Vista steals drive space?

I have been asked to support a Vista laptop at a client's business. I'll
have to do it eventually, so I figured "what the hell...may as well start
with the most buggy version".

I am not all that peeved about the bugs. ALL first gen software is buggy.
People should understand that by now. It will get better after a service
pack or 2.

What does bug me though is that it seems tha Windows Vista Business edition
is stealing drive space. Let me explain...

If I go into explorer and look at the C: drive, it tells me that I have 139
GB free of 184 GB. That's 45 GB of space being used. No problem, right?

Wrong. If I use explorer to go to the root of C:\, select ALL files and
folders (remembering to go to View and make all files and folders visible -
"not hidden" first) and click properties - it says that the total "size on
disk" is only 22,542,475,264 bytes (~ 23 GB).

So where is the other 22 GB? Is Vista keeping a complete copy of the drive
hidden from the users?

What am I missing here (besides 22 GB of my client's hard drive)?

squishy

Shadow copy

older versions of files are being retained in case you want to divert to
them

and that takes up space... unfortunately as with all stupid things in vista
there is no GUI way to turn it off that is apparent to the user...

The implementation of this idea by MACOS is better I think.. its called time
machine..

Catchy name too.. hehe

NO! Im not a Mac fan.



"squishy" <reply@groups.please> wrote in message
newsAd3i.5298$J6.1320@bigfe9...
>I have been asked to support a Vista laptop at a client's business. I'll
>have to do it eventually, so I figured "what the hell...may as well start
>with the most buggy version".
>
> I am not all that peeved about the bugs. ALL first gen software is buggy.
> People should understand that by now. It will get better after a service
> pack or 2.
>
> What does bug me though is that it seems tha Windows Vista Business
> edition is stealing drive space. Let me explain...
>
> If I go into explorer and look at the C: drive, it tells me that I have
> 139 GB free of 184 GB. That's 45 GB of space being used. No problem,
> right?
>
> Wrong. If I use explorer to go to the root of C:\, select ALL files and
> folders (remembering to go to View and make all files and folders
> visible - "not hidden" first) and click properties - it says that the
> total "size on disk" is only 22,542,475,264 bytes (~ 23 GB).
>
> So where is the other 22 GB? Is Vista keeping a complete copy of the
> drive hidden from the users?
>
> What am I missing here (besides 22 GB of my client's hard drive)?
>
> squishy
>

squishy wrote:
> I have been asked to support a Vista laptop at a client's business. I'll
> have to do it eventually, so I figured "what the hell...may as well start
> with the most buggy version".
>
> I am not all that peeved about the bugs. ALL first gen software is buggy.
> People should understand that by now. It will get better after a service
> pack or 2.
>
> What does bug me though is that it seems tha Windows Vista Business edition
> is stealing drive space. Let me explain...
>
> If I go into explorer and look at the C: drive, it tells me that I have 139
> GB free of 184 GB. That's 45 GB of space being used. No problem, right?
>
> Wrong. If I use explorer to go to the root of C:\, select ALL files and
> folders (remembering to go to View and make all files and folders visible -
> "not hidden" first) and click properties - it says that the total "size on
> disk" is only 22,542,475,264 bytes (~ 23 GB).
>
> So where is the other 22 GB? Is Vista keeping a complete copy of the drive
> hidden from the users?
>
> What am I missing here (besides 22 GB of my client's hard drive)?

System Restore.
You don't have access to the files by default (they're owned by SYSTEM,
and only SYSTEM has access). If you really want to take ownership, you
can...

Alun Harford

"squishy" <reply@groups.please> wrote in message
newsAd3i.5298$J6.1320@bigfe9...
>I have been asked to support a Vista laptop at a client's business. I'll
>have to do it eventually, so I figured "what the hell...may as well start
>with the most buggy version".
>
> I am not all that peeved about the bugs. ALL first gen software is buggy.
> People should understand that by now. It will get better after a service
> pack or 2.
>
> What does bug me though is that it seems tha Windows Vista Business
> edition is stealing drive space. Let me explain...
>
> If I go into explorer and look at the C: drive, it tells me that I have
> 139 GB free of 184 GB. That's 45 GB of space being used. No problem,
> right?
>
> Wrong. If I use explorer to go to the root of C:\, select ALL files and
> folders (remembering to go to View and make all files and folders
> visible - "not hidden" first) and click properties - it says that the
> total "size on disk" is only 22,542,475,264 bytes (~ 23 GB).
>
> So where is the other 22 GB? Is Vista keeping a complete copy of the
> drive hidden from the users?
>
> What am I missing here (besides 22 GB of my client's hard drive)?
>
> squishy
>


It's Shadow Copy.

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Window....mspx?mfr=true

You can adjust the size of the space it uses with vssadmin.exe. Personally
I'd leave it alone. It's a useful feature. You can also turn it on/off for
selected drives. If you start to run out of space you can use Disk Cleanup
to remove old shadow copies.

