Drive space mysteriously decreasing

Ozei · 6 Mar 2016

I use Macrium Reflect to make backup images of C: drive.

I just noticed that each image is considerably larger than the one before it - the latest one is approx. 40GB, the one before it was 36GB, and the one before that was 34GB.

I haven't saved (or installed) anything to C: drive that could explain such large jumps in size - something invisible must be gobbling up space.

Can anyone suggest where I should look in Windows 7 to find the culprit?

TIA

Mikesphotaes · 6 Mar 2016

Probably Windows Restore if you have automatic updates set.

I use ccleaner to keep Restore dates manageable.

Sharky · 6 Mar 2016

Use treesize free to check folder sizes plus use "disk clean up" prior to creating an image.

PaulF · 6 Mar 2016

Check C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download, it's where windows stores install files for Windows updates, safe to delete anything in that Download folder.

afasoas · 6 Mar 2016

PaulF said:
Check C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download, it's where windows stores install files for Windows updates, safe to delete anything in that Download folder.

You will need to stop the Windows Update Services first and restart them afterwards.
Possibly safer to try it first, renaming the Download folder rather than removing it so that you can always revert the change if you experience any problems. It's just possible you could remove it at a bad time.

A utility like WinDirStat might help confirm this is your problem.

ianp5a · 6 Mar 2016

It could be you have another backup running. Such as Windows backup.

neil_g · 6 Mar 2016

PaulF said:
Check C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download, it's where windows stores install files for Windows updates, safe to delete anything in that Download folder.

Although unapplied stuff will just download itself again.

owenb · 6 Mar 2016

Temp files or memory swap file is my guess........

clicker123 · 6 Mar 2016

could be Windows10 upgrade auto-downloading somewhere? I agree with afasoas - WinDirStat will point you in the right direction... https://windirstat.info/

Ozei · 6 Mar 2016

Mikesphotaes said:
Probably Windows Restore if you have automatic updates set.

I use ccleaner to keep Restore dates manageable.

Windows is set to check for updates and let me choose whether to install them - I think the only one that it doesn't ask about is MSE.

I use CCleaner too (v4.12) and the Tools/System Restore window is empty - so it looks like there are no restore points.

Ozei · 6 Mar 2016

Sharky said:
Use treesize free to check folder sizes plus use "disk clean up" prior to creating an image.

I ran Treesize on two of the Macrium image files, one 40GB and one 36GB (creation dates are three days apart) - it found nothing to explain the 4GB difference.

Ozei · 6 Mar 2016

PaulF said:
Check C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download, it's where windows stores install files for Windows updates, safe to delete anything in that Download folder.

The whole folder is only 411Mb, so it can't be that. I've deleted the contents anyway.

Ozei · 6 Mar 2016

ianp5a said:
It could be you have another backup running. Such as Windows backup.

Windows Backup is turned off (Control Panel says "Windows Backup has not been set up") . Apart from Macrium, no other backup software is installed.

Ozei · 6 Mar 2016

owenb said:
Temp files or memory swap file is my guess........

Do you know all the locations for those?

Ozei · 6 Mar 2016

afasoas said:
You will need to stop the Windows Update Services first and restart them afterwards.
Possibly safer to try it first, renaming the Download folder rather than removing it so that you can always revert the change if you experience any problems. It's just possible you could remove it at a bad time.

A utility like WinDirStat might help confirm this is your problem.

I've emptied Download - I can always go back to the last Macrium image if it's a problem.

clicker123 said:
could be Windows10 upgrade auto-downloading somewhere? I agree with afasoas - WinDirStat will point you in the right direction... https://windirstat.info/

I'll give WinDirStat a go.

Thanks all - will report back later

neil_g · 6 Mar 2016

Ozei said:
Do you know all the locations for those?

Wouldn't go touching the page/swap file. Best left system managed. Shouldn't normally increase though.

Mikesphotaes · 7 Mar 2016

Ozei said:
Windows is set to check for updates and let me choose whether to install them - I think the only one that it doesn't ask about is MSE.

I use CCleaner too (v4.12) and the Tools/System Restore window is empty - so it looks like there are no restore points.

V5.15 is the latest version and there should always be at least one restore point (it does take a wee while to find them all sometimes).

If you use ccleaner it will have cleaned out all the temp files that are safe to remove.

Sharky · 7 Mar 2016

Ozei said:
I ran Treesize on two of the Macrium image files, one 40GB and one 36GB (creation dates are three days apart) - it found nothing to explain the 4GB difference.

I presume you mounted both images as drives so you were scanning the folder tree inside the .mrimg files?

Carlh · 7 Mar 2016

There are backup options that keep "all versions" of changes - maybe thats on?

owenb · 7 Mar 2016

Ozei said:
Do you know all the locations for those?

check to see which drive photoshop etc is using for temp files.... also the users app data folder can be a massive hiding area for some programs.................

Ozei · 7 Mar 2016

Ozei said:
I've emptied Download - I can always go back to the last Macrium image if it's a problem.

