Where's my space?!

Joined
Jul 28, 2004
Messages
11
I don't claim to be a computer expert, so bear with me on this.
My computer claims to have 19.0 GB hard drive and currently I only have 10.1 GB free. I have no idea what is using all this space. I mean maybe my programs are and I just don't realize it, but it didn't always seem to be like this. It always seemed that I had more space. Here is a list of stuff I have on my computer.
running Windows XP
mIRC
Netscape
SpyBot
Yahoo Messenger
WinZip
Windows Media Player
Real Player
Panda Software
System Mechanic
Microsoft Office
Kazaa Lite
Roxio

and i think that's about it. maybe a couple of other small insignificate programs. could all of that be taking up 9 gigs??? i just really thought that I used to have more free space than that. and anytime i download a movie or anything i automatically burn it and then delete it off my computer.
 
It looks like that is possible, office and windows are pretty big in themseleves. Also check your kazaa folder. and just go to your program files folder highlight them all and go to properties and see how much space they take up.
 
I went to diskmgmt.msc and below Disk 0 it said 19.13 GB
Then I checked my download folder for Kazaa and it has a total size of 80.9MB of incomplete items that my husband is still downloading, so not a big deal.
My program folder has a total of what looks to be 941MB when I highlight everything and go to properties.
And when I open up my C: and highlight all the folders and click on properties it gives me a number of 3.72GB for everything.
I'm still puzzled. Anymore help??
:confused:
 
Hmmmm, are you showing the hidden files as well? Maybe there is a hidden file somewhere thats huge. Who knows. Try clearing out your Temporary Folder.
 
Okay. I made sure that all hidden files were not hidden anymore (which I hadn't done earlier) and then highlighted everything in C: and now it is 8.65GB . What the heck?? If something is that huge and it was hidden then why do I need it? But what is it? That's the question now ..... arrgggg, this is frustrating!
 
Swap file, restore points, indexing??..

HD space can easily disappear. Make sure you empty the recycle bin. Under system tools in accessories start menu, run disk cleanup. That can usually get rid of a lot of junk from internet and temps.

Chances are you have a large swap file which is not included when you have hidded files. Select the C drive on the left side of win explorer.. hit Alt-Enter to get properties.. that should tell ya all.

I generally find a lot of space can be in Docs and Settings. WinXP will generally be less than 2GB, Office install is pretty small.. generally less than 200MB..
Look out for emails with attachments, downloads, etc.

--Ahh.. I'm lookin better now.. I always forget to delete my 1.5GB swap file when I disconnect my secondary drive.
 
Swap file, restore points, indexing???

I don't know anything about these points or what to do about them.
 
I have the exact same problem but on a much larger scale.

I have a 120GB HDD.
I checked and im only using about 40GB but it says im using over 100GB of space.
60GB has disappeared.

Ive defragged, lowered system restore usage, disk cleanup but nothing happened.

Paragon you mentioned a Swap file? because I had recently removed my Slave HDD from my computer as well. How can i delete this? I cant see anything in the properties of the C drive.
 
just a thought

read Ice Czar's guide for virtual memory in Windows XP here: http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php

i'm sure that'll answer your questions. (look at the pagefile.sys file and tell us how big it is)

also, try downloading Eraser here: http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/download.php
it's a program that you can use to delete data safely; it overwrites the file that you want to delete a number of times (called passes) until it really is deleted, that way no one can ever get it back. ever.
--but-- what it also can do, is "Erase Unused Space"; what this does is erases all the space that's "free" on the HDD. This can be useful, because when Windows "deletes" something, it doesn't actually delete the program, it just removes your acess to it, it doesn't delete the program until it has to write data over it.

try this: download, and then install Eraser. Right-click your C: driver, and click Erase Unused Space. Then click "Yes".

good luck :D
 
SequoiaView (link above) will give you a graphical interface to see the relative sizes of your folders

re swapfile, an unlikely culprit, you can have it cleared at shutdown (a common security tweak) but its size is dynamically set by the OS and it wouldnt be any huge amount of space unless you set it that way http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php

re restore folder
For Windows XP
http://www.online-tutorials.com/folder9/920.htm
Log on as Administrator.
Right-click the My Computer icon on the desktop and click Properties.
Click the System Restore tab.
Select Turn off System Restore.
Click Apply > Yes > OK.
Restart your computer. This removes the existing checkpoints.
alternately you can navigate to _Restore and manually remove restore points
Re-enable System Restore by clearing Turn off System Restore.

this is a common proceedure to get rid of malware as it likely infected some of the restore points as well
http://www.trendmicro.com/en/security/advisories/win_me_clean.htm




Sonique remove the restore points and then do an online scan
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=768776
 
BrattyBrandy said:
Swap file, restore points, indexing???

