[soozieq]

I hope someone can make sense of this screenshot

I've only had this laptop for a few days, and I've only loaded about 12GB of my own stuff so far (music, programs etc) onto the C: drive.

I just noticed the second D: drive has 900 temp files (taking up 28GB) that all look like variations of this: [size=x-small]SRW1A5B.tmp[/size]

When I bought it, it was partly because of the 160GB capacity. But if you look at the screenshot, it shows I only have 17GB free on the D drive, and about 65GB on the C drive. Even with the OS and my own stuff loaded (27GB) it still only has a useable capacity of around 120GB, nothing like the 160GB quoted!

Where's my space gone? And what's the point of the D drive if it's already full of crap that was already there in the first place?

I'm really confused. I know hard drive figures aren't always accurate, but losing 40GB seems a bit excessive!! Can I delete the temp files in the D drive, or are they needed to run Vista? If anyone can shed some light on this, I'd be really grateful as I'll be taking it back if I can't 'reclaim' the missing capacity.

 

[Redo]

That's closer to 140gb of space. Hard drive manu's advertise as if 1000 bytes is a kilobyte, but in reality it's 1024. So you're always short changed a bit.

 

[NiceCans]

Well to start with, a 160gb drive will not hold that much, once "formatted" expect about 137gb total usable capacity

Secondly, I expect that you do not realy have two drives installed, but rather two partitions on the one drive. (thus you see one drive at 92gb + one at 45gb = 137gb total)

This second partition is used by the manufacturer to provide a "safe-zone" where they keep restore data. In the event of a crash your laptop is likely provided with a software function (look in the Start-Menu folder wth the same name as the mnufacturer) which will restore the laptop to an operational state without the need for a complete Windows reinstall.
Look at the documention for more info on this.

 

[soozieq]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NiceCans /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well to start with, a 160gb drive will not hold that much, once "formatted" expect about 137gb total usable capacity Secondly, I expect that you do not realy have two drives installed, but rather two partitions on the one drive. (thus you see one drive at 92gb + one at 45gb = 137gb total)

Ooops yes, it's a partition on the same drive. Thanks for making sense of the figures. It was supplied with a recovery disk and all the software disks, so I assumed the recovery info was not stored on the partition. Is is safe then to delete everything in the D partition and get the extra space back?

28GB is a hell of a lot of space to be used for recovery. The OS only takes up about 15GB doesn't it? I checked the 'actual' memory and it's 150GB (not the 160 it was advertised with). Still, that's not a problem as there's still enough space if I can reclaim the 28GB which has been stolen!!

 

[NiceCans]

Quote:

Originally Posted by soozieq /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ooops yes, it's a partition on the same drive. Thanks for making sense of the figures. It was supplied with a recovery disk and all the software disks, so I assumed the recovery info was not stored on the partition. Is is safe then to delete everything in the D partition and get the extra space back?

They provide the restore discs as well as the partitioned restore on most these days. If you are comfortable foregoing the additional layer of protection you can remove the restore, however it is not as easy as it sounds.

It generally requires reformating the drive. Then depending on the configuration of your re-install discs it may allow you to do an install without the restore partition. Good luck.

 

[Troyhoot]

Im still using xp BUT I would bet that the 900 tmp files are just recovery spots after every program you installed. Give it a couple days and make sure you dont have any hitches then go into disk clean up and remove all but most recent recovery spots.

you can also go into system restore and see which drive and what % is being allocated for restore.

Now i could be way off and totally wrong but its worth a look. 27 gig for recovery on a laptop is just to outrageous for me to swallow.

 

[NiceCans]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Troyhoot /img/forum/go_quote.gif Now i could be way off and totally wrong but its worth a look. 27 gig for recovery on a laptop is just to outrageous for me to swallow.

I agree!

I expect they are ghosting so as to maintain a full image of the drive.
Get yourself a good drive image program and a hard-drive at home to backup to (either a portable or one in your desktop PC or music server if ya have one) then image your laptop onto that. It saves the portable space for it's intended use.

 

[soozieq]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Troyhoot /img/forum/go_quote.gif Im still using xp BUT I would bet that the 900 tmp files are just recovery spots after every program you installed. 27 gig for recovery on a laptop is just to outrageous for me to swallow.

I already did a disk clean up and deleted all the restore points except for the most recent. That gave me back 8GB on the main C: partition, but the 900 weird temp files are still on the D partition using up 27GB!!

NiceCans, you said Quote:

Get yourself a good drive image program and a hard-drive at home to backup to (either a portable or one in your desktop PC or music server if ya have one) then image your laptop onto that. It saves the portable space for it's intended use.

I have a 250GB external hard drive but no drive image program. Is it easy enough to do? I'd like my 27GB back - I already sacrificed 15GB to the OS, I don't want to be 42GB short

 

[manaox2]

Most manufacturers include that partition for their recovery utility. All of those tmp files are there as a backup to restore your computer to its default state if it needs to be restored. DO NOT DELETE IT. That drive is not meant to be used as storage. This is common practice.

The extra space in that DATA partition is to integrate the Windows updates into the backup as they come in the future usually. Do not be alarmed. Contact the manufacturers support if you want to know if there are other options is what I recommend.

 

[soozieq]

Quote:

Originally Posted by manaox2 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Most manufacturers include that partition for their recovery utility. All of those tmp files are there as a backup to restore your computer to its default state if it needs to be restored. DO NOT DELETE IT. That drive is not meant to be used as storage. This is common practice.

Well, if that's the case, they shouldn't quote 160GB storage if 45GB can't be used

I can accept 'losing' up to 20GB if I have to, but 45GB is too much. If it had said: 160GB capacity - with only 95GB useable STORAGE capacity, I wouldn't have bought it. The Vista pc upstairs is 320GB and only 14GB is reserved for the recovery. Oh well. . . thanks for the advice, now if only you'd all been there when I bought it

 

[NiceCans]

This type of arraingement is fairly standard these days so you likely would not have done much better selecting a different unit.

This is to help keep the average user up & running with little or no losses of data. You can reformat it and setup the machine without it, but you do take a risk! And this is not advised for other than the tech-savvy who will take the necessary alternative measures to avoid losses or a machine that chooses not to run when most needed.

 

[Check]

call up your manufacturer and ask them for the restore discs for your computer most vendors will actually save themselves $0.50 and not give you the OS disc unless you ask them for it (Dell for instance).

After getting this disc use partition magic to merge the two partitions without losing any data you might want to save.

that is what I would do at least.

Get the disc first, you know just in case.