Vista eating up disk space

My Vista VM is eating up disk space. My disk space goes down while using the VM. Once I quit and reboot my Mac I seem to regain it. How can I stop this?

 

There could be a lot of reasons, check the following:

If you're not using hybernate function then disable hybernation (remove hyberfil.sys file) as described below:
1. Click Start, and then type cmd in the Start Search box.
2. In the search results list, right-click Command Prompt or Cmd, and then click Run as Administrator on the pop up contextual menu.
3. If you are prompted by User Account Control for permission, click Continue.
4. At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
powercfg.exe -h off
5. Type exit, and then press ENTER.

While running Vista consumes more and more of virtual memory which is basically a space on your virtual hard drive. Reduce the size of pagefile (virtual memory):
1. Open Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> System.
2. In the left “Tasksâ€, click on Advanced System Settings.
3. You should come to “Advanced†tab. In “Performance†section, click on Settings button.
4. Click on Advanced tab.
5. In the “Virtual Memory†section, click on Change button.
6. By default, “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives†setting is selected so that Windows Vista system can manage the paging file without user’s interruption. If you want change the paging file size, move the pagefile.sys to another drive, or disable virtual memory paging, uncheck the check box of Automatically manage paging file size for all drives.
7. Select and highlight the appropriate drive that users want to change the paging file settings under the box of “Drive [Volume Label]“.
8. To fix a permanent size for the paging file, click on Custom size button, and set the values of Initial Size (MB) and Maximum Size (MB). Both values can be of same size to make the size of pagefile.sys static. Then click on Set button.
To move the paging file to another drive, click on No paging file radio button, and click on Set button. Then select a different drive to set a new pagefile.sys with custom size or system managed size.
To disable paging file or virtual memory, simply set no paging files on all drives.

Also Windows SuperFetch loads and caches user programs and startup applications into memory so that they will be launched faster. The prefetch is stored on hard disk, which can be deleted. To delete the prefetch cached by SuperFetch, delete all files inside “C:\Windows\prefetch†folder.

Then you could try deleting temporary files created and stored in “\Windows\Temp†folder or “Temp†directory under each and every user profile. To delete the temporary files, remove all files and folders under “C:\Windows\Temp†folder and “C:\Users\[logged on user name]\AppData\Local\Temp†folder.

The temporary Internet files or cache can grow bigger and bigger over time. Deletion method differs by each different web browser. For IE, go to “Internet Optionsâ€, delete delete “Temporary Internet Files†and “Cookiesâ€. For Firefox, click on “Clear Private Data†and delete “Cache†and “Cookiesâ€.

Then System Volume Information system folder, hidden in every disk drive, stores backup copy of data for system restore, known as Volume Shadow Copy in Windows Vista. Volume Shadow Copy uses snapshot method to record state of files at specific point of time and saves it as a restore point, automatically or manually. You can delete all old but latest restore points:
1. Click Start button.
2. Type clean in the Start Search box.
3. Click Disk Cleanup from the search results list.
4. Select Files from All Users on this computer option.
5. Click OK on Disk Space Cleanup Manager for Windows User Access Control permission request dialog.
6. Choose a drive letter from the drop down list, and press OK.
7. Disk Cleanup will perform calculation to determine how much space it can free. Once done, click on More Options tab.
8. Under the section of System Restore and Shadow Copies, click on Clean up… button.
9. Click on Delete button when asked whether are you sure you want to delete all but the most recent restore point.
10. Disk Cleanup will erase all old restore points or files and the space will be reclaimed for everybody use. You can check the reduced space used by restore points and shadow copies with vssadmin List ShadowStorage command.

or you can disable this option:
1. Right click on Computer then select Properties from contextual menu. Alternatively click on Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> System.
2. In the left pane, click System Protection. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
3. You will see a list of hard disk drives installed on your system, with checkboxes to the left. The check boxes with tick indicate that System Restore is on for that particular volume. So to to turn off System Protection for a hard disk, clear (untick) the check box next to the disk.
4. Once you uncheck the checkbox, a System Protection dialog box will appear. Click on Turn System Restore Off button.
5. Click OK and System Restore is now off.
6. To revert and enable or turn on System Protection for a hard disk, simply select (tick) the check box next to the disk, and then click OK.