I don't know anything about these points or what to do about them.

Generally not much you can do about them.

If it is a general Windows installation, The swapfile [pagefile.sys] will be put on the C drive and managed by windows. Don't worry about this unless you really want to tweak your system. I throw my swap on a seperate drive from C for better performance and also have it a static size [min and max size are the same] Windows will generally have a smaller min than max which is fine form most cases.

Restore points are made from System Restore, which I disable on my systems since every time I needed to use it, it never really worked for me [It has worked for certain problems] I have no clue how much space can be used with these.. Again, nothing really to worry about unless you want to disable it. It may save your butt someday, though.

Now indexing.. I'm not sure if that is using drives space or what.. I thought it did. Again, I disable mine. All it does is keep track of the files on your drive [I think makes an index of them.. taking up space.. not sure.. correct me if I am wrong] for when you use the search file feature. Something I don't mind waiting a lil longer for when I occasionally use search. With indexing, it will speed up searching. big whoop. To disable, you can go to the drive properties and uncheck the indexing box. It will do some file properties.. then you can go into add/remove programs.. Windows components.. and uncheck indexing.

Most of this stuff will take up space and just wanted to let you know what might be snatching your drive space.
 
indexing, forgot indexing didnt I? :p
it adds overhead but doesnt take up much space and is part of the filesystem overhead
disable it for performance

In NTFS everything that has anything to do with a file (file name, creation date, access permissions and even contents) is written down as metadata. This elegant, albeit abstract approach allowed easy addition of filesystem features during the course of Windows NT's development - an interesting example is the addition of fields for indexing used by the Active Directory software
wikipedia

for more indepth infor see Storage Review FAQ > Advanced HDD Issues > NTFS Advanced Studies section
Inside W2K NTFS part 1 & 2
 
i have turned off system restore and am currently "erasing unused space" so we'll see how that goes and then i'll post again when it's done.
 
ok. so i just rebooted. and i have a little space back but still not much. i'm at 12.1GB free now. but i still don't understand what is taking up the other 7GB of space. i just opened up the c: and highlighted everything (including hidden files) and clicked on properties and it totalled 3.11GB ..... ?????? this is so annoying not knowing where all this space is.
 
BrattyBrandy said:
ok. so i just rebooted. and i have a little space back but still not much. i'm at 12.1GB free now. but i still don't understand what is taking up the other 7GB of space. i just opened up the c: and highlighted everything (including hidden files) and clicked on properties and it totalled 3.11GB ..... ?????? this is so annoying not knowing where all this space is.

have you done Disk Cleanup? i know it's been mentioned before but idk if you've actually done it yet..?

EDIT: have you scanned for viruses (you can use AVGFreeEdition http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/) // malware/adware/spyware (use AdAware (the "personal" or free one http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ , and SpybotS&D http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html) ?
^-- try that.
 
i have scanned with anti-virus software and with spybot and nothing.
what about this "common files" folder? what is all this stuff in it?
this computer is pissing me off. i just can't figure out where this space is!!!
 
have you run scandisk?

maybe it found a lost file fragment and converted it into a file, and it's really big or something...i'm lost :(
 
this happened to me, make sure you dont have norton antivirus taking up the files

after purging the files from my norton antivirus recycle bin, it freed up like 20 gb haha

I thought my hard drive was corrupt for like a week, then finally i came across norton and I was like WTF :)
 
BrattyBrandy said:
i don't have norton on my computer. i have panda anti-virus.

does it have log files ?

have you looked at the "recovery" thingy in Spybot S&D and flushed those files?

have you done Disk Cleanup?
 
well, if you're really desperate then just backup and format
it can't hurt, i usually do it once every 4 months
 
Go into Safe Mode and clean out your temp folders

You'll also need to set your computer to show hidden files

Clean out the following locations

c:\documents and settings\"user name"\local settings\temp
c:\documents and settings\"user name"\local settings\temporary internet files
c:\documents and settings\"user name"\local settings\temporary internet files\content.ie5
c:\windows\temp

You can also delete all the Windows update uninstall files that are stored in your windows folder. Once you have set "show all files" you will be able to see and delete them. These files are only necessary if you plan on ever removing a windows update.

