Yes..... GOBLINS !]
30 gigs, gobbled up to where?????????????????????
So you go onto Google and research the problem, only to discover that several people are complaining about this problem, and you find nothing but dummy replies, suggesting things like emptying the trash bin, cleaning up your temp files, etc.
So even the computer geeks have no solution to this problem?
What happens with time, as you do start to load your hard drive with pix, video, audio, documents, etc?
Are puters, after all, not designed to store all our data?
Do we not buy puters with giant size hard drives for that very purpose, knowing full well that when a hard drive gets below 50% free space, the whole puter slows down?
We know we never had this problem with XP, at least not in these proportions.
An unaccountable few gigs is one thing when you have a big hard drive, but when it gets into double digit gigs, it's time to address the problem.
So........
Has anyone with Vista noticed this?
Has anyone done as explained above, only to discover a huge disparity between the space that you are really using on your hard drive vs what your puter is saying you are using?
Does anyone want the solution?
If so, I will post it here, with accompanying pix and the detailed procedures.
You can continue to use the HD clean up utility but...
Windows uses certain amount of your HDD as dynamic memory and to load certain data that is continuously updated more than normal. Just as you'll notice later the "goblin" will return yet again, and again, and...
For example, when you start your pc, windows tracks the programs you access the most and keeps making copies of the files you request and make changes too; even when the files are not actually saved after some of the changes take place, i.e.: When you use your WordPad, notepad, Office Word to jot down some info but later just ignore the save as or save on close options. Windows will still have multiple copies of those files in the area of the HDD that it designates as "extended dynamic memory".
The size of this temporary chunk of your HDD is always changing, even when your pc is idle. Windows will also be always looking into your files to see if any changes have been made to any without your knowledge, in the case of third party software that owns direct access to the registry, and keep making copies of these as well.
The problem with windows is that it never performs the actual dump of the temporary files as usual as it's ok to do, mostly because most people don't create restorer points or have set up automatic restoring parameters using the windows task manager as it was intended; therefore, windows will keep this goblin in the selected part of your HDD until a least 2 restore points are created.
You can see some of the data in those files by using the windows explorer and going to the computer/c: drive/ documents and settings/user (xxx-your username here)/Local settings (always that you enabled the show all files option)/Temp= Goblin #1...
Also you can adjust the maximum amount that windows can allocate for all the OS background works for this kind of stuff by using the My computer/Properties/Advanced tab/Performance/settings/Advanced tab/virtual memory = And adjust there as well (but I must say that windows is finicky when you lower that level too much in some cases where the PC is too light on actual loaded system memory)
Windows will also use the Restore option of your system to gobble up system resources and keeps trashing about your HDD even when you're not working at all in your PC.
In short: Windows is still a work in progress for Microsoft and sadly it's still a build up of the first generation DOS OS... Even if you use a solid state driver, windows will load with the same usual time delay it shows even in top rated hardware setups.
Instead of Microsoft keeping to build atop an old OS that served more than well its purpose back in the days of the Amiga and Tandy, it should focus on creating a new OS from scratch, just like Linus Torvalds did...
The problem is that Bill Gates is not gong to do it, so Microsoft has little to look forward towards allowing a whole bunch of new terror nerds, to come up with one and just like he did with IBM, they sure will keep the rights to their baby and grab Microsoft by their balls...
Linux is not being held by anyone, yet for all the bells and whistles, we need to see more innovation other than always comparing it to Windows to gauge its advances...
Mac is not going to go nowhere for now, but the same holds true for their OS...