three megabytes consumed at every re-boot !!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter wylbur37
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wylbur37

I recently discovered that every time I restart Windows XP Pro, I
notice roughly 3 megabytes (3,000,000) less space left on my harddrive
EVEN WHEN I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING (such as creating or copying in new
files).

Now, I can imagine that the system keeps audit logs of various
processes, but 3 MB seems a bit much, isn't it?
Is this normal?

You could try this experiment yourself and see what you get ...

Reboot the system, go into Command Prompt and do a "dir". Jot down the
"bytes free" figure that appears at the bottom of the listing, then
get out of Command Prompt.
Then, right away, reboot again, go to Command Prompt, do a "dir" and
jot down the "bytes free" figure. Compare this new figure with the one
gotten previously and subtract to get the difference.

Do you get 3MB? (Please tell us what you get).

What accounts for this big difference?
 
Check out your System Restore settings (and go easy on
cross-posting. Your question is not exactly a matter of
life and death).
 
wylbur37 said:
I recently discovered that every time I restart Windows XP Pro, I
notice roughly 3 megabytes (3,000,000) less space left on my harddrive
EVEN WHEN I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING (such as creating or copying in new
files).

Now, I can imagine that the system keeps audit logs of various
processes, but 3 MB seems a bit much, isn't it?
Is this normal?

You could try this experiment yourself and see what you get ...

Reboot the system, go into Command Prompt and do a "dir". Jot down the
"bytes free" figure that appears at the bottom of the listing, then
get out of Command Prompt.
Then, right away, reboot again, go to Command Prompt, do a "dir" and
jot down the "bytes free" figure. Compare this new figure with the one
gotten previously and subtract to get the difference.

Do you get 3MB? (Please tell us what you get).

What accounts for this big difference?
Click to expand...

Get a difference here, but not quite as large, nor as consistent

INITIALLY
21,010,255,872 free

AFTER REBOOT1
21,010,587,648 free
ie a drop in space used of 324 k (331776 /1024)

AFTER REBOOT2
21,010,272,256 free
ie a regain of space used 308 k (315392 / 1024)

Jon
 
Pegasus said:
Check out your System Restore settings ...
Click to expand...

Which System Restore settings should I be looking at?
... (and go easy on cross-posting.
Your question is not exactly a matter of life and death).
Click to expand...

I cross-posted to the groups that I felt the topic was of most
relevance to so that ...
(a) those who read those groups can benefit from the exchange, and
(b) I increase the chances of getting the most helpful answers.
After all, isn't that the purpose of cross-posting?
 
Generally you should limit cross posting to 3 or less newsgroups.
Any more than that and you are probably posting to less relevant newsgroups.

As an example Help and Support is not appropriate for your post.
Although often confused as a help and support newsgroup, it is actually a
newsgroup for issues pertaining to the Help and Support feature of Windows
XP.
 
wylbur37 said:
Which System Restore settings should I be looking at?


I cross-posted to the groups that I felt the topic was of most
relevance to so that ...
(a) those who read those groups can benefit from the exchange, and
(b) I increase the chances of getting the most helpful answers.
After all, isn't that the purpose of cross-posting?
Click to expand...

You should not disable any System Restore setting -
it has a useful purpose.
Click Start / Help / Search tab and type System Restore
to find out more about this facility and how to view/modify
its settings.
 
Jupiter said:
As an example Help and Support is not appropriate for your post.
Although often confused as a help and support newsgroup, it is actually a
newsgroup for issues pertaining to the Help and Support feature of Windows
XP.
Click to expand...

Assuming that what you say is literally true, how can you expect
*anyone* to know that?

If the name of the newsgroup is
"microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support" how can you really,
honestly, expect *anyone* who's not a Microsoft insider
*not* to conclude that it's a help-and-support newsgroup ???

If that newsgroup is truly meant for the "Help and Support feature"
then it should be properly renamed to indicate that.
 
wylbur37 said:
Assuming that what you say is literally true, how can you expect
*anyone* to know that?

If the name of the newsgroup is
"microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support" how can you really,
honestly, expect *anyone* who's not a Microsoft insider
*not* to conclude that it's a help-and-support newsgroup ???

If that newsgroup is truly meant for the "Help and Support feature"
then it should be properly renamed to indicate that.
Click to expand...

