"Hidden" partition created by CTM holding balance of HD space hostage

Help - CTM
1

I hope somebody here can help me out…

I have been using Comodo Time Machine for a few months now and I have really enjoyed it thus far (as well as other Comodo releases i.e. Internet Security, etc.). At the end of last week however, I ran my computer with Windows XP SP2 through Microsoft’s Live OneCare Full Service Scan that included a Virus-Protection scan, a Registry Clean-Up, and a Disk Tune-up. In addition, and as a method to free/clean-up additional hard disk-space, I executed my internal XP Disk Cleanup method that included “erasing all but the most recent Restore Points”, and the myriad of listed items that are involved in this process. It appears that my troubles began during the “Compress Old Files” function where the process ceased to a blue screen that recommended that I restart the OS of which I complied. Upon this restart, Comodo Time Machine engaged with a new Restore Point in the Tree/Timeline View of the View Snapshots View- Tab and stating, “Low Space (“Current”) Space of Disk 0 Is Too Low”; as well as a " HIDDEN " indicator under the Partition column of the Protection Settings-tab in the Settings section located at the top of the Comodo Time Machine cover-bar next to the Update and Help keys.

In other words, upon executing those Windows-sponsored and conventional methods illustrated above, Comodo Time Machine has blocked 100% of my remaining hard-disk space in the form of a hidden partition and therefore disabling a myriad of functions of my computer accept my access to Cloud/external/gmail sites including, but limited to, running any internal functions of my OS and other programs.

Prior to me engaging in a series of self-help methods to solve this issue myself and likely making matters worse, I would GREATLY appreciate some assistance with disengaging Time Machine from holding hostage the balance of my internal memory (67%) as well as enabling me to once again run programs that are internally present in my laptop.

Thank you so much for your help and with a solution that you provide.

2

Hi bnjohanson,

Welcome to the Forum.

You need to free up disk space by committing to some changes.
As you may have noted Windows may say you have 60% disk space.
Yet CTM says 0% “do something”.
The one to believe is CTM.
By understanding how the disk space is used you should see the issue.

CTM is the hard drives nanny.
From the time you set a Baseline snapshot size = 0MB
CTM tracks all changes by protecting and redirecting all of windows writes and deletions from that point onward.

Example -

Day 1.

100 GB HDD.
60 GB Windows OS and Data total
0 GB install CTM Take a Baseline Snapshot = 60 GB protected on disk
40 GB free real disk space Windows and CTM both agree.

So today you massive download a couple of movies and games. 10 GB
Shut down.

Day 2.
You boot up and an auto Snapshot is taken. Size 10 GB.

Windows says -

100 GB HDD
70 GB total data
30 GB free space

CTM agrees -
100 GB HDD
0 GB Baseline Snapshot = 60 GB protected data
10 GB Day 2 Snapshot = 10 GB protected data
30 GB free real HDD space

You download 20 GB today.
Shut down.

Day 3.
Boot up auto snapshot taken. Size 20 GB

windows says -

100 GB HDD
90 GB total data
10 GB free space

CTM agrees -
100 GB HDD
0 GB Baseline Snapshot = 60 GB protected data
10 GB Day 2 Snapshot = 10 GB protected data
20 GB Day 3 Snapshot = 20 GB protected data
10 GB free real HDD space

Wow I better delete some stuff to make space. Clean up and delete 40 GB of files.

Day 4.
Boot up auto snapshot taken Size 0 GB

Now the lies start.
windows says -

100 GB HDD
50 GB total data
50 GB free space

CTM truthfully says -
100 GB HDD
0 GB Baseline Snapshot = 60 GB protected data
10 GB Day 2 Snapshot = 10 GB protected data
20 GB Day 3 Snapshot = 20 GB protected data
0 GB Day 4 Snapshot = 0 GB nothing new was written, nothing deleted that’s not in last snap.
10 GB free real HDD space

CTM still reports 10 GB free space. Everything you have written to or deleted from windows.
since the baseline Snapshot was taken is actually still on the disk ready to be restored.
Including all of the 60 GB in the Baseline Snapshot.

A few tips.
Disable system restore in windows to save a bunch of space. It’s unnecessary with CTM.
Do not even try to use disk encryption software.
Avoid intensive disk read write stuff like Compress Old Files and defragmenting.
You can’t track changes forever without resetting the baseline.

