partitions with the OS and all main programs like AV and Zone Alarm etc on it too. There are quite a lot of my programs on “C”. It would make life a lot easier if all the programs were on “D” as System Restore, a Repair or a Reinstall of the OS on “C” would not touch them. As it is at the moment a Repair or Reinstall means I have to reinstall every program. Is there a reason why they should be on “C” with the OS? After all, System Restore is usually done to restore the OS to an earlier date, not usually to restore a program which could be repaired by reinstalling it by itself. Am I right in my assumptions? Thanks so much

Elaine

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Hi Elaine–

I keep my OS and some system files on “C.” I keep as many and as much of program files as I can on “E.” I put a few large programs on “F” say Encyclopedia DVD’s like Encarta, Britannica. There are a very rare percentage of programs or parts of programs that will install to “C” no matter where you point them, and I’m not sure how those would choose if you were to dual boot or triple boot an NT OS–or boot XP and Win 9X or as I’ve seen before someone boot 31 different operating systems including every single Windows operating system ever released. You just caused me to think about that.

Also, you can move your paging file to a separate drive. The chief reason for this, and their may be others is that it prevents fragmenting of the paging file, but having said that Ed Bott (Woody’s coauthor in the Que Office book says in MS Press Win XP Inside Out that it is rare for the paging file to get fragmented at all. Some say graphics intensive programs may do this more frequently–I’m not sure about games doing it–they are graphics intensive.

It’s very easy to install your programs on you other OS–nearly every if not every program has a dialogue box that allows you to quickly go and change the letter-and/or the folder you want to install to (dangling preposition) or you hit a button to change it if you can’t change it manually and it will give you a menu to select.

You can put your programs on “D” and copy almost all of them them to “D” and then uninstall the one on “C” with the exception of a rare program that won’t leave “C”. This would probably be the fastest without any downside.

One thing you said though–you’re right about why you system restore, but if you had programs on “D” and of course some programs are complex and may have their settings a certain way, you could turn system restore on any drive and monitor it including “D”. System Restore will backup program files if it monitors them. I’d keep my data–documents, music files on a separate partition and I do–but I don’t monitor that with System Restore because it would just be an inert space hog on a data drive. You can right click My Documents and move it to any drive easily–may take a few minutes. Some people would possibly elect not to monitor their programs to save space. Remeber SR isn’t modified by outside programs, so it could restore a virus-infected file. Turning off SR clears out all previously infected restore points as a rule.

For detailed info on Sys Restore, see:

Kelly’s XP Article on System Restore

Microsoft Windows XP System Restore by Bobbie Harder Microsoft Corporation

MSKB System Restore Articles (Many)

SMBP

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SMBP,
Thanks. You`ve been a great help as usual. I know that on installation you can choose to install on any drive, but I thought that some of the important programs like AV and Zone Alarm needed to be on your OS drive to function properly.Would AV and Zone Alarm be happy on my “D” partition? At the moment my “C” drive is huge compared to “D” and I would not try to change my programs to “D”. I was thinking along the lines of when next I had to reinstall XP I would reduce the size of the “C” partition, just put the OS on it, and then put all my programs on “D”. That way I would have much less to do by way of reinstalling programs if I had to Repair or Reinstall after that. Does that make sense?
I have been using Registry Healer for well over a year now with no problems whatsoever. You can choose to create a restore point before running the program, so it is very easy to undo any disasters. So far I have never needed to do this.
Thanks again

Elaine

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They would be ecstatic on your D Drive, knowing they were providing more free space from their move for C. Remember (preaching and soap boxing a little) that to defrag successfully, and if you want to watch your computer slow down try not defragging for a good while or if you want to see it moving at its fastest defrag well) you should have at least 20% and ideally 30% free space on a drive to defrag well.

What you are proposing makes a lot of sense. Keep free space on all drives at least 20% if you can. Reg healer and the rest of that company’s software are good programs.

