Regained 52.6GB Disk Space After Windows Vista SP2 Update: Also 45005 Registry Changes
After seeing this in PC World...
Windows Vista SP2: Readers Report Big Increases in Free Disk Space
...I decided to take some notes when updating the only PC I have running Windows Vista to Service Pack 2 (SP2). Here's what I found.
1. I had 74.4GB free hard disk space before beginning the SP2 update. I had 137GB free after the process and before rebooting the system. So, I recovered 52.6GB of disk space.
2. The SP2 update includes two reboots. The second reboot comes after the second phase of the three phase update process.
3. My screen went text-only during the second phase of the update and 45,005 registry changes were made during this phase based on the messages on the screen. You can see a frame grab above from a video I recorded during this process.
4. There was still 137GB of free space remaining after the second reboot from the third update phase.
June 1st, 2009 - 19:28
Don’t get too excited. Your old restore points were just deleted. That space will get eaten up until to reach your maximum space allocated for restore files. At that point, the oldest ones will delete as the space is needed for new ones.
June 4th, 2009 - 01:17
Paul: Thanks for the explanation of the previously mysterious disk space recovery after installing Vista’s Service Pack 2. Your explanation makes perfect sense. And, if not perfect, it is better than the magical theory I previously subscribed to
August 22nd, 2009 - 15:48
Another item, is when you’ve been running Windows for so long, it creates files on your HDD that, until you reboot, aren’t freed automatically. I have seen, from just doing a simple reboot (no updates, no scans, no cleaners, nothing), a gain in 20GB of space.