I'll give WinDirStat a go.

Thanks all - will report back later

Mikesphotaes said:
V5.15 is the latest version and there should always be at least one restore point (it does take a wee while to find them all sometimes).

If you use ccleaner it will have cleaned out all the temp files that are safe to remove.

I'm using the free version - no restore points showing.

Ozei · 7 Mar 2016

Sharky said:
I presume you mounted both images as drives so you were scanning the folder tree inside the .mrimg files?

Yes I mounted two images and went thro them side-by-side.

Ozei · 7 Mar 2016

Carlh said:
There are backup options that keep "all versions" of changes - maybe thats on?

Where's the on/off switch for it?

Ozei · 7 Mar 2016

owenb said:
check to see which drive photoshop etc is using for temp files.... also the users app data folder can be a massive hiding area for some programs.................

Photoshop scratch & temp is on another drive.

Carlh · 7 Mar 2016

Ozei said:
Where's the on/off switch for it?

I havent used automated backup on a PC for a long time (I dont trust computers, I like to back it up myself by hand), but it should be the type of backup you have set up, "incremental","differential" that sort of thing.

Sharky · 7 Mar 2016

Ozei said:
Yes I mounted two images and went thro them side-by-side.

Might be clutching at straws but did you run Treesize as an admin, i think it's an option from within TS itself. It'll be able to get to folders otherwise protected / hidden by the OS.

Maybe compare your currently live system to the oldest image.

Flummoxed if it's not that as there should be a visible difference in size unless the compression of the image files upon creation is different? e.g. normal vs best

neil_g · 7 Mar 2016

if you mount the images can you use something graphical like spacemounger on them, 4gb should give you a visibly larger block in the readout?

Giblets · 7 Mar 2016

Ozei said:
I'm using the free version - no restore points showing.

The free version will show the restore points. Open CCleaner Free, click on Tools; click on System Restore & "voila", there they be!

Ozei · 7 Mar 2016

Here's WinDirStat showing appdata - 10.5GB in total. Could this be the culprit?
Can I empty the appdata folder?

Ozei · 7 Mar 2016

Giblets said:
The free version will show the restore points. Open CCleaner Free, click on Tools; click on System Restore & "voila", there they be!

It's empty

Ozei · 7 Mar 2016

neil_g said:
if you mount the images can you use something graphical like spacemounger on them, 4gb should give you a visibly larger block in the readout?

WinDirStat shown in above post

Giblets · 7 Mar 2016

Ozei said:
It's empty

Ahh, when was the last time you created a restore point?

Ozei · 7 Mar 2016

Giblets said:
Ahh, when was the last time you created a restore point?

I don't create restore points. I use Macrium images and none of them are on C: drive.

Ozei · 7 Mar 2016

Carlh said:
I havent used automated backup on a PC for a long time (I dont trust computers, I like to back it up myself by hand), but it should be the type of backup you have set up, "incremental","differential" that sort of thing.

I don't trust Windows to do anything backup-wise. I always use Macrium, it's far more reliable.

Macrium images are all full backups, I don't use incremental or differential. The Macrium images of C:drive are stored on a second internal drive (D: drive) and duplicates are sent to a third external drive (J: drive) using FreeFileSync. So all in all, the machine has a double-backup system.

NB. C: drive is a 480GB SSD. It only has Windows & program files - no documents, Macrium images or picture files are on it, so there's no reason for the used space to increase in leaps of several GB. In fact it shouldn't increase much at all (unless of course I deliberately install something that's hefty).

Ozei · 7 Mar 2016

duplicate post!

Box Brownie · 7 Mar 2016

Are you a Lightroom user? That when closing asks if you want to backup and the default location is on the C drive unless manually relocated in the preferences.

The other thing that is manual is deleting older backups!

Ozei · 7 Mar 2016

Box Brownie said:
Are you a Lightroom user? That when closing asks if you want to backup and the default location is on the C drive unless manually relocated in the preferences.

The other thing that is manual is deleting older backups!

Lightroom is installed but I never use it (prefer NX2 and Photoshop).

clicker123 · 7 Mar 2016

Ozei said:
Here's WinDirStat showing appdata - 10.5GB in total. Could this be the culprit?
Can I empty the appdata folder?

10.5Gb is the folder, then broken down across the sub-folders. Defo looks like an app is caching some data in the nikon subfolders....

Ozei · 8 Mar 2016

clicker123 said:
10.5Gb is the folder, then broken down across the sub-folders. Defo looks like an app is caching some data in the nikon subfolders....

There are 7.3GB of files in the Nikon cache folder but some of them are older than the Macrium images in question, so I don't think Capture NX2 is the sole cause. I've emptied its folder anyway.

Ozei · 8 Mar 2016

Ozei said:
..... I've emptied its folder anyway.

I just ran Macrium again (after emptying the NX2 cache folder) and the image file is 34GB.

The previous image file (taken before emptying the NX2 cache folder) was 41GB - so I've regained 7GB, even though I don't think the NX2 cache is the sole/real culprit.