That’s not an unusual question–a lot of people reason well, hey, the OS is the 800 pound gorilla and programs need to be right in it’s neighborhood on its partition to function well with the OS. But it’s not going to matter with ZA or NAV or most programs that you have XP on C Drive, and install the programs to another. I have XP on C and the only program files that go to C are the ones that I have no way to stop. I have Norton System Works and Norton Internet Security on “E” and all my programs on “E.” Having the OS on one drive and programs on the other is not going to create a problem, and of course the ones that have to be on the same drive, and I can’t tell you why a particular program will do this when it does ocassionally, will go to C or perhaps another OS drive.

Peter Norton has a 2 page discussion where he presents some of the pros and cons of having a small partition with just your OS and minimal system files on it in the new edition of his hardware book –and experienced people I talk with come up with various opinions on this. He, as you know, originally started Norton and used to have his picture on the boxes, and sold to Symantec in 1990 has written books on Windows XP and Hardware as well as Antivirus when not serving on multiple arts Boards and concentrating on philanthropy for the arts–12 million to an art museum in LA from the Peter Norton Family Foundation

SMBP

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SMBP, I too am ecstatic. You have cleared it all up for me. I have often thought about making these changes, but had the reservations I explained to you. Your gorilla analogy was spot on! Now I know I can do it, and will do it in the future. I know about defragging, have plenty of free space,and do it on a regular basis. Thanks for all your help.
Elaine

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Elaine–

Take a look at Post 253603 and 254993 this thread where Mark (WylllyWylly) put up a nice piece of advice on partitioning a hard drive and what to put where. There are also links on how to move your page and spooling file and there is some other info that will give you perspective in the posts.

SMBP

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Elaine–

Take a look at Post 253603 and 254993 this thread where Mark (WylllyWylly) put up a nice piece of advice on partitioning a hard drive and what to put where. There are also links on how to move your page and spooling file and there is some other info that will give you perspective in the posts.

SMBP

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SMBP, I too am ecstatic. You have cleared it all up for me. I have often thought about making these changes, but had the reservations I explained to you. Your gorilla analogy was spot on! Now I know I can do it, and will do it in the future. I know about defragging, have plenty of free space,and do it on a regular basis. Thanks for all your help.
Elaine

Reply | Quote

They would be ecstatic on your D Drive, knowing they were providing more free space from their move for C. Remember (preaching and soap boxing a little) that to defrag successfully, and if you want to watch your computer slow down try not defragging for a good while or if you want to see it moving at its fastest defrag well) you should have at least 20% and ideally 30% free space on a drive to defrag well.

What you are proposing makes a lot of sense. Keep free space on all drives at least 20% if you can. Reg healer and the rest of that company’s software are good programs.

That’s not an unusual question–a lot of people reason well, hey, the OS is the 800 pound gorilla and programs need to be right in it’s neighborhood on its partition to function well with the OS. But it’s not going to matter with ZA or NAV or most programs that you have XP on C Drive, and install the programs to another. I have XP on C and the only program files that go to C are the ones that I have no way to stop. I have Norton System Works and Norton Internet Security on “E” and all my programs on “E.” Having the OS on one drive and programs on the other is not going to create a problem, and of course the ones that have to be on the same drive, and I can’t tell you why a particular program will do this when it does ocassionally, will go to C or perhaps another OS drive.

Peter Norton has a 2 page discussion where he presents some of the pros and cons of having a small partition with just your OS and minimal system files on it in the new edition of his hardware book –and experienced people I talk with come up with various opinions on this. He, as you know, originally started Norton and used to have his picture on the boxes, and sold to Symantec in 1990 has written books on Windows XP and Hardware as well as Antivirus when not serving on multiple arts Boards and concentrating on philanthropy for the arts–12 million to an art museum in LA from the Peter Norton Family Foundation