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca

"Kerry Brown" <kerry@kdbNOSPAMsys-tems.c*a*m> wrote in message
news:u9H10jVmHHA.1624@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> "squishy" <reply@groups.please> wrote in message
> newsAd3i.5298$J6.1320@bigfe9...
>>I have been asked to support a Vista laptop at a client's business. I'll
>>have to do it eventually, so I figured "what the hell...may as well start
>>with the most buggy version".
>>
>> I am not all that peeved about the bugs. ALL first gen software is
>> buggy. People should understand that by now. It will get better after a
>> service pack or 2.
>>
>> What does bug me though is that it seems tha Windows Vista Business
>> edition is stealing drive space. Let me explain...
>>
>> If I go into explorer and look at the C: drive, it tells me that I have
>> 139 GB free of 184 GB. That's 45 GB of space being used. No problem,
>> right?
>>
>> Wrong. If I use explorer to go to the root of C:\, select ALL files and
>> folders (remembering to go to View and make all files and folders
>> visible - "not hidden" first) and click properties - it says that the
>> total "size on disk" is only 22,542,475,264 bytes (~ 23 GB).
>>
>> So where is the other 22 GB? Is Vista keeping a complete copy of the
>> drive hidden from the users?
>>
>> What am I missing here (besides 22 GB of my client's hard drive)?
>>
>> squishy
>>
>
>
> It's Shadow Copy.
>
> http://technet2.microsoft.com/Window....mspx?mfr=true
>
> You can adjust the size of the space it uses with vssadmin.exe. Personally
> I'd leave it alone. It's a useful feature. You can also turn it on/off for
> selected drives. If you start to run out of space you can use Disk Cleanup
> to remove old shadow copies.

Thanks for the post Kerry!

I use other software for nightly backups. In fact I back up the entire C:
drive of that Vista box plus several others. I neither want nor need
"shadow copies".

This seems like another way that Microsoft is trying to save users from
themselves. They should have learned by now that you can't code around
stupid.

I will definitely turn off this "feature". I really don't find it to be as
useful as the resources it consumes.

What happens if the drive fails? The "shadow copies" are useless. That's
why I use Acronis and external storage devices to handle my backups.
Generally I have about 7 days worth of backups for each PC on the network.

It's probably not for backing up data as much as for tracking changes and
being able to revert to an old copy. We don't really need that.

A copy of all of the backups are taken off-site nightly to also protect the
data in case of theft or fire.

And, I have to admit to being somewhat childishly peeved at the fact that
Vista has taken it upon itself yet again to hog my system and hide my files
from me. I mean, who's driving this thing.....me or Microsoft? (It's like
renting a car from Hertz, only the cars drives you where it wants to go, at
the speed it wants to travel.)

It's really like the user is just along for the ride with Vista. Less and
less control makes it less and less valuable to me.

Thanks for the info!

squishy

"squishy" <reply@groups.please> wrote in message
news:7Cx3i.326$KC4.170@bignews6.bellsouth.net...
>
> "Kerry Brown" <kerry@kdbNOSPAMsys-tems.c*a*m> wrote in message
> news:u9H10jVmHHA.1624@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> "squishy" <reply@groups.please> wrote in message
>> newsAd3i.5298$J6.1320@bigfe9...
>>>I have been asked to support a Vista laptop at a client's business. I'll
>>>have to do it eventually, so I figured "what the hell...may as well start
>>>with the most buggy version".
>>>
>>> I am not all that peeved about the bugs. ALL first gen software is
>>> buggy. People should understand that by now. It will get better after a
>>> service pack or 2.
>>>
>>> What does bug me though is that it seems tha Windows Vista Business
>>> edition is stealing drive space. Let me explain...
>>>
>>> If I go into explorer and look at the C: drive, it tells me that I have
>>> 139 GB free of 184 GB. That's 45 GB of space being used. No problem,
>>> right?
>>>
>>> Wrong. If I use explorer to go to the root of C:\, select ALL files and
>>> folders (remembering to go to View and make all files and folders
>>> visible - "not hidden" first) and click properties - it says that the
>>> total "size on disk" is only 22,542,475,264 bytes (~ 23 GB).
>>>
>>> So where is the other 22 GB? Is Vista keeping a complete copy of the
>>> drive hidden from the users?
>>>
>>> What am I missing here (besides 22 GB of my client's hard drive)?
>>>
>>> squishy
>>>
>>
>>
>> It's Shadow Copy.
>>
>> http://technet2.microsoft.com/Window....mspx?mfr=true
>>
>> You can adjust the size of the space it uses with vssadmin.exe.
>> Personally I'd leave it alone. It's a useful feature. You can also turn
>> it on/off for selected drives. If you start to run out of space you can
>> use Disk Cleanup to remove old shadow copies.
>
> Thanks for the post Kerry!
>
> I use other software for nightly backups. In fact I back up the entire C:
> drive of that Vista box plus several others. I neither want nor need
> "shadow copies".
>
> This seems like another way that Microsoft is trying to save users from
> themselves. They should have learned by now that you can't code around
> stupid.
>
> I will definitely turn off this "feature". I really don't find it to be
> as useful as the resources it consumes.
>
> What happens if the drive fails? The "shadow copies" are useless. That's
> why I use Acronis and external storage devices to handle my backups.
> Generally I have about 7 days worth of backups for each PC on the network.
>
> It's probably not for backing up data as much as for tracking changes and
> being able to revert to an old copy. We don't really need that.
>
> A copy of all of the backups are taken off-site nightly to also protect
> the data in case of theft or fire.
>
> And, I have to admit to being somewhat childishly peeved at the fact that
> Vista has taken it upon itself yet again to hog my system and hide my
> files from me. I mean, who's driving this thing.....me or Microsoft?
> (It's like renting a car from Hertz, only the cars drives you where it
> wants to go, at the speed it wants to travel.)
>
> It's really like the user is just along for the ride with Vista. Less and
> less control makes it less and less valuable to me.
>
> Thanks for the info!
>
> squishy
>


It's easy to turn it off. Most modern OS' have a feature like this. It's not
intended as a backup. You are "driving this thing". If you don't want to use
a feature turn it off. The fact that Vista has more features is a positive
thing not a negative. To go back to you car analogy. If your new car has air
conditioning but you don't like the fact that it consumes more fuel when you
use it then don't use it. And yes it is a "feature".

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca