C Drive getting eaten

[JohnD]

A couple three months ago I was forced to reformat my internal hard drive as
the only way to get rid of a virus or spyware or something. I chose to
partition the drive into a cmall C: partition (24 gigs) and use it for
Windows and program files only. The other partition I would use for data
type files. (90 gigs). I quickly found that the C: drive wasn't big enough,
so I set up a Programs folder on the F: partition and installed the
additional programs I needed there.

(I don't understand how the numbers add up because I thought I had a 120 gig
drive, not a 114 gig drive, but anyway.....)

So this worked fine until about a week ago when I got a message that I was
running out of space on the C: drive and on checking I found there was
actually no space left.

So, I uninstalled some programs and re-installed them on the F: partition
and deleted some files and ended up with 11.X gigs free.

Since then I haven't installed anything new, I haven't been to any web sites
- simply captured some video and rendered some DVD's, all of which happens on
my external drives, but today I got the same message and again found the C:
partition full.

I managed to free up about 40 MB and then got distracted and when I came
back that 40 MB had disappeared again and there is once again no space on my
C: drive.

I am running Zonealarm and Windows Firewall and up to the time I freed up
the 11 gigs I was running Malwarebytes. I suspect that this was one of the
programs I intended to move to the F: partition, but I must have forgotten
because it is no longer installed. This in itself is strange because I run
Malwarebytes on all my machines every Sunday evening. So I tried to install
it, intending to put it in the F:\Programs folder, but it insists on being
installed on the C: drive, where there isn't any room.

All the above leads to the first question I can think of right now: The C:
partition properties screen offers the option to compress the files to make
more room. Is this a safe thing to do so I can install (and run)
Malwarebytes?

My second question is: I find a number of programs installed in my
C:\programs folder that I don't use and don't want - like Netmeeting and MSN
gaming Zone, Windows Media Components, Windows Media Player. But I don't
find them in "Add or Remove Programs". Is there a way to either get rid of
them or move them to the F:\Programs folder?

Thanks for any help

 

[Shenan Stanley]

A couple three months ago I was forced to reformat my internal hard
drive as the only way to get rid of a virus or spyware or
something. I chose to partition the drive into a cmall C:
partition (24 gigs) and use it for Windows and program files only.
The other partition I would use for data type files. (90 gigs). I
quickly found that the C: drive wasn't big enough, so I set up a
Programs folder on the F: partition and installed the additional
programs I needed there.

(I don't understand how the numbers add up because I thought I had
a 120 gig drive, not a 114 gig drive, but anyway.....)

So this worked fine until about a week ago when I got a message
that I was running out of space on the C: drive and on checking I
found there was actually no space left.

So, I uninstalled some programs and re-installed them on the F:
partition and deleted some files and ended up with 11.X gigs free.

Since then I haven't installed anything new, I haven't been to any
web sites - simply captured some video and rendered some DVD's, all
of which happens on my external drives, but today I got the same
message and again found the C: partition full.

I managed to free up about 40 MB and then got distracted and when I
came back that 40 MB had disappeared again and there is once again
no space on my C: drive.

I am running Zonealarm and Windows Firewall and up to the time I
freed up the 11 gigs I was running Malwarebytes. I suspect that
this was one of the programs I intended to move to the F:
partition, but I must have forgotten because it is no longer
installed. This in itself is strange because I run Malwarebytes on
all my machines every Sunday evening. So I tried to install it,
intending to put it in the F:\Programs folder, but it insists on
being installed on the C: drive, where there isn't any room.

All the above leads to the first question I can think of right now:
The C: partition properties screen offers the option to compress
the files to make more room. Is this a safe thing to do so I can
install (and run) Malwarebytes?

My second question is: I find a number of programs installed in my
C:\programs folder that I don't use and don't want - like
Netmeeting and MSN gaming Zone, Windows Media Components, Windows
Media Player. But I don't find them in "Add or Remove Programs".
Is there a way to either get rid of them or move them to the
F:\Programs folder?

Thanks for any help

First - drive size...

Advertised --- Actual Capacity
10GB --- ~9.31 GB
20GB --- ~18.63 GB
30GB --- ~27.94 GB
40GB --- ~37.25 GB
60GB --- ~55.88 GB
80GB --- ~74.51 GB
100GB --- ~93.13 GB
120GB --- ~111.76 GB
160GB --- ~149.01 GB
180GB --- ~167.64 GB
200GB --- ~186.26 GB
250GB --- ~232.83 GB
320GB --- ~298.02 GB
400GB --- ~372.53 GB
500GB --- ~465.66 GB
750GB --- ~698.49 GB
1TB --- ~931.32GB

Details:

Two different mathematical systems are used to define how much information
can be stored on the hard disk drive of your computer: binary or base-2
mathematics and base-10 mathematics.

- In the binary or base-2 system used by the operating system, 1 gigabyte
(GB) is equal to 1,073,741,824 bytes.
- In the base-10 system used by hard disk drive manufacturers, 1 gigabyte
(GB) is equal to 1,000,000,000 bytes (rather than the 1,073,741,824 bytes,
as listed above).

This discrepancy in reporting drive sizes (base-2 vs. base-10) may lead you
to believe that you have a hard disk drive of less than expected capacity if
you compare the figure reported by the operating system with the figure
reported by your documentation, although the actual hard drive size is
identical.

Next, freeing up space...

Uninstall ZoneAlarm - likely your issue will fade to nothingness.

Then...

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed...
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm
( Particularly of interest here - #4 )
( Alternative: http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm )

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but your
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:

- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest moving
the slider until you have just about 1GB (1024MB or close to that...)
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 64MB and 128MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Other ways to free up space..

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.

In the end - a standard Windows XP installation with all sorts of extras
will not likely be above about 4.5GB to 9GB in size. If you have more space
than that (likely do on a modern machine) and most of it seems to be used -
likely you need to move *your stuff* off and/or find a better way to manage
it.

 

[JoeSpareBedroom]

A couple three months ago I was forced to reformat my internal hard drive
as
the only way to get rid of a virus or spyware or something. I chose to
partition the drive into a cmall C: partition (24 gigs) and use it for
Windows and program files only. The other partition I would use for data
type files. (90 gigs). I quickly found that the C: drive wasn't big
enough,
so I set up a Programs folder on the F: partition and installed the
additional programs I needed there.

(I don't understand how the numbers add up because I thought I had a 120
gig
drive, not a 114 gig drive, but anyway.....)

So this worked fine until about a week ago when I got a message that I was
running out of space on the C: drive and on checking I found there was
actually no space left.

So, I uninstalled some programs and re-installed them on the F: partition
and deleted some files and ended up with 11.X gigs free.

Since then I haven't installed anything new, I haven't been to any web
sites
- simply captured some video and rendered some DVD's, all of which happens
on
my external drives, but today I got the same message and again found the
C:
partition full.

I managed to free up about 40 MB and then got distracted and when I came
back that 40 MB had disappeared again and there is once again no space on
my
C: drive.

I am running Zonealarm and Windows Firewall....

I stopped reading. I had the exact same problem a few days ago, and a bunch
of nice people jumped through hoops to help me by walking me through what
was essentially a proctology exam for my computer. Lots of good ideas, but
what finally did the trick was UNinstalling ZoneAlarm Pro. If you've got the
Pro ($$ version), make sure you've got your license key written down
somewhere, and then uninstall ZA. Post your results. When I removed it, the
vanishing disk space problem went away with it. If you want to read the
whole thread, look for subject line "Vanishing hard disk space", begun on
12/30/09.

And you shouldn't be running two firewalls anyway.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

<snipped>

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:

If you want to read the whole thread, look for subject line
"Vanishing hard disk space", begun on 12/30/09.

<snipped>

You can always point them to the post archived on Google Groups...

Examples...
This conversation:
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...p.general/browse_frm/thread/ac2a6ea788d4da86/

Your referred to conversation:
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...p.general/browse_frm/thread/1c9e81bd744ca194/

Just giving you some useful tools to help you help others. ;-)

 

[JoeSpareBedroom]

<snipped>

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:

<snipped>

You can always point them to the post archived on Google Groups...

Examples...
This conversation:
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...p.general/browse_frm/thread/ac2a6ea788d4da86/

Your referred to conversation:
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...p.general/browse_frm/thread/1c9e81bd744ca194/

Just giving you some useful tools to help you help others. ;-)

You are too kind. If people can't find a discussion from a few days ago
without links (aka "newsgroup GPS for the short bus"), they don't deserve to
reproduce, or even own a toaster.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

<snipped>

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:

If you want to read the whole thread, look for subject line
"Vanishing hard disk space", begun on 12/30/09.

<snipped>

You can always point them to the post archived on Google Groups...

Examples...
This conversation:
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...p.general/browse_frm/thread/ac2a6ea788d4da86/

Your referred to conversation:
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...p.general/browse_frm/thread/1c9e81bd744ca194/

Just giving you some useful tools to help you help others. ;-)

You are too kind. If people can't find a discussion from a few days
ago without links (aka "newsgroup GPS for the short bus"), they
don't deserve to reproduce, or even own a toaster.

Many people posting a query on the newsgroups (or whatever synchronized
web-forum they might end up on) may not be very good at web/forum/newsgroup
searches... After all - generally if they were, they would have found their
answers during their searches.

Better to give too much information than not nearly enough.

 

[JoeSpareBedroom]

<snipped>

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:

<snipped>




Many people posting a query on the newsgroups (or whatever synchronized
web-forum they might end up on) may not be very good at
web/forum/newsgroup searches... After all - generally if they were, they
would have found their answers during their searches.

Then they won't find your response either! But never mind. There are bigger
fish to fry: Why are we concerned about al Qaeda when the creator of WebTV
has yet to be brought to justice?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:

Then they won't find your response either! But never mind. There
are bigger fish to fry: Why are we concerned about al Qaeda when
the creator of WebTV has yet to be brought to justice?

If I didn't know better - not positive I do - I'd suspect you might have
been posting on these newsgroups for some time under a different moniker.
;-)

 

[JoeSpareBedroom]

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:


If I didn't know better - not positive I do - I'd suspect you might have
been posting on these newsgroups for some time under a different moniker.
;-)

No - always the same moniker. Next subject: I'll bet you $20 US that the OP
never finds his way back to this discussion.

 

[JohnD]

If by OP you mean "Original Poster" I think you just lost $20. I have been
studying and digesting all the advice (and I do have a few other things going

 

[JohnD]

Thanks for all your information (more than I ever wanted to know, right?).
I decided that instead of scrambling to save space, my C: partition was too
small anyway and problems would probably recur in the future, so I bit the
bullet and reformatted the drive without partitions and basically started
from scratch.

 

[JohnD]

Yes, as you predicted, uninstalling Zonealarm magically freed up 11 gigs. I
don't understand why, because I have another PC on the network that runs ZA
and only has a 30 gig drive of which 24 gigs are free and is completely
stable that way. Anyway, I reformatted the drive as one partition and
started from scratch.

Thanks for thr advice.