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Hard drive filling up

777 views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  JohnWill 
#1 ·
This may be me just missing something obvious, but my C drive had gotten mysteriously full and have not installed that much.

Using properties on C it displays I have used 5.58Gig but when i highlight all the folders inside the c drive it says i have only used a total of 3.54Gig. As I only partitioned windows to have a 10gig drive, I feeel I am running out of space.

Is it hidden files?

I am logged on as the administrator.

I used to have problems with lost file fragment in win98 but there doesnt seem to be a similar scan disk within WinXP, it doesn't find any problems.

Thanks for any help, Paul.
 
#2 ·
At first I was thinking System Restore was taking space but I checked my computer the same way you posted you did and my free space is reported as the same. Have you emptied all your TEMP folders?
 
#3 ·
So you are saying when you check the drive the two different ways, the results are the same and not different like mine?

I have deleted all I could find.
 
#4 ·
There are a couple of things you can do.

If you are not certain where the files are being stored, I like to use a program called TreeSize. It lets you sort directories by size. This helps point you in the right directory.

The normal ways I like to clean a hard drive is to:
1. Go to a DOS prompt.
2. Change to the C:\ directory
3. Carefully enter "del *.tmp /s" - no quotes

This will delete all the *.tmp files on the C: drive.

Then clean out your Internet Cache
Tools / Internet Options / Delete Files button
You might also set your cache size to the minimum and IE to automaticaly empty the cache when you close the program
 
#5 ·
If you have Norton Utilities installed, check the properties of the Protected Recycle Bin. They allocate a bunch of space for their protected files, and they're not visible by any of the normal system utilities. I had the disappearing space problem until I allocated them 0% of the drive, and after they cleaned up, I turned off the Protected Recycle Bin option. Now my disk acts normally. :)
 
#6 ·
Hi thanks chaps!

I've got it down to 3.59Gig which is a lot better.

I done a combination of things.

I removed all but one restore point and decreased the amount of disk space allocated for further restore points.

I also used TreeSize, which is excellent, and found many huge files in My Documents.

But one of the biggest was the norton protected recycle bin which I decreased to 1% or something. It never found anything I wanted back anyway!

Thats great. Now I can go and break something else! (joke!)
 
#7 ·
Originally posted by HutchBall:
But one of the biggest was the norton protected recycle bin which I decreased to 1% or something. It never found anything I wanted back anyway!
I'm thinking of putting that response on a hotkey I type it so much! :D You have no idea how many people that one bites.:rolleyes:
 
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