Finally in your case this all means
Since you installed CTM there has been enough data written and deletions made, but not committed.
That would fill your HDD Windows sees 60% free space, but the reality is you have all the symptoms of low disk space because you do. There is no more room to keep track of stuff you could still restore.

If the PC is all OK, except the low space.
If you choose to delete all but your base line assuming you’re confident you don’t want anything back that has been written and deleted since your baseline date
snapshot and let CTM defrag the snapshots, it will offer to when you delete.
You will end up still with your original Base line Snapshot Size 0 MB and the ability to return to that date/state.

If the guy in my example did the above he would still be ripped off for 10 GB of real disk space.
Unless he reset the baseline to reflect the new current state with all deletions committed to disk

Hope this isn’t too much overload or off on a tangent and is helpful.

Bad

3

Wow…

I tried your solution exactly and it was no good. I reverted back to Baseline, still 0 memory left, tried uninstall from the Programs menu to the Add/Remove software function in My Comuter and it will not do a thing except state, “installation failure”, and now here I am :

No disk space, therefore programs, updates, nothing except access to off-site/cloud/gmail, etc. and I have no idea what to do now.

I notice a lot of people defending this software and demonize all of those that have had serious problems. These people clearly appear to work for/affiliates of Comodo and even if this isn’t the case in reality, it sure makes Comodo look bad…I mean, reeeeal bad.

I haven’t gone as far as to execute anything that will once and for all corrupt my OS as experienced by so many here, but I have zero clue what to do now…I have noticed Comodo is on this with some kind of update or fix but who knows…This is one of the worst situations that I have ever seen as released by a big name brand…

4

Hi,

Did you restore to baseline?
or
Did you reset baseline?

You probably need to do the latter.
If you just restored to baseline you will see the tree view in CTM shows a split.
And you still haven’t regained that HDD space.
The new Snapshot from the time of restore is still holding all that space.

If you restore to the Snapshot taken at the restore time that will fix the borked uninstall attempt.
If you can get to this point you, should be ok.
Then if the system seems ok.
Reset the baseline to get All of the real space back.

Trying to Uninstall the software when you are having an issue like this is Not advised.
There is too much at stake.

5

OK Bad Frogger- YOU HAVE SAVED MY REAR PAL !

Here’s the deal- I didn’t do exactly as you said since this time, I pressed Home at start-up and since I couldn’t find “Reset”, I Compressed instead and so I here I am with a significant amount of disk-space left.

Good news- 38 GB is recognized by CTM on my hard disk and I can, for now, perform programs and operate freely the OS.
Bad new- I am reverted back to February 16, 2010…but that is ok and I thank you for walking me through this via the above and much better than the alternative i.e. reformatting Disk, etc.

Please help me now with just one more thing please !!!

What do I do now? I feel like all I have merely done is bought a few days on a ticking time bomb that was at “0” before. So in other words, can I run third-party disk/registry cleaners, updates, etc.? I presume that I cannot run the XP internal “Clean Disk” methods and I sure as heck won’t go back to Windows OneCare system clean as that started this whole mess as illustrated at the top of this dialogue. How should I continue operating normally w/o aggressively using all of my disk-space as I did before ?

…or should/can I just “uninstall” this software until it becomes fixed/more stable and what is the safest way for me to uninstall CTM at this point?

Thank you so much thus far and I would really appreciate your effort in helping me with the above one last time…

6

You can look in the SETTINGS and determine how many snapshots you actually need to keep.

My CTM install is set to delete all snapshots older than 5 days and to defrag after taking 10 snapshots. This gives me around a weeks worth of fallback positions, which should be enough to recover from disasters.

Ewen :slight_smile:

7

bnjohanson, you may want to read my postings at the location below

https://forums.comodo.com/help-ctm/lost-all-my-snapshots-really-weird-problem-please-read-t51435.0.html;msg367203#msg367203

It will help you manage your disk space usage better by helping you to understand how CTM works and how Windows can work against CTM if you dont disable a couple of things. You’ll have to sift through some of it to get to the bits that are relevant to you. There’s a lot to read because CTM is not a simple program to explain!

8

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.