SMBP

Reply | Quote

SMBP,
Thanks. You`ve been a great help as usual. I know that on installation you can choose to install on any drive, but I thought that some of the important programs like AV and Zone Alarm needed to be on your OS drive to function properly.Would AV and Zone Alarm be happy on my “D” partition? At the moment my “C” drive is huge compared to “D” and I would not try to change my programs to “D”. I was thinking along the lines of when next I had to reinstall XP I would reduce the size of the “C” partition, just put the OS on it, and then put all my programs on “D”. That way I would have much less to do by way of reinstalling programs if I had to Repair or Reinstall after that. Does that make sense?
I have been using Registry Healer for well over a year now with no problems whatsoever. You can choose to create a restore point before running the program, so it is very easy to undo any disasters. So far I have never needed to do this.
Thanks again

Elaine

Reply | Quote

Hi Elaine–

I keep my OS and some system files on “C.” I keep as many and as much of program files as I can on “E.” I put a few large programs on “F” say Encyclopedia DVD’s like Encarta, Britannica. There are a very rare percentage of programs or parts of programs that will install to “C” no matter where you point them, and I’m not sure how those would choose if you were to dual boot or triple boot an NT OS–or boot XP and Win 9X or as I’ve seen before someone boot 31 different operating systems including every single Windows operating system ever released. You just caused me to think about that.

Also, you can move your paging file to a separate drive. The chief reason for this, and their may be others is that it prevents fragmenting of the paging file, but having said that Ed Bott (Woody’s coauthor in the Que Office book says in MS Press Win XP Inside Out that it is rare for the paging file to get fragmented at all. Some say graphics intensive programs may do this more frequently–I’m not sure about games doing it–they are graphics intensive.

It’s very easy to install your programs on you other OS–nearly every if not every program has a dialogue box that allows you to quickly go and change the letter-and/or the folder you want to install to (dangling preposition) or you hit a button to change it if you can’t change it manually and it will give you a menu to select.

You can put your programs on “D” and copy almost all of them them to “D” and then uninstall the one on “C” with the exception of a rare program that won’t leave “C”. This would probably be the fastest without any downside.

One thing you said though–you’re right about why you system restore, but if you had programs on “D” and of course some programs are complex and may have their settings a certain way, you could turn system restore on any drive and monitor it including “D”. System Restore will backup program files if it monitors them. I’d keep my data–documents, music files on a separate partition and I do–but I don’t monitor that with System Restore because it would just be an inert space hog on a data drive. You can right click My Documents and move it to any drive easily–may take a few minutes. Some people would possibly elect not to monitor their programs to save space. Remeber SR isn’t modified by outside programs, so it could restore a virus-infected file. Turning off SR clears out all previously infected restore points as a rule.

For detailed info on Sys Restore, see:

Kelly’s XP Article on System Restore

Microsoft Windows XP System Restore by Bobbie Harder Microsoft Corporation

MSKB System Restore Articles (Many)

SMBP

Reply | Quote

SMBP, I have been following this thread with great interest, as I do with all your great help here. You must devote so much time to helping us and seem to have endless patience giving us detailed explanations in language we can understand.Thank you very,very much.
To return to this topic. I have known about System Restore being a resource hog for a while now and have had it set way down to 4%. In this thread you say you have your OS one one partition and all your important data on another. I understand all your reasons for this but am not clear on one point. Where do you keep all the program files? Most of them want , by default, to install to “C”, which is presumably where the OS is. Do you have them on “C” or on another partition? I have 2 partitions with the OS and all main programs like AV and Zone Alarm etc on it too. There are quite a lot of my programs on “C”. It would make life a lot easier if all the programs were on “D” as System Restore, a Repair or a Reinstall of the OS on “C” would not touch them. As it is at the moment a Repair or Reinstall means I have to reinstall every program. Is there a reason why they should be on “C” with the OS? After all, System Restore is usually done to restore the OS to an earlier date, not usually to restore a program which could be repaired by reinstalling it by itself. Am I right in my assumptions? Thanks so much

