The Digital Surgery (computer questions/problems here)

Post by **PeteC** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 2:36 pm

This is just a guess HH but the used 3gb space may be where your system keeps your historical record so when you select 'restore to date..???" this is where it goes to be able to do that. Pete

Post by **JimmyGreaves** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 4:55 pm

Every 24 hours, or when you make a change to your system, Windows XP creates a new restore point. System Restore can use up to 12% of your hard disk space for restore points. If you need to free up disk space, you can delete the existing restore points using the Disk Cleanup utility.

1. Click Start, point to All Programs | Accessories | System Tools and click Disk Cleanup.
2. Click OK.
3. From the Disk Cleanup dialog box, click the More Options tab.
4. Click Yes to confirm your actions.

Post by **hhfarang** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 5:08 pm

...But when I go into the "system drive" and add up the individual sizes of all the folders (including the hidden ones) why wouldn't this include those restore points. The size of all files and folders is more than what the drive says is available!

I have always hated Microsoft but is this just another of their lies? When you check the total disk space it is 3 gb less than the sum of all the sizes of the files and folders stored on the drive???

Post by **PeteC** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 5:15 pm

I remember looking at a map of my drives in the past. I'm on a Mac now so can't do XP. I recall on Drive D there was a sub-partition that you could not move or change and this is where your restore data was held.

Possibly this sub-partitioned area doesn't register at all when checking folders etc. Buks will know for sure. Pete

Post by **chopsticks** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 5:40 pm

You will be able to see the true disk size and partions by going to :
Control Panel-Admin Tools-Computer Management-Disk Management

Post by **hhfarang** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 6:50 pm

You will be able to see the true disk size and partions by going to :
Control Panel-Admin Tools-Computer Management-Disk Management

Chopsticks,

If I do that it still shows the D drive as close to nine and a half gigs, "healthy", and the boot drive. It shows the same as my system says, 9.4 gigs, 600 mb free so that doesn't tell me where the missing 3 gigs are when I look at it manually...

Microsoft accounting is like the U.S. government budget accounting.

A 10 gig disk partition with 6 gb used space = 800 mb free space... I don't buy it! Somebody's lying to me or hiding something!

Post by **chopsticks** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 7:25 pm

Not sure then what it can be. Usual suspects are temporary internet files,
hibernate file, and system restore as mentioned. If low on memory it may have a large swap file but all these should show when you calculate.
Perhaps time to get a bigger drive as 10 G is a bit on small size.

Post by **chopsticks** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 7:46 pm

unless those rats have been feasting again .......

Post by **hhfarang** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 8:17 pm

Its a 160gb drive... I partitioned it so that the OS and programs had a 10 gig partition because in my past experience those things never used more than 5 gb. I should be ok with 10 if I could figure out where the missing 3 gigs are...

Post by **buksida** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:10 am

Tis a strange one, can you take the hard disk out and put it into another machine to see what reading you get there? Could be that Windows has just gone a bit screwy with the file allocation system.

I recently had a disk that wouldn't even show in Windows, plugged it into a Linux machine and it was fine.

Post by **Big Boy** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 1:30 am

I'm suffering a week in London this week on a training course. I definitely will not pay the £15 per night that London hotels demand for their wi-fi service, so I've invested in a pay as you go vodafone 3G card.

I'm really impressed with its speed. It's very cheap to use as well (4 days use so far has cost me less than £1.50).

The card has a vodafone sim card inside. What I would like to know is would it work in Thailand if for example I inserted a 1 to call sim card? If it would work, can somebody comment on the connection speed?

Post by **Randy Cornhole** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 4:00 am

BB, I have the same set up albeit on the '3' network. The connection speed is pretty good and as I work all over the place I can take my laptop anywhere and have internet connection. I pay £15 for 3gb a month.

Post by **BaaBaa.** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 4:18 am

I can't see it working BB, I would imagine it's only set up for 3G, unlike Mobiles and it would also have to be unlocked from the Vodafone network.

Ultimately you'd be trying to use it as a Modem and you can do that with any half decent phone anyway.

(Nice Photos on your latest blog by the way RC)

Post by **Guess** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 8:00 am

hhfarang wrote:Its a 160gb drive... I partitioned it so that the OS and programs had a 10 gig partition because in my past experience those things never used more than 5 gb. I should be ok with 10 if I could figure out where the missing 3 gigs are...

Firstly that is nowhere near large enough for a growing operating system. I always reckoned on 25GB minimum for XP (but that includes applications). Of course it will work with 10GB but you will get the sort of problems you have descibed.

Your hidden usage.

The restore points take space but are easily removed as described by Jimmy. I believe they are in system files that are visible anyway so would be part of your 6GB. ($Restore) or someting like that.

The main space "wasted" is:

NTFS overheads which account for the difference between the manufacturers size and the size reported by Windows.

The swapfile which can be tailored to suit your needs. The default set at installation time is always too large. The rule of thumb is that it should be about 1.5 to 2 times the size of your installed available RAM.

The hiberfile is another file which is installed by default even on a desktop. The file is an exact copy of RAM at the point when the system goes into hibernation. It is therefore the same size as your RAM.

These two files alone on a fairly average system can be about 3.5GB.

The hiberfil can be deleted if the hibernation feature is switched off and the swapfile can be reduced in size via the system configurator.

Windows help gives a good description of both. To check the size of the files load a command prompt and navigate to the root of the system drive. Then type dir /a for a complete list of files in that directory.

Post a reply or PM if you still have problems.

Post by **chelsea** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 8:21 am

Big Boy wrote:I'm suffering a week in London this week on a training course. I definitely will not pay the £15 per night that London hotels demand for their wi-fi service, so I've invested in a pay as you go vodafone 3G card.

I'm really impressed with its speed. It's very cheap to use as well (4 days use so far has cost me less than £1.50).

The card has a Vodafone sim card inside. What I would like to know is would it work in Thailand if for example I inserted a 1 to call sim card? If it would work, can somebody comment on the connection speed?

BB I have one of them here in Aus that also runs on the 3G network and it is not worth the money I pay for it.
I only got it because I had a situation where Telstra (Aus answer to BT) cut of my phone a month early when I last moved, which in turn disconnected all my connections at the exchange for my ADSL system.

They could not get that problem fixed for two weeks, so had to get some way to get a connection better than the free dial up one my ISP provided me.

From day one to now, I can only get a poor connection reading (1st one on their connection scale) and that is anywhere in my home.

It is ok for downloading emails and that is about all. Cannot run a simple video or takes ages to download a normal web page (heavy graphics forget it).

For all of the hype there is around about these mobile systems, with the experience I am having at present, I would say forget it and use an internet cafe any day when you are on the move.