Also, make sure your recycle bin is empty.

You could also do a search on your computer with an advaced setting of size and set it to show you all files over a certain size to try and find the culprit.

Good luck
 
Archived files [backups] from Updating Windows? Not sure where they are.

also.. C:\WINDOWS\Windows Update Setup Files

outlook archives of past emails?

The space is taken up somewhere in files.. just need to account for the files. Go through WinExplorer and Alt-Enter on some folder to see the space they hold.
Chances are if your format and reinstall.. you will likely end up in the same situation if you do not know what is going on.

If ya want more help.. you will have to start listing the size of your C drive, docs/settings folder, windows folder, program files folder, other download folders/music..


Also, right click My computer -> properties -> advanced tab -> Performance settings -> Advanced tab -> let us know what it says for Virtual Mem pagefile size.

I wouldn't be surprised if that System Mechanic made a backup of your computer somewhere. have you done any backups of anything?
 
Paragon said:
outlook archives of past emails?

If you're using MS Outlook, search for .PST files. I doubt this is the problem because they have a limit of 2GB. After that they become corrupt and un-usable.

Outlook Express uses .DBX files. You can get rid of them and OE will recreate them the next time it opens. Be warned, anything at all in those files will be lost forever.
ex. Inbox.dbx, outbox.dbx, sent items.dbx
 
BrattyBrandy said:
and exactly how would i reformat?
just erase everything and start over .......

change boot device to cdrom drive, reboot with the windows cd in there, wait for setup to load, then reinstall windows.. its self explanatory from there

remember to backup
 
Snikku said:
change boot device to cdrom drive, reboot with the windows cd in there, wait for setup to load, then reinstall windows.. its self explanatory from there

remember to backup

that's not Reformatting, that's just re-installing Windows over itself

to Reformat, she'd have to wipe the entire drive clean, then install Windows (this would be a "Fresh" install) and then re-install the stuff she backed-up (say on another computer, or on CDs)
 
Carnival Forces said:
that's not Reformatting, that's just re-installing Windows over itself

to Reformat, she'd have to wipe the entire drive clean, then install Windows (this would be a "Fresh" install) and then re-install the stuff she backed-up (say on another computer, or on CDs)

You can reformat through the windows installation disc...pretty self explanitory. Make sure you format in NTFS. Don't do that until you have everything backed up, though.
 
well, i went ahead and reformated the hard drive and have started reinstalling my programs. right now i have 16.8GB free. which is more like it. so we'll see what happens later down the road.

i have this panda and system mechanic on here for anti-virus and firewall protection. i was looking for something that is good but free. if there is something better then please let me know ....

and also ....... what is with these wierd folders that XP puts on here ... like xerox folder and microsoft frontpage folder?? and all this stuff in the common files folder .......
 
Paragon said:
You can reformat through the windows installation disc...pretty self explanitory. Make sure you format in NTFS. Don't do that until you have everything backed up, though.

oh, my bad, thanks fo correcting me :)


BrattyBrandy said:
well, i went ahead and reformated the hard drive and have started reinstalling my programs. right now i have 16.8GB free. which is more like it. so we'll see what happens later down the road.

i have this panda and system mechanic on here for anti-virus and firewall protection. i was looking for something that is good but free. if there is something better then please let me know ....

and also ....... what is with these wierd folders that XP puts on here ... like xerox folder and microsoft frontpage folder?? and all this stuff in the common files folder .......
As for free stuff...
Carnival Forces said:
have you done Disk Cleanup? i know it's been mentioned before but idk if you've actually done it yet..?

EDIT: have you scanned for viruses (you can use AVGFreeEdition http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/) // malware/adware/spyware (use AdAware (the "personal" or free one http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ , and SpybotS&D http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html) ?
^-- try that.

also, for a firewall, try Sygate Personal 5.5 here: http://www.simtel.net/product.download.mirrors.php?id=53687
 
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