Vista home premium.

[MT-2500]

Sony Vioa laptop.
80 GB hard drive.

Around 32 gb hard drive already used up by pre installed vista and trial stuff.
I added MS word and some odds and ends.
But I have looked all over and can not find what is using up about half of the hard drive.
Around 32 gb unused hard drive left.
About 6 gb I can not find.

Is it normal for Vista to use up that much hard drive?

Also no install disk came with it.
I called Sony support but no straight answer not much help there.
Is it par for the course to not give you any windows disk?
MT

[VR43000GT]

Vista should only take about 2gb. I have no idea what else it is.

[MT-2500]

Originally Posted by SL3000gt

Vista should only take about 2gb. I have no idea what else it is.

Thanks for the reply.
Unless the little green man ate up the hard drive it looks like I have a problem someplace.
MT

[l_eclipse_l]

Originally Posted by SL3000gt

Vista should only take about 2gb. I have no idea what else it is.

Uhhh....seeing as the Vista Premium disk is around 2.5 GB and much of that is compacted, how do you figure the install is less than that? Vista will take up somewhere around 4 GB is my estimate.

The rest of the SHIT on your hard drive is all the preinstalled junk that Sony put on there. Programs, software updaters, that sort of thing. Just start killing off programs and watch your hard drive return back to the way it should be.

It is becoming standard not to include restore disks with new laptops, they just make a partition on your drive for backup. This is also where a bunch of your space is being consumed. I really hate this about companies, but some of them do allow you to purchase OS restore disks (like HP).

[MT-2500]

Originally Posted by l_eclipse_l

Uhhh....seeing as the Vista Premium disk is around 2.5 GB and much of that is compacted, how do you figure the install is less than that? Vista will take up somewhere around 4 GB is my estimate.

The rest of the SHIT on your hard drive is all the preinstalled junk that Sony put on there. Programs, software updaters, that sort of thing. Just start killing off programs and watch your hard drive return back to the way it should be.

It is becoming standard not to include restore disks with new laptops, they just make a partition on your drive for backup. This is also where a bunch of your space is being consumed. I really hate this about companies, but some of them do allow you to purchase OS restore disks (like HP).

l_eclipse_l
Thanks for the reply.
I looked threw properties on everything but did not find much used space.
I will get in there and do some whacking.
There is a lot of trial stuff I will start on first.
Sure is a bummer on no disk.
Did not even get a owners manual.
Have to go on line to read it.
MT

[VR43000GT]

Originally Posted by l_eclipse_l

Uhhh....seeing as the Vista Premium disk is around 2.5 GB and much of that is compacted, how do you figure the install is less than that? Vista will take up somewhere around 4 GB is my estimate.

The rest of the SHIT on your hard drive is all the preinstalled junk that Sony put on there. Programs, software updaters, that sort of thing. Just start killing off programs and watch your hard drive return back to the way it should be.

It is becoming standard not to include restore disks with new laptops, they just make a partition on your drive for backup. This is also where a bunch of your space is being consumed. I really hate this about companies, but some of them do allow you to purchase OS restore disks (like HP).

That was just my guesstimate. I figured it would load on to the HD with about 2-3gb. I was mainly just trying to point out that that is not going to be taking up the majority of it.

[Oz]

Get a partitioning tool and have a look at the partitions on your PC - there will be some hidden, non-active rescue partitions containing the OS. Unfortunately, is is par for the course for manufacturers to use some of the hard drive space they advertise instead of giving you the disks.

[2.2 Straight six]

this is why i'm buying an external hard drive..

well, that and the thousands of photos i have.

[03cavPA]

32gb. Boy, that's a lot of crap loaded on that drive.

Compaq used to put all the restore files on a partition on the hard drive, and have you boot to it with one of the function keys, F10 I think on some models. They also gave the option to burn a set of restore CDs one time from that partition.

The option to burn restore CDs was one time only, then it wouldn't do it again. It took 6 CDs, which was a lot of junk to load.

Yeah, if I were you, I'd get in the add/remove programs list and start slashing and killing all that useless trialware and junk they load on it from the factory. Personally, I'd even consider just buying a copy of XP and doing a clean install with only the OS. ( I know, don't rag on me about not using Vista; I'm not "migrating" to it until I absolutely have to.)

