Q: I've used a Toshiba Satellite pc just under a year and the hard drive status is 159 free of 231 GB. Now I can only account for 38 GB of used space. Where did all the rest go? There's software on the net that's supposed to recover deleted stuff, that means the stuff I deleted didn't really vanish. That's my guess, so how do I make it vanish? Am using an NTFS windows vista drive, 250 GB capacity. I've read a lot of answers on the same problem. Everybody is talking about viruses and checking to make sure I have useless files and stuff like that. NO. I know my way around the PC. My hard disk space is disappearing, about 1 GB a week or so it has nothing to do with viruses or programs (I take good care of my pc). Like I said, I checked and only 38 GB is accounted for. Is this normal? Please help me. Thanks! NB ( I can't make online purchases so I'd like free solutions that work)
A: I am going to take a guess that the system restore files are the main culprit. You can free them up periodically if you choose to do so. First make sure that your computer is running normally, then right click on "My Computer", properties, then click on system protection. Uncheck your boot drive, click apply (it may take a few minutes to delete the system restore files), and then check the boot drive again and apply again. Should clear up several gb of space, and then create a restore point immediately. You can also change how much space system restore uses by percentage of hard drive space, in which case it will overwrite the older files as needed.