Elaine

Reply | Quote

You installed System Restore August 20 and it’s roughly 35 days later. The things I know you’ve done are you have attempted one restore and you put the slider at 10% after John helped you. But then you PM’d me that “I have already turned of system restore, boot up; and reset system restore at 12% boot up again.” When you turned off system restore whatever date and time that was–game over for all those restore points prior to that time –they should have been corrupted. There’s only way to know whether a restore point does actually get corrupted and that is to try to restore at that particular point–that’s your lab test. But any of the activity forward from that time should have generated valid restore points whatever that time is. Those should be on your system and viable now. I named the events that cause SR points twice. Keep in mind that if you installed with a program that doesn’t call on Install Shield and/or the Windows Installer you won’t generate a restore point at that particular install.

If you deleted restore points up to August 31, that action wouldn’t corrupt any file–they’d just be gone. Any turn off would corrupt points prior to the turn off. Once on, you acquire points.

Practically speaking you would have viable restore points from the time probably yesterday that you turned off and restarted. There is always the clinical possibility that somehow restore points survived being corrupted when you turned off but I doubt that. Shouldn’t be a big deal, because you will generate plenty of restore points and can create as many as you want right now–and even if you don’t name them Windows will date and time them via your clock.

Woody’s book, a very good one, can be found atJosseyBass: Windows XP Timesaving Techniques For Dummies Woody Leonhard ISBN: 0-7645-3748-2

SMBP

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Hello SMBP:

Much appreciated.

dillon

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Hello SMBP:

Can you please explain to me how Erunt works with system restore?

Regards,

dillon

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Erunt doesn’t work with System Restore–it coexists with it. Some prefer it’s features over System Restore. See Erunt Explained and Erunt and NTREGOPT(NT Registry Optimizer)

PC Mag Article and Review on Erunt by Edward Mendleson, June 11, 2002

Erunt thread Computing.net

Erunt will backup some files that system restore does not snapshot so I’d consider them complementary–and Erunt isn’t subject to many of the quirks and rules Redmond developers set for System Restore to play by.

You might also consider Registry Healer but I don’t have direct experience with Reg Healer and other people on the lounge may want to comment on it. Registry Healer Quick Tour

SMBP

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Hello Smbp:

Thank you for your superb explanation on how Erunt coexist with system restore. I still I am searching for more information; and since you always oblige your readers with an abundant amount of articles my search is over.

I did found the following, which appears to make the job easier in controlling the system restore points without corrupting or disabling system restore.

Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disk Cleanup.
“More Options” tab, see the option to delete all but the last restore
point.

Best regards,

dillon

Reply | Quote

Hello Smbp:

Thank you for your superb explanation on how Erunt coexist with system restore. I still I am searching for more information; and since you always oblige your readers with an abundant amount of articles my search is over.

I did found the following, which appears to make the job easier in controlling the system restore points without corrupting or disabling system restore.

Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disk Cleanup.
“More Options” tab, see the option to delete all but the last restore
point.

Best regards,

dillon

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Erunt doesn’t work with System Restore–it coexists with it. Some prefer it’s features over System Restore. See Erunt Explained and Erunt and NTREGOPT(NT Registry Optimizer)

PC Mag Article and Review on Erunt by Edward Mendleson, June 11, 2002

Erunt thread Computing.net

Erunt will backup some files that system restore does not snapshot so I’d consider them complementary–and Erunt isn’t subject to many of the quirks and rules Redmond developers set for System Restore to play by.

You might also consider Registry Healer but I don’t have direct experience with Reg Healer and other people on the lounge may want to comment on it. Registry Healer Quick Tour

SMBP

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Hello SMBP:

Can you please explain to me how Erunt works with system restore?

Regards,

dillon

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Hello SMBP:

Much appreciated.

dillon

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Hello SMBP:

Correction, I didn’t mean to say that looking at the SR-Eventlogs will corrupt the data; I meant to say deleting the old dates; I installed Windows XP August 20th 2003, so if I deleted the restore points up to August 31st 2003, would this corrupt the file?

