help, my recovery disk is full!

ive tried deleting all but the most recent restore point, clearing temp files, compressing disk space but nothing i do is making a difference.

any ideas?

reply to post by lonewolf10


Have you tried defragmenting the drive?

Perhaps invest in an external hard drive and store your larger files there. I had to do this, ended up working fine.
Good luck!

defragging right now, we'll see if it works.

reply to post by lonewolf10


I remember we had a computer tech guy come over our house and he told us he wipes out his computer every 3 months or so because eventually even if you delete the history, etc it will fill up the computers memory overtime.

So if you can try to restore it to the factory settings try, but make sure you save all your work first!!!

reply to post by lonewolf10


Not sure I understand your issue, but defragging will not get you more space.

Guessing windows 7? if you have a partition under 30gb .. not sure what you meant tho.

I've never used backups or restore on my system, but I think that might be what you thinking? In that case it's making an image of your system (compressed) and well, where did you tell it to store them?

REason why I don't do that is because it is a waste of space... but I know where I tell it to store things.

If it is on your system drive, and its telling you that, you will get other errors telling you that you are running out of space.

hit start, type in recovery and see what it says. If it says anything like backup then click that and check it's options..

so hard to know what you mean from your post, but sounds to me that it's simply run out of room for system backups which are really unnecessary after the last one..

??? or someone else has good advice lol I never use windows backup.

If defragging doesn't help this program will help get rid of a lot of junk off of your drive.

Advanced SystemCare Free 5

Originally posted by CrimsonKapital
reply to post by lonewolf10

 

I remember we had a computer tech guy come over our house and he told us he wipes out his computer every 3 months or so because eventually even if you delete the history, etc it will fill up the computers memory overtime.

So if you can try to restore it to the factory settings try, but make sure you save all your work first!!!

edit on 30-6-2012 by CrimsonKapital because: (no reason given)

Oh man... really? You paid someone to fix your pc???

oO

I'm in the wrong job.. thats what, $100 an hour? to tell you that you need to see me again next month or 3 ?

beats walking door to door handing out the Community times!!!

There's a very specific point you made here, which is that it's your "recovery" drive that's full. Normally, this drive simply houses the recovery partition on name-brand computers that come with specific OEM software (modified versions of windows, drivers, and bloatware from the manufacturer).

There really shouldn't ever be any more data stored on that drive than what comes with it, but often, people store backups, ghost images of their drive, or other sensitive data there, thinking that it is safer, or a differnt hard drive, where data will not be damaged during a fatal hard disk incident. In reality it is just a fenced off portion of your main disk and is no safer than the rest of your drive.

If you've stored anything there recently, like a backup of your drive or a ghost image, delete it. Remove any data on that drive that wasnt put there by the company you bought it from.

If you do not have a set of recovery media, most machines have some sort of utility that will allow you to burn your own. If you are unable to burn your own (or if you cant remove enough data from the drive for the burn program to complete, it needs a little space of its own on that drive to complete the burn process) then most companies are nice enough to provide them to you for just the cost of shipping and handling, and they might do it for free if you get a nice enough agent. I suggest getting your hands on recovery media as soon as possible.

The only reason your compter has a recovery drive is so that it can restore your system to factory settings without these disks. Though I dont reccomend it, you can always remove the recovery partition on your own once you have disks, but this is the same as throwing away your matches because you bought a bic lighter. Always safer to have more than one way to go about things.

I know that this was not a direct answer to your question, but in many instances with full recovery drives unless you know why it's full (you know what when and where you installed something to the wrong drive), then the only solution is a full system recovery.

Originally posted by mainidh
reply to post by lonewolf10

 

Not sure I understand your issue, but defragging will not get you more space.

True, but it collates whatever free space is on the disk, so there aren't unallocated sectors all over the place. This should make it easier for Windows to calculate what's left.

reply to post by XeroOne


No defragging you computer will not get you any extra space.

Originally posted by PhoenixOD
reply to post by XeroOne

 

No defragging you computer will not get you any extra space.

I never said it would. My point is Windows would have problems calculating the free space if it's severely fragmented as tiny unallocated clusters. It doesn't matter if you have 500GB free, if Windows thinks there's only 200MB.

reply to post by lonewolf10


Im really not sure what you mean by your recovery disk is full.

- A recovery disk is a cd/dvd that you use to load up system tools in the event of a system failure.

- A recovery partition also hold these tools but is a 100-300mb hidden partition on your hard drive.

So im guessing you mean your recovery partition. You really havent given us much to go on here. How do you know your recovery partition / disk is full? what version of windows are you running?

Turn off "Recycle Bin", and "System Restore" on the "Recovery Partition" ONLY. Then empty the recycle bin, and clean out old restore points using "Disk Cleanup" under Accessories >System Tools.

Then download "Ccleaner" from filehippo.com, and run it. Restart computer.

If you have stored anything on the recovery partition, move it to a flash or external drive.

ETA: Be careful of directions you follow on the internet(that includes mine). I get calls monthly from people who crashed their computer following directions from forums and the internet. If they would have gone to a good technician to start with, it would have cost them half as much. And by good tech, I don't mean the Geek Squad or Staples. Always go with an independent who has built a good reputation for him/her self.

Are you seeing something like in this Thread? I had several good answers here. I am just waiting for my external hard drive to arrive, and then I will reset to manufacture settings.

reply to post by XeroOne


Can you point me to an official article that backs up your claims.

Originally posted by PhoenixOD
reply to post by XeroOne

 

Can you point me to an official article that backs up your claims.

Google "Windows misreporting free space". In that case though, a checkdisk should be run first, or defrag usually won't run properly. And as correctly stated, defrag will not free up disk space. Defrag just optimizes the file structure for faster access to files.

thats kind of what i'm seeing doodle, except mine says recovery D. ive told the stupid thing to delete all but the most recent restore point, but it wont do it. its gonna be HAMMER TIME if this bitch crashes on me again.

i'm using vista

Originally posted by lonewolf10
thats kind of what i'm seeing doodle, except mine says recovery D. ive told the stupid thing to delete all but the most recent restore point, but it wont do it. its gonna be HAMMER TIME if this bitch crashes on me again.

i'm using vista

If you did what I told you verbatim, and the problem persists, take it to a tech. Messing with the recovery partition can get you into trouble you don't want. Computers are what I do for a living. Sooner or later, trying to fix things you don't understand will come back to bite you in the wallet.

Originally posted by lonewolf10

i'm using vista

lol

your 1st mistake


get rid of/delete all those backups
and turn off automatic backups, that's what filled up your recovery partition; it's on by default
get an external HDD for backups make sure you back up your personal files regularly

i've clients who either through similar situations, being too lazy to bother with maintenance or too cheap to pay someone to do it for them suffered fatal disk crashes, one lost a 40GB music collection

get that advanced system care 5 it's freeware and will speed up your...

Vista [ZOMG...]

or if you can afford it buy Tune Up Utilities which will do all your maintenance automatically when the computer is not in use.


currently running Windows 8 CP on a VHD