I think you're missing a couple of points.
- Some newsgroups are very busy (e.g. WindowsXP.general), and
there are only so and so many volunteers to spend their time
answering questions. If people post questions with minor issues
in five or more newsgroups then they make it much harder
for people with serious problems (e.g. a PC failing to start) to
get any attention. It's a question of fairness.
- Labouring a procedural point with a someone who might
know the solution to your problem appears to be poor tactics.

Lastly, respondents in these newsgroups are ***not***
Microsoft insiders. They are volunteers from the general
public.
 
Click Start / Help / Search tab and type System Restore
to find out more about this facility and how to view/modify
its settings.
Click to expand...

I did the above as you suggested, but I didn't notice anything there
that seems to answer my original question of why three megabytes are
consumed on my harddrive every time I reboot.
 
wylbur37 said:
I did the above as you suggested, but I didn't notice anything there
that seems to answer my original question of why three megabytes are
consumed on my harddrive every time I reboot.
Click to expand...

Presumably because System Restore adds data to its restore
points. If you really want to find out, run one of the tools below
over several days and keep notes of how much is stored where.

DriveUse:
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/freezip/freeware/index.html
Bullet Proof Folder sizes: http://www.foldersizes.com/
 
Pegasus said:
- Some newsgroups are very busy (e.g. WindowsXP.general), and
there are only so and so many volunteers to spend their time
answering questions. If people post questions with minor issues
in five or more newsgroups then they make it much harder
for people with serious problems (e.g. a PC failing to start) to
get any attention. It's a question of fairness.
- Labouring a procedural point with a someone who might
know the solution to your problem appears to be poor tactics.
Click to expand...

I have no disagreement with any of your principles.
I just wish to point out that someone who posts a question is not in a
position to judge whether their own issue is "minor" compared to other
people's issues. Speaking for myself, *every* issue I post about is
not minor as far as I'm concerned. (If I engaged in silly chit-chat
that has nothing to do with Windows, *that* would be "minor" or even
frivolous). If someone posts about something that *you* happen to
consider "minor", it doesn't mean that they are intentionally
insensitive or "unfair". Besides, it's entirely up to you to choose
which questions you wish to answer, so if you see any postings about
issues that you consider "minor" you're free to ignore them. After
all, with the substantial volume of questions posted on the
Windows-related groups, you surely cannot possibly answer all of them
anyway even if you wanted to, so you're already picking-and-choosing.
Lastly, respondents in these newsgroups are ***not***
Microsoft insiders. They are volunteers from the general
public.
Click to expand...

"Insider" may have been a poor choice of words on my part.
My point was that the person I was responding to (Jupiter Jones [MVP])
claimed to know that the microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support
group is not supposed to be a help and support newsgroup but instead
supposed to be for issues pertaining to the Help and Support feature
of Windows XP, and that *that* is something that no one can be
reasonably expected to know.
 
And you are correct.
Some is custom and other is experience.
But there is often no easy way for someone to find these out without time in
the newsgroups.
There is really no easy way for Microsoft to list the Help and Support
newsgroup without making the name unreasonably long.
That is why it is often seen as a help and support newsgroup.
That is also why myself and others point this out.
Not just to you, but also to anyone else that may read this thread.

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org
 
My point was that the person I was responding to (Jupiter Jones [MVP])
claimed to know that the microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support
group is not supposed to be a help and support newsgroup but instead
supposed to be for issues pertaining to the Help and Support feature
of Windows XP, and that *that* is something that no one can be
reasonably expected to know.
Click to expand...

The first time I looked at the list of "windowsxp.*" newsgroups, it was
obvious to me that the "windowsxp.help_and_support" group was targetted at
the help system only--I've never even been in that group, either as a
participant or lurker.

What would be the purpose of every other microsoft.public.windowsxp.*
newsgroup, if not for help and support, broken down into subcategories?
 
Check your pagefile. It is located in the root of c:\. It is a hidden file
so you won't be able to see it unless you enable hidden files/folders. Your
pagefile is kind of like an extra piece of memory that can be used by your
system. This may account for the fluctuating free disk space.

Mike
 
I recommend you read the thread "System Restore Stores Too Much",
posted four hours before your own post.
 
Pegasus said:
I recommend you read the thread "System Restore Stores Too Much",
posted four hours before your own post.
Click to expand...

In that thread, the original poster was using Norton Internet Security
along with System Restore. Apparently, some bug or misbehavior from
the Norton software caused a consumption of 0.8 GB of HD space on
every reboot. However, I've never had any Norton products on my
computer, so that wouldn't apply to my situation.
I will in the meantime look further into some of the other ideas you
mentioned. Thanks very much for your advice.
 
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