I understand much more; now that you have taken the time to explain the situation to me; how do I get a copy of Woody’s book that you had mention previously?

Dillon

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Dillon–

You also wrote me:

“You are correct. I have all my data is on one hard drive. I realize the analogy of what you mean concerning the 4.5 day; I will adjust the system restore tab, but the next time should I just delete those files; better yet do I just completely deleted them all look for anything previous to the 4.5 days and then delete, I think if I looked for the previous it would certainly corrupt the data; what is your take?”
_______________________________________________________________________________

4.5 days is not carved in stone; it’s just what I think is a reasonable average based on so much % of the slider. One reason for partitioning your drive next time you load an OS is that you can keep all your data on one drive, apart from the OS, and then if anything happened to the drive with the OS, then the drive with your data would hopefully be safe. Another perk would be you wouldn’t need to run System Restore on the data containing drive because it simply doesn’t moniter that data–I only wish it could. You and everyone else should make up your own mind where you put that slider, depending on how much surplus real estate you can afford to use up.

Keep in mind that for purposes of doing an effective degrag, you want each drive to ideally have about 30% free sapce if you can. MS recommends 20% in their defrag KB, but Diskeeper recommends 30%.

I know what you should see Dillon when you look at those SR files in System Volume, but what you do depends upon after the slider is moved, how much space is taken up. The corpses reference meant if you turned off Sys Restore you could either wipe out the restore points there or you could corrupt them. Looking for the dates of points isn’t going to “certainly corrupt the data.” If opening files corrupted data, there wouldn’t be computers or software.

Here’s what to do:

1) Put your slider where you want. Personally, I don’t see needing more than 3% but you do the math–if 12% is 90 days, plus every 24 or reboot, program or update or unsigned driver install. When Al said at the beginning that everyday you do stuff with your computer your free space is going to get smaller he sure wasn’t kidding.

2) What you delete in the folders you check depends on what you see, after you’ve decreased the space SR takes up by moving the slider. I named two key folders one of which houses restore points and one the last system restore completed or attempted. After moving the slider use your tree application to assess if you have any file in system volume still hogging space and which one. If it’s hogging a significant amount, then I’d move on blowing it off repecting it’s date–old ones sure, but keep new enough ones to use should they be needed remembering every day and every event I named above means new restore points anyway.

SMBP

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Hello SMBP:

I only have one drive, can you please give me clarification on the following:

if you still show the space used up, then the corrupted corpses are hanging around and then I’d go to those files and delete the old dates but keep enough new ones around that make sense.

Please correct me if I am wrong; would it be the SR-Eventlogs or the SR-Restrlog that would have the corrupted corpses hanging around?

Thanks

dillon

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Dilon–

You wrote me:

“Are you saying that I should delete the SR-EVENTLOGS.TXT;SR-RP.LOG ;SR-RSTRLOG.TXT?

I went to google-groups and type in the system restore, and I found some information that advise me on how to get back some of my disk space. I have already turned of system restore, boot up; and reset system restore at 12% boot up again. My free space went from 84% back to 90%, What should I do SMBP?”
_______________________________________________________________________________

Not any more you don’t have to delete them. You already just nuked them when you turned it off or at least corrupted them.Your free space will cut down if you slide that slider down. When you turn it off you destroy or corrupt them–slide the slider down to 3-5%. What’s 1-2% of 90 days–most people who say to keep it at a high percent don’t realize you’re talking 90 days. It saves the latest. It’s policy is FIFO–first in, first out.

So 5% of 90 days is 4.5 days. How many people need more than that in reality? Very few if any ever go back further although I’m sure someone will say they have. My restores always go back to just before the problem happened.

