Computer talk – Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 hard drive space

[Bees Knees]

Since we are talking computers, here is something I just learned.

Windows Vista has been criticized for being a memory hog, eating up more space on the hard drive than Windows XP. Someone told me that Windows 7 solves this problem.

Wrong.

Although Windows 7 takes less space than Vista for the Windows System files, it still takes more space than XP, AND it can still be a memory hog.

Here is the real problem.

Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 all use a portion of the hard drive to allow users to go back in time to an earlier day, and un-do any damage done. Apparently the default amount of hard drive dedicated to this task is much less for Windows XP than it is for Windows Vista and Windows 7. The default for Vista is 15% of your hard drive capability.

Thus, for example, say you have a 500 gigabyte hard drive. 15% of that hard drive equals 75 gigabytes. That means Windows Vista will eventually eat up 75 gigabytes of hard drive space in duplicate files saved, in case you ever want to go back in time and start over on a previous date. Once the 75 gigs is maxed out, older versions of duplicate files are deleted to make room for the most recent versions. I can tell you no operating system requires 75 gigabytes of space to store system settings. Thus, Vista and 7 are allowing duplicated data files, which should be backed up on a separate hard drive, to eat away at your hard drive's storage space.

To solve this problem, click on the "start" menu on your taskbar, left click on "computer," then right click on "properties." There should be an option to right click on "System protection."

Under System protection, you have the option to change the configuration settings so that you are not using 15% of your hard drive to store old system configuration files. I dropped mine down to 5%, meaning I am only allowing 25 gigabytes of my hard drive to store duplicate files. That is more than enough to allow me to go back a few days and restore my system to an earlier day, in case something goes wrong.

[veritas]

My Least favorite company.. Microsoft

Well maybe United Airlines is my least favorite.


I have bought my last personal device with Microsoft anything.

MY goal is to eliminate it eventually in my office.

[oceanlovin'ea]

Veritas

How can you do that? Just curious.

Linda

[ChEAr$]

How can you do that? Just curious.

Linda

Retire! grin

[veritas]

I don't know

How can you do that? Just curious.

Linda

exactly. I just read Multnomah county here just gave Microsoft Exchange the boot.

"Marissa Madrigal, county Chair Jeff Cogen’s chief of staff, says the county will save about $100,000 a year in licensing fees—plus an estimated $500,000 in wasted time dealing with what she describes as Outlook’s shortcomings.

“I cannot wait,” Madrigal says. “I cannot say that enough.”"

~Willamette Week

[veritas]

Yes!

Retire! grin

.........

[oceanlovin'ea]

We could go back to good ole hand posting. Keep a journal, etc. Do tax returns by hand. Tell people to electronically file their own return that we have prepared.

Hmmmmm. Retire sounds better.

Linda

[ChEAr$]

We could go back to good ole hand posting. Keep a journal, etc. Do tax returns by hand. Tell people to electronically file their own return that we have prepared.

Hmmmmm. Retire sounds better.

Linda

Well good grief, Charlie BRown. I didn't think anybody would take me seriously. After all, what WOULD our valued clients do?

[dyne]

Thank You Bees Knees. You taught me something new. This appears to be similar to
GoBack, which I have on my second computer. GoBack saved me several
times! Since I have a large hard drive on my new computer and so far I have only used
about 40 gb of my available 320 gb, I enlarged this area to 20%. Best wishes.

[Bees Knees]

Since I have a large hard drive on my new computer and so far I have only used about 40 gb of my available 320 gb, I enlarged this area to 20%. Best wishes.

My problem is I use one of my computers for other things. I am a musician, and have recently gotten into video editing. If it were just accounting and tax returns, my 500 gigabyte hard drive would last me a thousand years. When I edit a movie or do a recording project, I can burn through that hard drive in just 3 or 4 projects. I also have to buy external 1 Terabyte drives just to store everything. So you can see why I get upset with Vista and Windows 7 when their default settings waste so much hard drive space.

My complaint is that Windows XP worked just fine for years. We all got use to it and bought programs that worked on it. Why did they have to fix something that wasn’t broken? That all changed with Vista and Windows 7.

BTW, Windows 7 was supposed to solve that issue too. It didn’t. When I bought a new computer last year and was forced to go from XP to Vista, many of my programs would not run on Vista, so I had to buy upgraded versions. Then I decided to upgrade to Windows 7 because of all the hype about it solving all kinds of issues. Well, one of the programs that I upgraded to work on Vista will not work on Windows 7. I had to download the Windows 7 XP mode module to get the program to work. The XP module is fine, except that it emulates XP while you are running Windows 7. Thus, you have two operating systems running simultaneously. That may not be a big deal for some programs, but for my video editing and recording studio software that takes huge amounts of memory and system resources, the program does not run as fast as it did when it was loaded on an XP machine.

Everyone keeps telling me to switch to Apple for my recording and video projects. If I can’t get Windows 7 to work, my next computer may be an Apple.

[Brian EA]

System Protection

To solve this problem, click on the "start" menu on your taskbar, left click on "computer," then right click on "properties." There should be an option to right click on "System protection."
Maybe my computer is too old. There is no "system protection option".
This computer was purchased in 2006

[Bees Knees]

Maybe my computer is too old. There is no "system protection option". This computer was purchased in 2006

On an XP system, the option says "System Restore"

[BHoffman]

It's official.....

Bees are smarter than computers:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/24/bees-route-finding-problems

[FEDUKE404]

Not quite like GoBack ?

Thank You Bees Knees. You taught me something new. This appears to be similar to GoBack, which I have on my second computer. GoBack saved me several times! Since I have a large hard drive on my new computer and so far I have only used about 40 gb of my available 320 gb, I enlarged this area to 20%. Best wishes.

I had (have) GoBack on an older Gateway computer. I agree it was a nice option that saved my tail more than once.

The nice thing about GB was that it literally put everything back to where it was, including data files. You could pick a "time" to restore the entire hard drive, or you could retrieve earlier versions of a specific file only. It was also useful for when you accidentally deleted a file. How far back you could go was limited by the amount (size?) of your recent changes as well as how much of your hard drive had been "reserved" for GoBack use.

The restore option is not the same, as it only works with the "bigger picture" (operating system/major files/registry?) and not everything on the hard drive. It is good for recovering from a bad software install, or just bad luck, but is limited to certain established restore points.

OTOH, if what B Knees is talking about does mimic GoBack, perhaps I need to do some more studying on the topic!!

FE

[geekgirldany]

My problem is I use one of my computers for other things. I am a musician, and have recently gotten into video editing.

Everyone keeps telling me to switch to Apple for my recording and video projects. If I can’t get Windows 7 to work, my next computer may be an Apple.

So I have been told also. I purchased a DJ Mixer and was told it would work better on a Apple Macbook... I believe that is their name. Those Apples though are so much more expensive than a regular old windows computer. So I got a Windows 7 laptop and although the dj program works it has had problems. I also do alot of graphics work on some personal website projects. Maybe one day I will save up and get an Apple.