BleepingComputer.com: Lost Memory

Okay here's my dilema. I just recently bought a new hp laptop computer with 250 gb hard drive of that 220 is usable. Now what has me baffled is that I noticed a few days ago that since I bought the computer 3 weeks ago I've used 60 gb of memory. Now I've only added a few programs on the computer like Microsoft Office 2007, firefox, yahoo messenger,slingbox and and quick time. Now I don't think that would add up to 60 gigabytes. I have since ran a virus scan, empty my recycle bin and defragged my hard drive. I've also removed some non essential programs and there was no noticeable gain. Can someone please help me figure out where did my memory go? Any help would be appreciated. I have a hp dv6748 running windows vista.

Hello atapp21,

There are two reasons why the 250GB hard drive is registering 220GB.
1. There are two methods of measuring capacity of a disk, its all down to the size of a byte which windows and the hardware have different values for. A 250GB disk is probably around 230GB.
2. Another reason for reduced sizes, is down to the company instaling a repair partition of something like 5-10GB which would explain where the other 10GB is.

If you would like a detailed view of whats on the disk, I would advise windirstat http://windirstat.info/

You need to use a disk utility to understand how the drive space is being populated, although I might guess it is System Restore if you have it enabled. I looked through BC's list of free applications recommended by our Members and found this:

http://w3.win.tue.nl/nl/onderzoek/onderzoe...n/sequoiaview//

The folder location results will indicate what has been filling up your hard drive.
Cheers,
John

hi,,,,, John is right when he sed it was sys restore,,, it uses about 15% of the hdd as default, then it creates restore points for fun,,, when you switch your pc on , when you do a restart, when you install anything, and at midnight every night if its on,,, it creates a restore point,,,, here's a couple of links that mite help you sort it out.

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/06/26/h...-with-vssadmin/
http://www.watchingthenet.com/how-to-reduc...em-restore.html
dont set it to low or you will reduce the amount of restore points,,,,, i set mine to 10gb,,,

try this link to stop so many restore points being made,,,
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vis...-windows-vista/

also try a system cleaner like ccleaner,,,, this will give you a little back but also clear all the crap left behind on your system
http://www.ccleaner.com/
and here's how to use it,
http://www.internetrotsyourbrain.com/ccleanerbeginnersguide/
http://www.timeatlas.com/tutorials/Ccleaner.htm

good luck.

Hey all,

Maybe I need to be a little bit clearer than I was in my 1st post. The HP computer that I have dv6748us has a 250 gb hard drive of that 220 gb is usable now from the usable portion I have lost another 60 gb which brings my available capacity to 160 gb. Now I know that 11.9 gb is because of the partitioning of the HP recovery files but that doesn't explain where the other 47 gb went to. The computer is still pretty much empty only a few programs have been added. I hope this explanation is a little bit clearer now. I will utilize the sites you all have posted to further my investigation and if one illuminates the problem I will definitely let yall know. Thank you all for your help.

Regards,
atapp21