I don’t know if you have a data only drive–you didn’t tell me or if you have divided your hard drive(s) into one or 50 but if you like many have all your data on one drive, then slide it to the left all the way on that particular data drive because it’s not doing anything on data–I wish it did but it doesn’t.

After you slide that slider into reality–remember it saves the latest points when you reduce the per cent, if you still show the space used up, then the corrupted corpses are hanging around and then I’d go to those files and delete the old dates but keep enough new ones around that make sense.

BTW Woody Leaonhard agrees with my assessment that using F8 to system restore in an emergency via Safe Mode from the Command Prompt is a very valuable thing to do on p. 500 of his new book.

SMBP

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Hello JG;Joe:

I will follow your advice, and see what happens, thank you for your time and support.

dillon

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Hello JG:

I went into the restore tab, and the tab was set at the following:

Maxium (4579 MB), I changed it to the ten percent that you mentioned which is set at (3703 MB)

I went into the explorer, and I clicked on show all hidden files, and I found the following:

Srdiag
SrFrame
SR Chglog
SR reg
SR Rp
SR Rstrlog

I don’t know which file has the information that you are advising me on; at first I thought it was the SR Chglog, and then I notice the SR Rstrlog, but I am not sure.

dillon

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Dillon–

To trim System Volume and Restore points that you don’t need any more–most of them–go to these key files:

SR-EVENTLOGS.TXT logs events, when it’s turned on and off and when those 90 day default restore points are created.

SR-RP.LOG lists restore points, their type and date and time created.

SR-RSTRLOG.TXT lists files for the last restore point attempted; you probably don’t need that as well.

SMBP

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Dillon–

To trim System Volume and Restore points that you don’t need any more–most of them–go to these key files:

SR-EVENTLOGS.TXT logs events, when it’s turned on and off and when those 90 day default restore points are created.

SR-RP.LOG lists restore points, their type and date and time created.

SR-RSTRLOG.TXT lists files for the last restore point attempted; you probably don’t need that as well.

SMBP

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Hello JG:

I went into the restore tab, and the tab was set at the following:

Maxium (4579 MB), I changed it to the ten percent that you mentioned which is set at (3703 MB)

I went into the explorer, and I clicked on show all hidden files, and I found the following:

Srdiag
SrFrame
SR Chglog
SR reg
SR Rp
SR Rstrlog

I don’t know which file has the information that you are advising me on; at first I thought it was the SR Chglog, and then I notice the SR Rstrlog, but I am not sure.

dillon

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Dillon

I think you have your answer, which Joe has already guessed correctly!. Half your disk is taken up with System Restore points!

Go into Windows Explorer, and click on System Volume Information, then on the folder that starts “_restore” (you may need to turn on the viewing of system and/or hidden files to see these).

You will see a large number of folders whose names are “RP” followed by (probably) three numbers. These are the system restore points, and you can see how often they’re done by the timestamps!

By default, XP should allocate 12% (no idea why!) of the hard disk for system restore information. See how much yours is allocating by clicking on Start => Control Panel => System then on the System Restore tab, and look in the “Disk Space Usage” section. (I think we’d be interested to know what the slider was set to!) I don’t know whether, if you reduce the slider to (say) 10%, the oldest RPnnn folders get deleted. But try it and see. Otherwise I think you could safely delete the oldest RPnnn folders, leaving (say), those for the last 30 days.

Good luck!

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Hello JohnGray:

Here is the infromation that I received from the TreeSize Professional

Hard drive
17.4% Windows
17.1% Files
14.3% Programs
0% – 0.2% Document Settings
49.8% System Volume Information

CHKDSK Information :
39078080 KB total disk space
6019172 KB in 26119 Files
7496 KB in 1695 indexes
0 KB in bad sectors
95860 KB in use by the system
65536 KB occupied by the log
32955552 KB avail on disk

4096 bytes in each allocation disk
9769520 total allcoation units on
8238888 allocation units available

dillon

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If you want any comments about the state of your hard disk, you’re going to have to provide some evidence, in the way I suggest (for the hard disk partition). Just start a Command Prompt window and type CHKDSK and observe or post the lines with the numbers in at the bottom. These show a low-level view of what is going on on your disk partition.

