Can't Allocate Space on Hard Drive After Upgrade to Vista

[Rack_36]

I did a clean install when upgrading to vista and cannot understand why so much space is being taken up on my hard drive. I have two computers and it happened to both. I really don't want to install it again since I had to do it twice now. I've deleted the windows.old folder and have checked all the other folders that are visible to me to see what's causing it and nothing adds up. I've done a desk clean up and defragmented but still the same and I still haven't installed all my programs or folders yet which are on an external hard drive. Does anyone have an idea why and is there a way to ck exactly whats taking up space? Do updates take up a lot of space? Is it the registry that needs cleaning?... Thanks to anyone who has any advice!

 

[GhislainG]

I've deleted the windows.old folder ...

A clean install doesn't create that folder. It happens only if you install on a hard disk that already contained a copy of Windows. At Vista installation time, you need to delete the existing partition and format it again. That's what is referred to as a clean install.

 

[Rack_36]

I did hit format during installation somehow it doesn't feel like it did that. I watched it erase the space till the hard drive went back to its free number of gigs in total. Is there any way to check before going through the trouble again to reinstall?

 

[Rack_36]

On one of my computers that I upgraded theres 37.2 GB on the hard drive total and after installing vista ultimate there's 10.3 GB. There are no programs on there and I haven't put back any of my folders yet. Windows folder says it's 15 GB and between program files and documents there about 2G in total which leaves 10 GB unaccounted for...??

The other computer has 372GB total and after installing vista ultimate it now has 266GB. The windows folder is 24.5 GB and the total between the program files and documents so far has about 8GB which makes it 32.5 GB in total so whats taking up the other 74 GBs??

The messed up part is that I paid a computer repair guy to properly install vista and download the necessary drivers and it feels like he didn't do anything special that I couldn't of done myself especially if he didn't wipe off and reformat the hard drive like I wanted him to.

If I must reinstall everything myself is there any way to copy a list of drivers so I know exactly which ones to download? And with reformatting how do I know vista is doing the job?

 

[GhislainG]

If your systems are working fine, then just leave them alone. Vista Ultimate requires over 20 GB of disk storage, but who cares? 640 GB disks are inexpensive and using an old 40 GB disk doesn't make much sense because they are too slow. After installing all patches (restore points are created), you'll end up with less free disk space. The 10 GB that you don't see is in hidden files and folders.

The other computer has 372GB total and after installing vista ultimate it now has 266GB. The windows folder is 24.5 GB and the total between the program files and documents so far has about 8GB which makes it 32.5 GB in total so whats taking up the other 74 GBs??

You'll have to investigate that one, but again look for hidden files and folders.