Mystery files taking too much space! (XP)

[ima_syko]

Hi everyone! My first post, hooray!

About a month ago I did a vanilla install of windows XP, and I set up XP on its own partition to avoid the pain of backing up files in DOS again, should it crash. Now I'm having file space issues because unmovable files and installers that automatically install to C drive.

Here's what I don't understand. My C partition is 8g. The total size of everything in C drive, including hidden folders, is 3g. Defrag says I have about 2g of unmovable files, which I assume is XP and boot/harddrive stuff(?) Drive properties says I have only 1g free. Where are my missing 2 gigs? Recycle bin is disabled on the drive. System Restore is enabled, but wouldn't restore points be defragable and visible in C?

Any suggestions or ideas about what I should do? I already have no files on there that weren't forced there. I may have to reformat and repartition if I can't figure it out. It would be a shame, but 1g free on C doesn't seem like a healthy number. Am I wrong? Just a few more direct-to-C installers could put me over the limit.

Thanks for ideas!

 

[ima_syko]

Thanks anyway, I figured it out for myself.

 

[veilx]

what did you do to fix it.. this seems interesting..

 

[ima_syko]

As it turns out, System Restore Points are not 'counted' when tallying hard drive space based on what you can see and check via Explorer, but are, of course counted when tallying free space. They also accumulate rapidly and generally only a few are necessary for the added insurance. After disabling, then re-enabling the System Restore service on C, it showed the previously unaccounted free space, which was almost 2 GB. In this process I learned that you can limit the space reserved for System Restore points on any drive via your System Properties, which I scaled down to the lowest setting (about 200 MB for the drive with the system files).

Hope this helps any others,
Cheers!