To get an idea of where all the space is going into files I would recommend you download and install an evaluation copy of Treesize Pro, which gives displays of folder sizes and file sizes for a drive. I use it quite a lot when I have my “oh, no, we’re running out of disk space on the servers again” hat on!

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Hello Bigdoc;Viking33;Johngray;smbp:

Smbp: Thank you for your links I will give them a try; you are always there with your tremendous amount of experience, and advice; much appreciated.

Viking33;Johngray: I am not sure what the problem is with my hard drive, I am sure it is just me be over protective, I just don’t understand why my free space is becoming less and less on a day-to-day basis; forgive me for my frankness, however I cannot answer your question, as I do not know what the exact problem is myself.

Big doc: Your explanation could be bang on, I am not a techi; however I can see what you mean.

Regards

dillon

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Besides which, every day your “free space” probably WILL get smaller and smaller as you do things with your computer. Things like browser cache and all manner of other activities eat up disk space. Now, if the space changes by “leaps and bounds,” you might have a horse (problem) of a different color. I would guess we need more info on this one…..

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John,

When I read the initial post, I thought exactly the same thing.
———————————-
Are you really saying that your hard disk has a memory leak?

———————————-

Two different animals, to my way of thinking.

Bob

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Are you really saying that your hard disk has a memory leak?

Hard disks don’t have memory leaks! They may have a raft of inefficiencies that cause the creation of unwanted files, or if NTFS may have a large Master File Table, or will “waste” on average half a sector per file, and so on, so that there appears to be “missing space”.

Go into a Command Prompt window and run
CHKDSK > RESULTS.TXT
and then inspect/post the numbers in the last dozen lines or so of RESULTS.TXT. This will tell you most of what you want to know! Really!

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To me it’s like that pile of junk mail I never get around to recycling. Until I have trouble finding a place to put things, I don’t worry about it.

Call back when you’re down to 5 GB and then we’ll talk

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To me it’s like that pile of junk mail I never get around to recycling. Until I have trouble finding a place to put things, I don’t worry about it.

Call back when you’re down to 5 GB and then we’ll talk

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If you are running XP without any tweaking of the typical released configuration, it may be system restore points. By default XP will use a substantial amount of mass storage for these. You can check your settings by right clicking My Computer. Then select Properties | System Restore. XP does automatic restore points + software updates/installs/uninstalls can create restore points also.

Joe

--Joe

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Hello Joe:

I have only used the actual system restore once; and I request for it to restore only a few days; sorry I am not understanding how system restore can be using up my hd if I have only used it once.

dillon

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System Restore is the Windows OS Leading Disk Space Waster and Hog of All Hogs[/u]

Easy. System Restore defaults to 90 days saving point and deletes automatically, and you don’t need anywhere near over a few days.

Best way to control this space slide down that slider you find by hitting the Windows and Pause Break key and the settings button on the Sys Restore tab. Don’t set it for a data drive–it doesn’t monitor data. It also does not monitor your %SystemRoot%downloaded programs folder, and for that reason my important downloaded programs are kept on other drives. If you do that, then it’ll monitor your hotfixes–and people get confused if they just let a downloaded programs file stay on the C drive or they have only one drive. This alone might be a good reason to have more than one drive–but hotfixes can be rather quickly downloaded in multiples before booting from the security site using a reg edit in the MSKB.

You’ve answered your question beautifully and JohnGray has told you exactly how to get rid of much of that humongous unneeded 48% and I’m telling you how to keep it down–slide the slider –don’t let it default to 12% of a drive[/i]–why MS chose this and 90 days is beyond me–that’s way more than is needed for anyone in any circumstance. But don’t turn it off, because you’ll corrupt and lose your restore points the second you do and once you understand that F8 Safe Mode with a command prompt can save your system by running system restore there, you’ll learn to respect it a lot more than you ever did. It rarely fails in those circumstances, but Last Known Good rarely works–and boot discs often don’t. You can’t create restore points in safe mode, though, so any SR performed in Safe Mode can’t be undone, but you’ll be so glad to have your system back from a BSOD if this happens, that won’t be a factor.

