Hard drive swell from 94gb to 133 gb after running Defraggler

[frenj]

Hi. I hope someone has the answer to this. My hard drive was 94gb used out of a 250 drive, and 7% fragmented. I ran Defraggler before backing it up. It ended up with 133gb used. What could cause this? Thanks for any help.

 

PS. Everything works fine. Just want to know what made the used space swell like that.

Windows 7- 64 bit

[DennisD]

Hi frenj, and welcome to the forum.

 

I know Vista creates restore points whilst defragging, but I'm not sure about Win7. I would check to see if you have any extra System Restore Points.

 

If that's the case, you can clean them up by following these instructions. Scroll down to:

 

Deleting all but the most recent System Protection point:

 

You could also download WinDirStat (Freeware) which will show you where and what is taking up space on your hard drive.

 

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/windirstats.html

 

Hope that helps.

[DieRunning]

DennisD, I've been having this same problem with 32-bit Vista for a while and your suggestion fixed it. Thanks!

[DennisD]

Hi DieRunning, and welcome to Piriform.

 

It's very kind of you to register and post that information, and I'm pleased it worked for you.

[Yrref]

Hi I'm also new and got the same problem... Before defragler 180gb free space and after defraggler 55gb free space.

 

I've checked the tips from you, DennisD, and unfortunately they did not help me.

 

By the way I'm running in Win7.

 

Other suggestions are welcome.

 

Thanks

[DennisD]

Hi Yrref, and welcome to the forum.

 

I don't have Win 7, but I think your disappearing space may be due to "Shadow Copies".

 

Win7, in the same way as Vista, is probably creating "Shadow Copies" of files which are moved or modified during the defrag process.

 

Some information here ...

 

http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/43826-shadow-copies.html

 

... and maybe Win7 users on here will contribute any first hand experience they have with this feature.

 

Hope that helps.

[jolo]

Hi frenj, and welcome to the forum.

 

I know Vista creates restore points whilst defragging, but I'm not sure about Win7. I would check to see if you have any extra System Restore Points.

 

If that's the case, you can clean them up by following these instructions. Scroll down to:

 

Deleting all but the most recent System Protection point:

 

You could also download WinDirStat (Freeware) which will show you where and what is taking up space on your hard drive.

 

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/windirstats.html

 

Hope that helps.

 

 

Dennis

 

What a great post. That link to remove all but the restore points, except for the last one, WAS GREAT.

Got rid of about 50gb of space on my laptop drive, which is quite a bit.

 

Thanks,

Jon

[Yrref]

Sorry DennisD,

 

Forgot to mention here that in the night during my sleeping I had a lightbulb above my head and it gave me an idea...

 

Windows makes a "swap"file and I have reduced that first to zero... And than back to the original setting and now I got 400gb of space back...

 

Thanks for thinking with me...

 

Grtz,

Ferry

[DennisD]

Dennis

 

What a great post. That link to remove all but the restore points, except for the last one, WAS GREAT.

Got rid of about 50gb of space on my laptop drive, which is quite a bit.

 

Thanks,

Jon

 

Hi Jon, I'm pleased it worked for you. That is a lot of space.

 

 

Sorry DennisD,

 

Forgot to mention here that in the night during my sleeping I had a lightbulb above my head and it gave me an idea...

 

Windows makes a "swap"file and I have reduced that first to zero... And than back to the original setting and now I got 400gb of space back...

 

Thanks for thinking with me...

 

Grtz,

Ferry

 

You're welcome Ferry.

 

How big is/was your page file?

 

If you have 512mb of memory or less, it's usual to set it's size at about one and a half times the size of the memory. If you have more than that, a 1 to 1 ratio would probably suffice. My memory is 2gb, and my page file is just over that.

[junbug]

.

[Alan_B]

I believe System Restore is NOT active in SAFE MODE on XP

Perhaps defragging in safe mode would avoid problems with System protection.

 

Could be even better to defrag in Boot mode if that option exists

(I do not use Defraggler myself).

 

Alan

[hazelnut]

Alan system restore can be used in safe mode..see here for xp

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449

 

and vista and Windows 7

 

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/using-windows-vista-system-restore/

[Alan_B]

Alan system restore can be used in safe mode..see here for xp

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449

 

and vista and Windows 7

 

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/using-windows-vista-system-restore/

Hazel

I believe you are referring to the ability to restore the system state to a previously RECORDED condition,

which I accept.

 

I was referring to the CREATION of the records in Restore points at the time when conditions changed.

 

When Windows is running normally the O.S. gives a lot of aggravation and extra bloat when I delete a file or even select its properties to see what version is stated.

The bloat is a copy of the file added to the current Restore Point, and possibly another copy added to dllcache if Windows File Protection or some-such decides against me.

 

I vaguely remember through the mists of time that 3 or 4 years ago I used Safe Mode for any "heavy lifting" of moving or deleting stuff that XP thought I would need again.

I cannot remember whether Safe Mode defeated the preservation of System Restore and/or dllcache,

but I now have it firmly in my mind that Safe Mode allowed me to eradicate large folders without any reincarnation.

 

I assume that if Defraggler does stuff that causes System Restore to duplicate everything in Restore Points,

then I thought that using Defraggler in Safe Mode would evade the "evil gaze" of System Restore and the Restore Points would survive the onslaught.

 

Please advise if my recollections and assumptions are correct or otherwise.

 

Also please advise if Restore Point bloat is definitely avoid when any defragger operates in "Boot Mode",

or do different defraggers have different forms and degrees of "boot mode".

 

Regards

Alan

[Lindy]

I've had something similar happen, before running Defraggler I had 109 GB free w/ 24% defragmentation, now after it ran I have 179.5 GB free. I'm also on Windows 7.

[Alan_B]

I've had something similar happen, before running Defraggler I had 109 GB free w/ 24% defragmentation, now after it ran I have 179.5 GB free. I'm also on Windows 7.

Not similar but the opposite.

 

You have gained 60.5 GB of free space,

 

Frenj has lost 39 GB of Free Space.

 

Alan