PC Help Please

[Jamo]

I'd be looking at the FAT table to see if it's been corrupted by the disk allocator in that case

[Nuvo]

I've run an app called Treesizefree, I can see 2 folders which are flagged as "access denied" these are called RR Backups and System Volume Information.

These are there in Disktective too with no file size info.

Okay the System Volume Information folder is used by Windows Sytem Restore tool.
The other folder name I am not familiar with. Maybe this holds the answer...

You might find this thread to be of help to you.

You could try boot in safe mode and deleteing the offending files and folder(s).
Or better still you could boot from a Preinstalled Environment disk such as bartPE and access them that way.

Another possibility is to take ownership of the folder as described here and then delete the sucker.

[newsh]

I take it that must be a USB pendrive or similar device rather than a secondary partition?

No, its a partition, I thought maybe it was the DOS? It has AUTOEXEC.BAT etc in it.

[newsh]

You might find that you have a lot of unecessary temporary files on your system. Every time you open a zip file as a folder using XP built in zip engine a copy is placed in your temp folder. The same is true for a number of self-extracting setup files. Download and install this great little program to help clean things up.

The other more serious problem is that the disks Master File Table could be corrupt although you did say that chkdsk didn't find anything wrong.

CCleaner got me another 750MB, thats a great little app.

[Nuvo]

No, its a partition, I thought maybe it was the DOS? It has AUTOEXEC.BAT etc in it.

Hmmm interesting. Is your system set up to dual boot in that case? Are you greeted with a menu at boot time to display which partiton you would like to boot from?

Perhaps this is partition contains backup recovery tools at a guess?

Can you open autoexec.bat in notepad and copy and paste its contents in your reply please? That might give me some clues. Better still, can you also post up the contents of the boot.ini file find on the root of C: too.

Did you try unlocking the RR backups folder as per the link I posted?

[Nuvo]

CCleaner got me another 750MB, thats a great little app.

It's a little gem. It should be on every Windows box as standard.

[Nuvo]

I've just looked into this a little further for you.

That partion is used for Rescue and Recovery as suspected. If you got control panel and select Add or Remove software and select Lenovo Rescue and Recovery you should get all your space back.

You can then safely delete the FAT32 service partiton using something like Paragon Hard Disk Manager (commercial) or similar utility and merge it to your primary partition.

Partition Logic is a freeware alternative which bears more than a passing resemblance to the Partion Magic which was excellent.
I can't vouch for Partition Logic although PC World magazine rates it if that install any confidence.

[newsh]

It was the RR Backups folder, this is run by an app called Lenovo Rescue and Recovery, ifyou access this from the start menu you get an advanced tab in the GUI which allows you to delete backups, I now have 75GB free

Thanks for all the help!

[Nuvo]

Happy to help.

Lenovo R and R a pile of poop by all acounts I would uninstall it.
I would also reclaim that ~6GB partiton that it has robbed from your primary partition to banish it for all eternity.

[newsh]

Nuvo, thanks for you help on this, the links you posted really helped.
To answer your previous questions just for the record.

Boot.ini
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

I cant seen to get to the Autoexec.bat in the fat 32 partition as it doesn't appear in My Computer.

I've left the RR app in there for now but switched it off, I can always use it to do a backup to another drive or DVDs. After deleting the 5 backups in the folder and getting my 50GB back I tried running a single backup and immediately lost 25GB
nyway I've still got 50% free now as opposed to about 8% when I started a couple of days ago.

[newsh]

Happy to help.

Lenovo R and R a pile of poop by all acounts I would uninstall it.
I would also reclaim that ~6GB partiton that it has robbed from your primary partition to banish it for all eternity.

Mmm, sounds like a good idea, I think we have a copy of PMagic here.. What I'd really like to do is make a new partition and use it for the My Docs folder. Is that possible?

[Nuvo]

Mmm, sounds like a good idea, I think we have a copy of PMagic here.. What I'd really like to do is make a new partition and use it for the My Docs folder. Is that possible?

Having a separate partiton for docs, personal files and downloads is a good idea. I would recommend that you create a secondary partition for this purpose and to have all you installed programs on this drive too. This will mean that your boot drive occupies less space and will take less time to back up too.

Of course it does mean uninstalling any previous software and reintsalling it to the new partiton. It can be a bit of hassle if you have a lot of sotware installed but it really is worth the effort. You only have to do this once afterall.

You can delete this partition and merge it to the original. Then create a new partiton of a new size.

Or you could reformat the ~5GB partiton with NTFS instead of FAT32 and use that.
Partiton Magic can do absolutely everything you need in this regard.

[newsh]

Uninstalled the RR application entirely, incidentally this means the protection on the RR folder goes so it can be deleted (whicjh is good because I forgot to delete that 25GB backup before uninstalling the app. . Permissions could not be changed before as there was not a security tab on the folder options.

[newsh]

Or you could reformat the ~5GB partiton with NTFS instead of FAT32 and use that.
Partiton Magic can do absolutely everything you need in this regard.

This sounds like a good plan, I'll have a go it it when I have a bit of spare time!

[Nuvo]

Nuovo, thanks for you help on this, the links you posted really helped.
To answer your previous questions just for the record.

Boot.ini
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

I cant seen to get to the Autoexec.bat in the fat 32 partition as it doesn't appear in My Computer.

I've left the RR app in there for now but switched it off, I can always use it to do a backup to another drive or DVDs. After deleting the 5 backups in the folder and getting my 50GB back I tried running a single backup and immediately lost 25GB
nyway I've still got 50% free now as opposed to about 8% when I started a couple of days ago.

It's only configured as a single boot system which is odd.
I would seriously consider ditching Lenovo R & R and replacing it with something better.
You could even create a third partiton and use this exclusively for storing backup images which you can copy to rewritable DVD for peace of mind.