Why is my hard drive always shrinking? Free up your vista hard drive and install windows 7

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Why is my hard drive space always shrinking? Even though I did not download anything or install any programs. Well there are few reasons why this happens. First check to make sure your system paging files are not set to “automatically manage paging file size for all drivers”. To do this go to your Start Menu:

Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> System
On the left-hand side bar under Task -> Advanced System settings
System Properties -> Advanced tab -> Performance Settings… -> advanced tab -> Change
Uncheck “Automatically manage paging file size for all drivers”
Enable custom size, here you can customize your paging file size. Virtual memory’s function is to allow the system to handle a large set of data/programs that does not fit your physical memory. It will also allocate programs from physical RAM to virtual memory when the program is in idle. To learn more, click here. Hence, traditionally virtual memory is always larger than your physical RAM. Normally you want to have the paging file set to about 1.5 times your physical memory (RAM), but here I purposely reduced it to 1500MB to free up space, so I can install windows 7 RC. Normally if you have a 2GB RAM system or above, there is no need to set paging file larger than 2GB. Sometimes if you have enough physical RAM you might not even need paging file. But it’s safe to keep the paging file there. [Note: the system will require a reboot system to take effect]

Other than the paging file sucking up your hard drive space, there are also other reasons. System log files, program log, setting file, Virus Quarantine etc those are the files that will auto expand.
To have a good understanding of where your hard drive space went you can download this freeware TreeSize.

BEFORE

AFTER
Now you can have a better understanding of where your hard drive space went, and make it easier to get rid of those unnecessary files.
Aside from this you can also try CCleaner a very useful tool to clean up your garbage on your machine.
Now that you’ve got enough space, feel free to try out the new Windows 7 RC.
Enjoy =)

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