Low disk space

[Tomk]

I have an HP Pavillion DV5 notebook. With Vista Home Premium SP1 32 bit

Out of the box on the first boot the automatic boot disk creator failed and the recovery disk D: shows full with 9.98 GB used and 5 MB free space.

If I Explore the drive it only shows like 2 GB of stuff in 3 files:

Recovery
My backup file
MediaID.bin

HP just sent me a boot disk since I wasn't able to create one which is cool, but they didn't help with the size problem. Geek squad said to turn off "Quotas" but it was already off.

It's not that big of a problem except that I can't setup any recovery points and the most annoying aspect is that every couple of minutes I get a pop-up down by the clock saying "Low disk space, Please run the disk clean-up" Well the damn disk clean-up can't find anything to clean.

Um... What else? Oh the hard drive is a Hitachi HTS542525K9A3 SCSI It seams to be partitioned to C: @222GB and D: HP_RECOVERY @9.98GB

So is there a way for my computer to either see the correct used size or to clean up any crap that might be filling it up that I don't know about or need?

I would really appreciate any help that you can provide.

Thanks in advance.

[Cephius]

You can use Gparted or a similar partitioning utility to wipe out the HP recovery partition and merge it with your C: drive.

[Gippo]

gogo partition magic

[Ikith]

gogo partition magic

Partition magic is a fucking joke. Use gparted to delete the HP recover parition then extend the size of the C: partition to use that space.

[The Stig]

There's probably a bunch of hidden files that are jammed away so you can't see it, so it's quite normal. If you think about it the Vista installion is what, 15gb? The hidden files you cannot see are just probably compressed files.

if you must see them there's a box to untick somewhere in Folder Options, which says something along the lines of "Hide System protected files" or similar. Or not even that, they may just be basic hidden files, designed to keep the average schmuck from deleting files they think they don't need.

[Tomk]

Thanks for the advice. I'm not sure if I feel up to partition changes though. Thestig hit me right on the head, "average schmuck".

I was able to set the recovery points to C: drive so at least I have that now.

Thanks again.

[The Stig]

No, I wasn't calling you a schmuck, it's quite common to not know that there's system protected filed. It's a common question that people count all their files but yet cannot find out where the last X amount went.

It's just a security/protection feature that is all. And you understand this instead of just blindly persist in wanting to recover that small amount of disk space. If you don't want to mess with partitions and aren't particularly good with installing a system from scratch, those back up partitions with back up files will restore your system to the "out of the box" state, which is very useful especially when I look after people's computers outside my own.

Also, do you really need that 10gb? In my view that must be quite desperate considering how cheap hard drives are and how big files are nowadays. Otherwise, you might be better off in purchasing a big hard drive, in the region of 500gb, or even 1tb if finances allow, so you can back up your files + system and add more "media" to it. This is an unfortunate side effect of laptops, you get external disks piling up quite fast, compared to a desktop where you can "hide" one inside your machine and not worry about extra plugs or anything (especially with a laptop's limited USB connections) (you only need to worry about power supply but that is easily resolved).

[Tomk]

I was just kidding about the schmuck thing, but I am the average, better not touch too much stuff or I'll break it, computer guy.

No I don't need the space it's mainly that the "low disk space" pop-up is annoying. It's really a work/some gaming/surfing computer. I don't do much media.

I also don't understand why they would put the pre-load on the back-up drive leaving no room for actual back-ups. Was the pre-load supposed to be deleted after the boot disk creation but it didn't since that failed?

On another note I have been thinking of finding an old cheap computer to try the Linux Unbuntu (sp*?) Operating System. What do you think of it?

[The Stig]

I can't comment on linux, but the spare partition is designed not to store your backups, but the system's own backups so they save money (they used to provide a restore CD). Infact, it should be a HIDDEN partition, what I don't understand why is it's visible to you (did you change something?).

A few laptops I brought a while back for family came like this:

Partition 1 (C - windows
Partition 2 (D - data
Partition 3 (--) - Backup/hidden

You're describing a partition 3 which is somehow made visible. As a result, I wasn't aware that you were getting a pop up. Which is very strange indeed and something I do not wish to pursue further, because I do not want you to accidently lose it.

[Cephius]

Ubuntu is a great OS to mess around with, and just get used to the Linux environment and what it's capable of. It eases you into using the terminal, and still has a decent GUI that still feels familiar to Windows. If you plan to get into server management it's a great place to start to learn Linux.

It's also extremely lightweight, you can run it off the LiveCD if you want to just to see what it looks like.

[Tomk]

Maybe I can find something to hide the drive.

Ooh, live CD, so I don't even need to buy a new computer to play around. That's great.

I don't want to sound like I'm gushing, but I understand that you guys don't have to provide help so I want to let you know that I appreciate it. Thanks again. If you have any Air Conditioning questions, feel free to ask.