12 replies to this topic

[gtoguy3]

When defragging finishes, I end up with less free space than when I started. Doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of defragging? I start out with 46 gigabytes free, and when defraggler finishes, I end up with 37 gigabytes free. Say it ain't so, please. Also it looks like it is just moving a lot of blue squares around, which were, I assume, already defragged. I don't see it moving the red fragmented files around. What's going on? Thanks, gtoguy3

[Mariana]

After using Defraggler I saw a loss of 20-30 GB free space
But I got that back...

First time I use Defraggler (version 1.13.155)
I daily clean using CCleaner
up till yesterday I daily defragged after cleaning using Auslogic Defrag

CCleaner is one of my favorite tools, so I decided to try Defraggler yesterday.
It took ages, so I checked the "shutdown after completing" and went to bed.
This morning (Saturday) I found my free disk space gone from around 60 GB to 36 GB...

-------------------
checked Windows logs
- nothing special

ran my old defragger:
- hardly any fragmentation reported
- free space on the disk was almost completely covered in red (fragmented) blocks

deleted system restore points
- still left me at 36 GB

Rebooted for fresh info

created a system report:
- Bytes Free: 36.403.064.832 bytes

ran CCleaner
- gained a few kb

Had CCleaner analyze Wipe Free Space:
- that would gain me 0, so I didn't perform it

Switched Aero off

checked my disk size again
- 67GB free!

created a system report:
- Bytes Free: 71.299.616.768 bytes

ran my old Defragger:
- hardly any fragmentation reported
- Free space on the disk shows no red blocks
------------------


I did not check the free space before using Defraggler. I know it was around 60 GB because it was that last Wednesday and since that time I only cleaned out a few unused things, so would only be more free space

Thursday I switched Aero on. I did not check if that builds up a lot of used space.
When defragging Friday with Auslogics a few hours before defragging with Defraggler I did not see the disk space pie much changed, so if Aero takes up space it couldn't have been that much

This morning I noticed the disk space pie showing a lot more space used

I now wonder: between my first report and second system report of today I suddenly gained over 30 GB
What I did in between was not much:
- Analyzed Wipe Free Space, without actually doing it using CCleaner
- Switch off Aero on Windows
- create an account here

It is my guess that the analyze Wipe Free Space may have "sorted" the information.
I'l check the Aero space used later, but since my last Auslogics defrag ( a couple of hours before Defraggler) did not show much difference in the free disk pie, I guess that is not it. (Would be pretty bad if that would take up so much space anyway)


My system info:
CPU - Intel Core i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz
Memory - DDR3 - 12.278.18 MB
MoBo - Asus P6T DELUXE X58
Video - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295
HD - Samsung HD753LJ and Western Digital VelociRaptor
OS - Windows Vista 64 (6.0.6001)

[tcoffeep]

I've had this happen. I got all the space back after I cleared my system restore points up to the latest one ( I manually save a restore point afterwards ).

[Mariana]

I tried the following today:

- started with 69.3 GB free
- ran Defraggler and then had 51.5 GB free
- used CCleaner to analyze Wipe Free Space - no result
- used CCleaner to wipe free space - it reported a few MB
- after that had 70.2 GB free


I don't know how a defragmentation works precisely, but my guess is that what happens is this:

• during work Defraggler allocates free space on disk to be used for temporarily writing parts of files
  
• when it finishes, this space is wiped, but it does not deallocate that space anymore. So, the space is free, but any task that reports the used space by just checking what is reported as used will treat this as used.
  
• when you then run a task that does something with the files and free space on disk and recalculates the new results itself, that finds this space not used, so you then get the correct information. Tasks like delete system restore point, or wipe free space

So, my guess is that Defraggler needs to deallocate the extra space it used, and recalculate again in the end.
If there is anybody here who knows how this all works, I would like to hear if I am right (or wrong)

[ZombieInfection]

I'd like to know how to fix this as well. I Defragged my HDD last night until this morning and it just got stuck on 97% (had to abort). My used space went up from 93.6GB to 108.7GB. If anyone knows how I can get this back to how it was, please let me know. I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

[DennisD]

This lost space issue with Vista has been going on since Vista first came out, and an amazing amount of information can be obtained by simply googling "Lost Hard Drive space with Vista".

It isn't a Defraggler issue, it's a Vista one due to a combination of System Restore, Shadow Copies, and using almost any third party defrag tool.