That kind of sucks, though. You don't pay that much money for a computer and then have to buy an OS disk on top of that.

[MT-2500]

Originally Posted by Oz

Get a partitioning tool and have a look at the partitions on your PC - there will be some hidden, non-active rescue partitions containing the OS. Unfortunately, is is par for the course for manufacturers to use some of the hard drive space they advertise instead of giving you the disks.

Oz
Thanks for the info.
I do not have a partitioning tool.
But will check for one.
But did find the hard drive partitioning read out in tools.
It is reporting 6.12 GB in the partition off drive.
And 68.41 GB in regular C:\ drive.
MT

[MT-2500]

Originally Posted by 2.2 Straight six

this is why i'm buying an external hard drive..

well, that and the thousands of photos i have.

10-4 on that 2.2 Straight six

I have a Segate 160 GB external hard drive.
It is a dream come true for backup and saving or transferring stuff.
When you get one go big it does not take long to fill it up.
MT

[doberman_52]

I knew these manufactures installed a bunch of crap on their systems, but jeez thats a lot. My mom's newer Toshiba laptop with XP Home, probably had around 5 gig of crap from them installed on it, bogging down her performance. My parents may be buying a new system after their motherboard fried earlier this week. So I will probably be experimenting with Vista soon. I'd like to see the performance differeces between my pc that I'm building next week with XP Pro, vs. their machine with Vista.

[MT-2500]

Originally Posted by 03cavPA

32gb. Boy, that's a lot of crap loaded on that drive.

Compaq used to put all the restore files on a partition on the hard drive, and have you boot to it with one of the function keys, F10 I think on some models. They also gave the option to burn a set of restore CDs one time from that partition.

The option to burn restore CDs was one time only, then it wouldn't do it again. It took 6 CDs, which was a lot of junk to load.

Yeah, if I were you, I'd get in the add/remove programs list and start slashing and killing all that useless trialware and junk they load on it from the factory. Personally, I'd even consider just buying a copy of XP and doing a clean install with only the OS. ( I know, don't rag on me about not using Vista; I'm not "migrating" to it until I absolutely have to.)

That kind of sucks, though. You don't pay that much money for a computer and then have to buy an OS disk on top of that.

10-4 03cavPA
32 GB sure bites a 75-80 GB hard drive.
I found the partitioned/restore drive that has 6.12 GB on it.
Also found a folder in windows marked movies that had over 5 GB of preloaded pay to look at movies stored in it.
The old delete button wiped that thing off.
Still looking for more preloaded stuff to whack off.
I messed up the add and remove in windows when I loaded MS Word.
The add and remove went wild and will not do anything.
But the old delete button is ready and waiting.
I just have to find it.

I like the windows Vista most of the time.
It has some good stuff over XP But sure is hard to get used to.
It is a bit to have the vista set up and licenses on a computer and not getting the disk with it.
Thanks for the info.
MT

[MT-2500]

Originally Posted by doberman_52

I knew these manufactures installed a bunch of crap on their systems, but jeez thats a lot. My mom's newer Toshiba laptop with XP Home, probably had around 5 gig of crap from them installed on it, bogging down her performance. My parents may be buying a new system after their motherboard fried earlier this week. So I will probably be experimenting with Vista soon. I'd like to see the performance differeces between my pc that I'm building next week with XP Pro, vs. their machine with Vista.

10-4 on the crap doberman_52

If I can find it I am going to kill it.
I did find a movie folder that had over 5 GB of preloaded pay to view movies I was not to happie about.
Still looking for more stuff.

I can not say about performance.
But vista system works real good and I like it most of the time.
It acts like it has a lot more security and is a real smart program.
But does take some getting used to and learning your way around in it.
It looks like a XP platform to me but more stuff on it.
MT

[doberman_52]

I may be seeing what performance differences are if my parents do buy a new machine, but my step-dad was asking about having me order him a bare bone system, I don't like that Idea as much as him ordering a new machine from hp. But I'll find out soon enough.Even with a basic XP Pro instal, I am deleting some stuff, Not much but some stuff, but I probley wont worry about that with my ext computer that I'm building next week. it will be much faster than the one I have right now. I'm running a PIII 600 MHz as my gammer, and it works ok, but is starting to die. Yes, I'm crazy.