I have a 120gig hard drive and i have only put about 20gigs of stuff on it. It now has only 10gigs free. I turned it one it had 40gig free, then next day it has 10gig. Any suggestions???

You can try JDiskReport to see how your disk space is currently distributed. You may also check to see how much System Restore is using & make sure your Recycle Bin is empty. CrapCleaner should come in handy on that part.

A 120-GB hard drive appears as 111.75 GB after Windows is installed due to Binary numbering system.

3 GB is paging file ( 1.5 times RAM ). That makes 108.75 GB.

2 GB hibernation file ( = RAM ). That leaves behind 105.75 GB.

15% total HDD space for system restore. That leaves behind 89 GB.

Vista installation is around 15 GB. That leaves behind 74 GB.

You say you put 20 GB of stuff. That leaves behind 54 GB.

About 1 GB for internet explorer cache ( adjustable ).

Uninstall files for Windows updates ( hidden in Windows folder ).

If you have Nero, that has about 1 GB of cab files left after installation into Program Files directory, in case you need to change install options ( hidden in Users folder ).

The story goes on and on.

Hope the above helps.

Regards

SuatCINI

15% total HDD space for system restore.

Appendix ( adjustable ). to the above item.

The adjustment is done by following any one of the following tutorials below...

http://vistasupport.mvps.org/decrea...

http://vistahelp.blogspot.com/2007/...

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=243

i_Xp/VistaUser

I have the same problem. My desktop computer has 60G space of a 160GB H.D. disappeared. I used some H.D. analysis softwares such as WinDirStat, OverDisk and DiskData. All these softwares report my H.D has only total 92.9GB.

PS: After I read suatcini's reply, I turned off the system restore. Those HD analysis softwares still show my HD only have 92.9GB

Hi, everyone ^_^

There is a ThinkVantage backup utility that saves a copy of the drive to a location each day. By default it saves to the c drive. It also creates a new file each time. The data is not visible in the directory list so trying to delete the backup file is not an option. To correct this you need to go into the utility turn off the daily setting and then to delete the stored data set. The problem shows on both Vista and XP systems. I do not recall the exact settings to change, but making them will get back drive space. I have seen systems where the free space is less than 500MB on a 120GB drive and there was only 40GB for the basic install.

Richard

Start Disk Cleanup, seleck files and folders for all users, put checkmarks for all items and go.

In some cases, you have to reboot to see space freed up.

If still no go, then you have to make sure you have the latest M/B chipset drivers installed.

Regards

SuatCINI

That still does not clear the ThinkVantage backup storage. They are not files that you see and delete, only removable from the utility.

Richard

Tell Lenovo people that ThinkVantage should be replaced with DumpVantage because it causes headaches with people rather than saves people, it seems.

Regards

SuatCINI