Windows Vista - Windows Media Center - Limit Hard Drive Storage for TV Recordings

SUMMARY: Prevent accidentally using too much hard drive room for storing TV recordings in Windows Media Center.

By default, Windows Media Center in Windows Vista can use a large portion of your hard drive to store TV recordings. While this allows you to store more television shows, especially in HD, this also can potentially limit the amount of hard drive space available for other applications.

If you frequently use other applications that need gigabytes of room for data and wish to limit the amount of space Windows Media Center can use to store television shows, perform the following tweak from within the application:

1. Select "Tasks" - "settings".

2. When the "settings" page appears, click "TV".

3. When the "settings TV" page appears, click "Recorder".

4. When the "settings RECORDER" page appears, click "Recorder Storage".

5. The "settings RECORDER STORAGE" page appears. If you have multiple hard drives and wish to change the drive on which Media Center stores television shows, underneath "Record on drive", click the +/- buttons next to the drive name.

6. Now, underneath "Maximum TV limit", click the +/- buttons next to the amount of hard drive room to allow Media Center to use more or less hard drive room to store television shows. As you make changes, notice the "Available Recording Space" graph at the bottom of the screen that shows a graphical representation of hard drive room allotted to television show recordings.