Wiping hard drive

[Harry_Beast]

I am using Win7 with a ssHD of 80 gb. A year ago I reformatted the HD.At that point I had 30GB of free space.After supposedly blowing away everything,I still had only 40GB of free space.
I suspect that when using the WIN 7 disk to reformat--I loaded the operating system for a second time.
When my SSHD was brand new,I recall that the OS only took up about 8GB!!!
Is there some way to actually blow everything back to 0 GB--and reinstall OS from scratch!!!!
As of now I only have 6GB of free space.
The only thing installed on my computer is WIN7 and LOTR on-line(which accounts for 30 + GB!)
Initially I had ,when new Win7 8Gb
LOTR 30GB
Total WarII 30GB
installed --which with other miscellaneous stuff gave me 10gb free
after I blew away Total War ,I had about 35GB free
and after I reformatted ,I had 10GB free
So now,If I want to try to format,I am informed ``not enough free space``
And that is my sad Story!!!

 

[gbhall]

Try this http://indrajitc.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/reclaiming-disk-space-from-system-volume-information/

In a few words - Windows is storing endless restore points in a hidden place called SystemVolumeInformation. And possibly other things too. The amount of space allowed is limited, but defaults to 15% of your total disk drive. That is absurd, especially on 1Tb drives ......

If you don't like using a command box, there are other simple ways of doing the same thing in Advanced System Properties.

BTW please stop trying to 'reformat' - you clearly are not aware of what that does, because it can in the wrong hands, leave you with no PC at all. Maybe 'reinstalled' is the word you want.