Mystery- Large Amounts of Hard Disk Spaces have Disapeared!

[drvajra]

I have been using RBRX recently. During this period, my Hard

drives have steadily filled up, and a large amount of space

has simply disappeared.

For example:

The original capacity of drive C: was 234 Gigs. Now it has

only 17 Gigs free space. Which means 217 Gigs is being

supposedly used!

D: original capacity 97.7 Gigs, now has free space only 9.32

Gigs, which means 88.38 Gigs is supposedly being used!

E: Original Capacity 133 gigs, now it has only 10.9 Gigs free,

which means 122 gigs is supposedly being used.

To find what is taking up all the spaces, I used JDisk Report,

Win Dir Stat, and Tree Size Free programs, and all of them are

indicating about the same results, as below:

These programs indicate the total space of drive C: to be 84

Gigs (Vs original capacity 234 Gigs.) Thus, a large amount of

space (150 Gigs) is missing and I cannot find what is taking

that much of space.

Similarly these programs show the capacity of D to be 34.5

gigs, vs original capacity of 97.7 Gigs, and the capacity of E

to be 58.8 Gigs vs 133Gigs original.

Just for clarification, according to these programs, for

example the C drive's 84 Gigs include Program Files (44.8),

Windows (18.0), Page file 3.5 Gigs, Hibernation 3.2 Gigs,

Program Data (3.1 gigs), Users (10.3 gigs) etc.

To me, it is a mystery, as to what is taking up C drive's

capacity (234-84) of 150 gigs, D drive's space (97.7-34.5) of

63.2, and E drive's space (133-58.8) of 74.2 gigs (large

amounts of unaccounted loss of space!).

The snapshot history in the RBRX shows as follows:

Installation : 333 MB
Scheduled snapshot : 36,116 MB (Date Dec 18)
Scheduled snapshot : 1,225 MB (Dec. 19)
Scheduled snapshot : 14,699 MB (Dec 24)
Scheduled snapshot : 2,420 MB (Dec 25)

This adds up to : 54.46 Gigs. Such a large amount being taken

away just by one program is rather too much. (I daily delete

old snapshots and defrag the remaining snapshots).

I have no idea where all the other missing Gigs have gone!

I have also done virus / spyware checks using AVG, Prevx,

Spybot,IObit, and the computer is not infected.

I am wondering if I should uninstall RBRX. If your advice is

to uninstall,
(1) Is there a safe way to uninstall, so that I do not end up

having my C: drive affected (crash, blue screen etc.)

(2) I do have Paragon Drive Copy™ 10 Personal SE, which I have

never used. Should I use this program to clone C: drive before

I uninstall RBRX?

(3) Will uninstalling RBRX release the Gigs which are being

used by the snapshots?

(4) Since RBX's sub-system resides in the MBR of the hard

disk, how can this part be cleaned of any remnants?

As my hard drive space is filling up, I may soon be in a

difficult situation if something is not done quickly.

I will greatly appreciate your advice.

Thank you!
drvajra

[HDS-Jacob]

Hello drvajra,

Welcome to the Horizon DataSys forum.

Regarding Paragon, although not the same exact version as yours, there might possibly be a conflict referring to this thread: Does RBRx conflict with Paragon System Backup?

Feel free to contact support at the Horizon DataSys Facebook page under the support tab Horizon DataSys | Facebook or at http://support.horizondatasys.com and let's see if we can get you some suggestions here.

Best,
Jacob

[Owl]

The number one question is: do you have a disc defragger running?

The action of RBRx is to make increasing amounts of the hard disc unavailable to normal programs - that is how it creates and preserves the snapshots. RBRx works at a lower level than the operating system, and it only saves changes, but a defragging operation is seen as a huge change to the disc contents and therefore creates a huge snapshot.

Deleting intermediate snapshots will not release the space either, because the snapshots are incremental so have to be rolled into a later one. Deleting snapshots is more of an administrative operation than a space-clearing one.

On the assumption that it is RBRx snapshots consuming the space, what you need to do is

1. Decide on a system state that you are happy with - could be the current state, could be the original baseline, or maybe a snapshot in between - and roll back to it.

2. Turn off the defragger.

3. Re-baseline the system in RBRx.

In general RBRx is fundamentally incompatible with system tuning utilities that fiddle continuously in the background. Look through the threads on this forum and you will find several other similar stories.

[carfal]

You should also read the following posts

How does RollBack Rx use disk space? Does Rollback 9.0 use dependents?

Rollback and disk wiping

Cleaning free space on your PC

In short

1. turn off Windows scheduled defragger. In fact, never run any external defragger.

