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How to get back my HDD free space after defragment?


Dreamcookies

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No, that link in your post above is for when using DF, if that box is left unticked (default setting), as DF runs and Windows starts jinking around with its internal algorithms, it can actually make the space worse/disappear.

I won't open that can of worms now - too long, too techie.

 

What you want is Control Panel, System, System Protection, Configure, on the Max Usage slider, slide to the left until you hit 1% (or whatever percentage you are comfortable with).

But on the average 1TB HD, and with most restore points only needing roughly 300'ish megs or less, 1% gives you around 10GB's of space - plenty.

You'd only want archival access to less than 10 restore points I would think, if you are into them.

 

Isn't ticking that setting in DF going-to avoid the issue of Windows "jinking around" ?  

 

I"m navigating to System Protection the way you have set out in your post' but when I'm looking at System Protection tab there is no "Configure" button ? so no "Max Usage slider" to use ?

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Yep, ticking that box avoids the issue.

 

But you asked how to reduce the amount of space restore points take up and from your posted link, ticking the Stop VSS will not do that.

 

You need to tell Windows how much percentage of disk space to set aside.

 

If my method isn't working I take it you aren't Win10.

If XP, go to Control Panel, System, System Restore tab, and in the Disk space usage area, use the slider to reduce the amount of MB's.

Backup now & backup often.
It's your digital life - protect it with a backup.
Three things are certain; Birth, Death and loss of data. You control the last.

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Thanks mta

 

No Win10 here 

And my  XP machine was recycled and turned into a washing machine year's ago  :lol: 

 

To do the change with "Vista" I had to follow the directions in my post above... #23  :rolleyes:  

Any way I decided to let System Restore have 5GB max instead of 90GB that was allocated! 

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I guess it doesn't matter the manner in which the cat was skinned, as long as you got there in the end.  :D

Backup now & backup often.
It's your digital life - protect it with a backup.
Three things are certain; Birth, Death and loss of data. You control the last.

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If XP, go to Control Panel, System, System Restore tab, and in the Disk space usage area, use the slider to reduce the amount of MB's.

 

On WinXP defrag software doesn't cause disappearing hard disk space from my knowledge - even with System Restore turned on. I've used various free and commercial defraggers and not one of them caused any disappearing space.

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Glad that you got it fixed mate! :)

 

By the way, I was away on a trip/holiday so I haven't put much attention into my 'problem'. Basically the guy from Microsoft suggests the same thing as you did before, but with TreeSize Free instead of WizTree... Right now I'm losing hope to find the cause and fix for that magically dissapeared free space. I will not defrag with Defraggler till I somehow find the cause of it. Anyway, I'll see what the Microsoft guy has to say.

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Glad that you got it fixed mate! :)

 

By the way, I was away on a trip/holiday so I haven't put much attention into my 'problem'. Basically the guy from Microsoft suggests the same thing as you did before, but with TreeSize Free instead of WizTree... Right now I'm losing hope to find the cause and fix for that magically dissapeared free space. I will not defrag with Defraggler till I somehow find the cause of it. Anyway, I'll see what the Microsoft guy has to say.

Hey Dreamcookies  :)

I'm using "Windows Vista" so the steps I did in the post's above worked for Vista. 

For Windows 10 or any other Windows OS' I don't know  :blink: ?

AS for finding the missing GB's maybe give WizTree a go... the results may be different ? 

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Hey Dreamcookies  :)

I'm using "Windows Vista" so the steps I did in the post's above worked for Vista. 

For Windows 10 or any other Windows OS' I don't know  :blink: ?

AS for finding the missing GB's maybe give WizTree a go... the results may be different ? 

Hi! I've checked the VSS, it was 'empty' after the defragments so that couldn't be the case.

Thanks for your suggestion mate :). Unfortunately I've tried that already, couldn't find anything suspicious... 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

Ok, as a good citizen... I used Piriform to defrag C: and ended up with an 80GB loss. Having read the above, I deleted all restore points, did the vssadmin.... but no matter how correct the syntax I only get Error: Invalid option. I used WinDirStat to verify that ALL folders and files are the same exact size as before, so there seems to be no accounting for why Windows Explorer sees less disk space than WinDirStat or SpaceMonger. Maybe the space is still there, maybe not, but it seems bad advice to live with it. By the way, I use a dual boot system with a clone of the Windows 7 OS on drive C: as the alternate boot. I had also run the Piriform defrag on that drive without any change, so none of the above theories add up. I also NEVER use Restore or Windows backup because both are prone to complete failure, Windows backup especially unless you extend the hidden partition from 100MB which you are not warned about. I do images with Macrium Reflect for both boot drives when everything is updated and working fine and thus for seven years have maintained two perfectly working Windows 7 boot drives. About twice a year I get problems on the OS that are very difficult or impossible to fix (usually some kind of virus or this time the Piriform Defrag). 

Sooo.... I will now go and change the first boot disk in CMOS to the HDD USB memstick that boots the Win PE provided by Macrium, then restore the last image I made two weeks ago, then in the future refrain from using the Piriform defrag tool.   

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  • 1 year later...

Had the same issue. I'm using  1TB Samsung HDD as secondary drive which I partitioned into two equal halves in my Hp Compaq DC7900 running windows 10 Pro.  One of the partitions which I store my video files before editing had 180  GB of free space and midway through the defragging process It reduced to 162 GB and on getting to 80 % my free disk space reduced further to 92 GB. I stopped the process and had to copy the entire contents of that partition (about 284 GB)  into an external drive,  format it and transfer the video files back into the formatted  partition to recover about 92 GB lost free space.

Edited by Michael777
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The issue is that the word 'Defragmenting' is inaccurately used to mean two different things, two things which are mutually exclusive.

  1. Getting each file into one contiguous piece, rather than split across clusters. (So that they load marginally faster).
  2. Getting all the files into as small a storage space as possible. (To give more free clusters on the disc).

The first is 'Defragmenting' and means that some clusters on the disc will inevitably have some unused space.
The second is correctly termed 'Consolidation', and means fragmenting some files to 'pack them all in' to the available clusters.

So you can have all your files in one piece each, or have them packed into the smallest space by splitting some up. - You can't have both, and which you choose depends on what you want to do.

Defraggler does a combination of the two by default, but for more control you can specify which one you want instead.

In Defraggler:
'Defrag Drive' will do some of both, as it sees fit to get the best result.
'Defrag Files' will make the files contiguous (#1 above).
'Defrag Free Space' (Advanced) will consolidate the files to give the most free clusters. (#2 above).

*** Out of Beer Error ->->-> Recovering Memory ***

Worried about 'Tracking Files'? Worried about why some files come back after cleaning? See this link:
https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/52668-tracking-files/?tab=comments#comment-300043

 

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21 hours ago, Michael777 said:

Had the same issue. I'm using  1TB Samsung HDD as secondary drive which I partitioned into two equal halves in my Hp Compaq DC7900 running windows 10 Pro.  One of the partitions .................

Try the following (this assumes you have System Restore (SR) turned on):

1) Run Antibody's Wiztree and see how large the size of the folder "System Volume Information" is.

2) Run Defraggler on the other partition with the same options, as you have done in your previous post.

3) If the total amount of free space shrinks then abort the defragmentation and run Wiztree again. Did the folder "System Volume Information" grow by (about) the same amount that the free space shrank ?

4) Make a new SR Point. What is the new size of "System Volume Information" ?

4) Report back what you saw happening. This will also help others.

System setup: http://speccy.piriform.com/results/gcNzIPEjEb0B2khOOBVCHPc

 

A discussion always stimulates the braincells !!!

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