It has been discussed at length on here on a number of occasions, and a read of this thread may be of some help: (Please read all the thread)

http://forum.pirifor...showtopic=20510

There's also information regarding this in the Piriform documentation:

http://docs.piriform.com/defraggler/troubl...ning-defraggler

Some examples from the google search above:

Lost 45 GB hard disk space: (Using Diskkeeper)

Defrag in vista and loss of space: (Using O & O Defrag)

RE: Loss of Hard Drive space. Windows Vista All:

Vista: I suddenly lost a lot of disk space:

Disappearing Disk Space in Vista: (This one dated 2007)

Unexplained loss of hard drive space on disk. Windows Vista Performance:

One of the issues appears to be that with Volume Shadow Copy, Vista automatically tracks changes you make to files saved on your hard disk.

Defragging is possibly recognized by Shadow Copy as changes to your files, so it apparently backs up the files being changed, which results in at least a slowly increasing loss of hard drive space, and at worst, a quickly increasing loss of space if you're talking about large files.

The article below explains how to turn off "Volume Shadow Copy", but it also explains that VSC is linked to "System Restore", so turning off one, turns off both.

http://www.howtohaven.com/system/turn-off-...opy-vista.shtml

I have no idea how Vista users are supposed to get around this problem, and there may a solution which I haven't managed to find yet, but either way it appears to be a problem shared by most Vista users.

A Piriform member named davey posted a lengthy attempt at explaining this problem about a year ago, with the suggestion that a run with Vista Defragmenter could get back the lost space, and maybe that's worth a try.

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?s=&...st&p=118622

I hope this information may help you guys losing disk space, but bare in mind I don't have Vista, so this is based purely upon researching both the net and previous Piriform topics, and if anyone has more current information, with an answer to the System Restore/Volume Shadow Copy issue, then I'll be more than happy for them to post it.

[ZombieInfection]

Thanks for the reply. Will try running the Vista Defragmenter today and post my results.

[DennisD]

This may also help:

Quote

"I have found the solution!!! It's all because of shadow copies!! right click
on your hard drive, click properties, go to general tab, click disc clean up,
go to more options and then clean up shadow copies!!!! you will get back your
disk space!!!"

Taken from this link:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-2...0.html#t1756301

[Tooslow]

DennisD, on Sep 24 2009, 10:22 PM, said:

This may also help:



Taken from this link:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-2...0.html#t1756301

He's right, but I've found that it does not always work (?!)

I've found the following to be effective;

1) Click Start, All Programs, Accessories and then right click Command Prompt and select "Run as Adminstrator".
2) At the command prompt, type "wmic". "wmic:root\cli>" will appear
3) Type "shadowcopy" to get a list of shadow copies
4) Type "shadowcopy delete"
5) You will be offered each copy in turn with a "Y/N" prompt, allowing you to delete each in turn.
6) Type "exit" to close the box.

Check your disk space and you should have recovered several gigabytes.

[DennisD]

Hi Tooslow, and welcome to Piriform.

Not having Vista as I mention above, I can't follow up on that, but my first thought is will deleting selective Shadow Copies like that leave Vista's System Restore points alone?

That would be good.

[Tooslow]

DennisD, on Sep 26 2009, 04:47 PM, said:

Hi Tooslow, and welcome to Piriform.

Not having Vista as I mention above, I can't follow up on that, but my first thought is will deleting selective Shadow Copies like that leave Vista's System Restore points alone?

That would be good.

Dennis, 'fraid not, the system restore points are all (yes ALL) gone after that. So take one quick it'll only cost you 3Gb approx. My disk space used dropped from 155Gb to 106Gb by doing this.

Incidentally, I got step 6 wrong, just close the window in the usual way.

Regards,
JH

[DennisD]

Thanks for your input JH.

It all helps towards giving an understanding of what's going on with Volume Shadow Copy, System Restore, and the loss and reclaiming of disk space.

[mr don]

Tooslow, on Sep 26 2009, 04:28 PM, said:

He's right, but I've found that it does not always work (?!)

I've found the following to be effective;

1) Click Start, All Programs, Accessories and then right click Command Prompt and select "Run as Adminstrator".
2) At the command prompt, type "wmic". "wmic:root\cli>" will appear
3) Type "shadowcopy" to get a list of shadow copies
4) Type "shadowcopy delete"
5) You will be offered each copy in turn with a "Y/N" prompt, allowing you to delete each in turn.
6) Type "exit" to close the box.

Check your disk space and you should have recovered several gigabytes.

I am confused.

Can't you just use CCleaner & use the system restore control to get the free space back? (delete all but the most recent restore point)
Additionally, you can turn off system restore in Vista till you get done defragging... Can't you?

Won't that rid you of the shadow copies as well?

P.S. If it won't, try the disk cleanup tool to remove the shadow copies. Disable shadow copy service in windows running services if you need to.