Windows 7 Hard Disk usage and size of VDI

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Mac OS X hosts.
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cshroff
Posts: 1
Joined: 15. Dec 2010, 16:51
Primary OS: Mac OS X Leopard
VBox Version: OSE Debian
Guest OSses: windows 7

Windows 7 Hard Disk usage and size of VDI

Post by cshroff »

Hi,

I am using Windows 7 running on Snow Leopard as a host OS. Windows 7 reports the size of disk used as 21.2GB but actual VDI size as shown by Mac OSX is 24.7GB. I have used "sdelete" in the past but that only reduced the size by ~300MB. What is the reason for this large delta ? I am concerned as every week the VDI seems to grow faster then what Windows 7 reports. Soon I will run out of VDI size of 30GB.
Perryg
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Joined: 6. Sep 2008, 22:55
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Re: Windows 7 Hard Disk usage and size of VDI

Post by Perryg »

Windows uses a lot of storage for things like restore points, dumps, and sys vol, not to mention hibernate and other things like when it updates itself and keeps a copy of the original and the update.
Look at disk cleanup and see what can be cleaned from the drive. As for the difference reported between Windows and the host about what the VDI size actually has can vary. I would think about installing another virtual drive to store things on to eliminate the primary drive form becoming full and stopping you from loading it.
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