Remember a couple things–If you create a new user account, then use SR to roll back before that, the new user won’t be able to log on and it doesn’t warn you–I just did, but it doesn’t wipe out data files–it has no effect on them, so all that user’s data would be saved.

If you change your computer or workgroup name, or your domain membership then perform a restore, you may lose network resources, and after the restore you may need to change the name of the computer or workgroup.

In the race to be the Windows Space Hog, System Restore wins hands down, beating out other hogs like Recycle Bin, Temporary Internet Files, the paging file, and another hog the hibernation file to see who can be crowned the Windows Greed Monster.

SMBP

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System Restore is the Windows OS Leading Disk Space Waster and Hog of All Hogs[/u]

Easy. System Restore defaults to 90 days saving point and deletes automatically, and you don’t need anywhere near over a few days.

Best way to control this space slide down that slider you find by hitting the Windows and Pause Break key and the settings button on the Sys Restore tab. Don’t set it for a data drive–it doesn’t monitor data. It also does not monitor your %SystemRoot%downloaded programs folder, and for that reason my important downloaded programs are kept on other drives. If you do that, then it’ll monitor your hotfixes–and people get confused if they just let a downloaded programs file stay on the C drive or they have only one drive. This alone might be a good reason to have more than one drive–but hotfixes can be rather quickly downloaded in multiples before booting from the security site using a reg edit in the MSKB.

You’ve answered your question beautifully and JohnGray has told you exactly how to get rid of much of that humongous unneeded 48% and I’m telling you how to keep it down–slide the slider –don’t let it default to 12% of a drive[/i]–why MS chose this and 90 days is beyond me–that’s way more than is needed for anyone in any circumstance. But don’t turn it off, because you’ll corrupt and lose your restore points the second you do and once you understand that F8 Safe Mode with a command prompt can save your system by running system restore there, you’ll learn to respect it a lot more than you ever did. It rarely fails in those circumstances, but Last Known Good rarely works–and boot discs often don’t. You can’t create restore points in safe mode, though, so any SR performed in Safe Mode can’t be undone, but you’ll be so glad to have your system back from a BSOD if this happens, that won’t be a factor.

Remember a couple things–If you create a new user account, then use SR to roll back before that, the new user won’t be able to log on and it doesn’t warn you–I just did, but it doesn’t wipe out data files–it has no effect on them, so all that user’s data would be saved.

If you change your computer or workgroup name, or your domain membership then perform a restore, you may lose network resources, and after the restore you may need to change the name of the computer or workgroup.

In the race to be the Windows Space Hog, System Restore wins hands down, beating out other hogs like Recycle Bin, Temporary Internet Files, the paging file, and another hog the hibernation file to see who can be crowned the Windows Greed Monster.

SMBP

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Hello Joe:

I have only used the actual system restore once; and I request for it to restore only a few days; sorry I am not understanding how system restore can be using up my hd if I have only used it once.

dillon

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If you are running XP without any tweaking of the typical released configuration, it may be system restore points. By default XP will use a substantial amount of mass storage for these. You can check your settings by right clicking My Computer. Then select Properties | System Restore. XP does automatic restore points + software updates/installs/uninstalls can create restore points also.

Joe

--Joe

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btw, I’m not advocating dis-abling system restore just picking a size that you can live with. It all depends on how far back in time you want to be able to go to have XP try to restore your system.

Joe

--Joe

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btw, I’m not advocating dis-abling system restore just picking a size that you can live with. It all depends on how far back in time you want to be able to go to have XP try to restore your system.

Joe

--Joe

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