2. Never run disk wiping utilities.

3. If you create large files regularly eg, video editing, DVD burning etc, you may want to leave one partition unprotected and use this for large file editing. Reason being is that if you take a snapshot with these files existing then delete them the space will not be release so long as these files exist in another snapshot. (See first link above for more details explanation)

EDIT: Make sure Windows System Restore is turned off.

[drvajra]

Hi Jacob,Ow,Carfal

Thank you so much for your responses.

I realized that I had the scheduled defragger running - now I have turned it off.
I did not use any disk wipe programs.
I have never used the Paragon Drive Copy™ 10 Personal SE, even though I have it.
OWL: You mentioned "Re-baseline the system in RBRx." How do I do it?

CARFAL: You wrote " If you create large files regularly eg, video editing, DVD burning etc, you may want to leave one partition unprotected and use this for large file editing."

I do edit videos (large files). I use D: for video editing.

How do I leave D: unprotected?

Will appreciate your help.

[Owl]

When you install RBRx in the first place you get the option to choose which partitions (on the first hard drive only) you wish to bring into RBRx protection. For my money I only use it to protect my OS; I keep my data on D:.

My reasoning is that, if I RBRx my data (whether that be on D: or whether because My Documents is on C: by default), doing a rollback to clear some problem in the OS would also roll back my user files and I would have to go and fetch them from the snapshot.

Also, RBRx cannot be said to be a backup program (in answer to somebody else's question) because although it facilitates recovery from a software error it cannot cover a hardware error (disc sector error or complete drive failure).

Re-baselining involves opening the RBRx command console (in Windows) and clicking the option on the menus. It means you choose a snapshot to run and clear all the other snapshots. However, if you want to unprotect D:, you need to uninstall and start again.

[drvajra]

Thank you so much OWL.

I think it would be better to only protect the C:drive, as you have advised.
So, I would like to uninstall the prog and reinstall.

I am afraid if I don't do the uninstall properly, I may get a dreaded blue screen.

So, can you pls advise me what is the proper way to uninstall?

Thank you kindly,
Vajra

[Owl]

I've never done it myself (yet!), but there are many regulars on here who do so before disc tune-up and then reinstall, so I don't think you need to be too nervous. I would always suggest having a recent backup on standby though - that's your best protection against BSOD - even if only your data is backed up (OS and programs can always be reinstalled, with the opportunity to update at the same time).

If you do a standard file-by-file backup from within a running snapshot, you will be backing up that particular environment and therefore one you would presumably be happy to restore to. Backing up everything (including RBRx snapshot history) requires a full sector-by-sector (AKA "forensic") disc image, including the Master Boot Record. And, of course, the means to copy it back.

Sorry if I seem to be labouring the point, so many questions along the same lines come up on the forum I'm trying to get the message over to anybody else who might read this.

[carfal]

Owl has given good advice and his reasons for unprotecting Drive D: are similar to mine. However because you want to unprotect your D: drive the re-baselining he talks about will be a waste of time because in order to unprotect drive D: you need to uninstall and reinstall Rollback using the "Custom" option instead of the "Default" option.

Originally Posted by drvajra

CARFAL: You wrote " If you create large files regularly eg, video editing, DVD burning etc, you may want to leave one partition unprotected and use this for large file editing."

I do edit videos (large files). I use D: for video editing.

How do I leave D: unprotected?

Will appreciate your help.

First you have to uninstall Rollback. I go to Start>All Programs>Rollback Rx>uninstall

When you see the following window,



make sure you select "Current System" so that all the current data you have access to now will become the FINAL STATE of your system once Rollback is uninstalled. The is no going back so choose your snapshot wisely.

Now that Rollback is uninstalled take the time to do a system clean up by way of defragging.

When thats done, reinstall Rollback. When you see this window



choose the "custom" option as shown.

During the subsequent windows you'll see where you can select which drives (partitions) to protect or unprotect.

Now your set to go.

[drvajra]

Many thanks to both of you. I am getting ready to (nervously), to uninstall, cleanup, and reinstall.

I will follow the methods suggested by you.

Just by chance, as the computer was starting up, I pressed the Home key and there, I saw 'UNINSTALL' option. Will this option be preferable to windows uninstall option?

OWL, you wrote "Backing up everything (including RBRx snapshot history) requires a full sector-by-sector (AKA "forensic") disc image, including the Master Boot Record. And, of course, the means to copy it back."

I am a school teacher and not a 'geek'!! Could you pls tell me how to do the sector backup?

When you say "And, of course, the means to copy it back", could you pls tell me what you mean?

Thank you so much folks and a Very Happy New Year to you all!

Vajra