Hard drive free space gone

[Panic]

Somethings going on with my hard drive free space. I had 20GB free and
moved almost 20GB to my external USB drive and it still showed only 20GB
free space. I ran a defrag and it showed large block areas of fragmented
files but during defrag it only defragmented a few. My free space was still
only 20GB.

I ran disk check - fix and it didn't recover anymore free space. I
compressed C drive since it said it would provide 3GB more free space.
After compression it shows 11GB free.

Help! Any ideas? Is this a hard drive going bad or could it be a virus?

 

[Panic]

Somethings going on with my hard drive free space. I had 20GB free and
moved almost 20GB to my external USB drive and it still showed only 20GB
free space. I ran a defrag and it showed large block areas of fragmented
files but during defrag it only defragmented a few. My free space was
still only 20GB.

I ran disk check - fix and it didn't recover anymore free space. I
compressed C drive since it said it would provide 3GB more free space.
After compression it shows 11GB free.

Help! Any ideas? Is this a hard drive going bad or could it be a virus?

I just tried to copy my C: drive (80GB) to my external hard drive (200GB)
and it hung up early saying "can't copy hiberfil: it is in use, try closing
program and try again (sic)". I went to my C: drive and selected to show
system files and found a file hiberfil.sys, a little over 1GB in size. I
then selected All folder/files and deselected hiberfil.sys and it copied.
Does that add any info on my problem?

 

[Rock]

I just tried to copy my C: drive (80GB) to my external hard drive (200GB)
and it hung up early saying "can't copy hiberfil: it is in use, try
closing program and try again (sic)". I went to my C: drive and selected
to show system files and found a file hiberfil.sys, a little over 1GB in
size. I then selected All folder/files and deselected hiberfil.sys and it
copied. Does that add any info on my problem?

No. The hiberfil.sys file is the file created when hibernation is activated
on the computer. The size if the file is the same as the amount of memory
in the computer. You have no need to move it.

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi,

Does defrag indicate the location of these files?

Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org
Member: http://dts-l.org

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Go to Start, Control Panel, Folder Options, View, Advanced Settings
and verify that the box before "Show hidden files and folders" is
checked and "Hide protected operating system files " is unchecked. You
may need to scroll down to see the second item. You should also make
certain that the
box before "Hide extensions for known file types" is not checked. Next
in Windows Explorer make sure View, Details is selected and then
select View, Choose Details and check before Name, Type, Total Size,
and Free Space.

To increase you free space on your XP partition select Start, All
Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp, More Options,
System Restore and remove all but the latest System Restore points?
Restore points can be quite large.

It is likely that an allocation of 12% has been made to System Restore
on your C partition which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700
mb. Right click your My Computer icon on the Desktop and select System
Restore. Place the cursor on your C drive select Settings but this
time find
the slider and drag it to the left until it reads 700 mb and exit.
When you get to the Settings screen click on Apply and OK and exit.

Are you using any Norton utilities?

FileSize -a useful tool for use with Windows Explorer when
investigating how disk space is being used.
http://markd.mvps.org/

The download link is not obvious. Click the here in the two sentences
of the web page accessed through the link above. "I can't count the
number of times someone has asked for this. So here is a module you
can install that shows a Folder Size column in Explorer."

Note the Search option in Windows Explorer to search for files over 1
mb. You sort the result in order of size by clicking on size over the
list of
files. Search My Computer ensuring you have selected Advanced Options
and clicked on the box before Search System Folders, Search Hidden
Files and Folders and Search Sub-Folders.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Panic]

None of the suggestions so far has helped. I downloaded Hard Drive Mechanic
and checked my hard drive from a DOS 98 boot floppy. It showed no drive
problems. I use Norton AV but I just downloaded and ran AVG and it also
shows no viruses.

No amount of deleting programs/folders/files, etc results in an increase of
free space on my hard drive. Anone have any further ideas or suggestions of
sites that I might visit to find out what's wrong? In the meantime I'm
trying to safeguard my remaining 12GB of free space until February when I
may buy a new computer with Vista.

 

[Malke]

None of the suggestions so far has helped. I downloaded Hard Drive
Mechanic
and checked my hard drive from a DOS 98 boot floppy. It showed no drive
problems. I use Norton AV but I just downloaded and ran AVG and it also
shows no viruses.

No amount of deleting programs/folders/files, etc results in an increase
of
free space on my hard drive. Anone have any further ideas or suggestions
of
sites that I might visit to find out what's wrong? In the meantime I'm
trying to safeguard my remaining 12GB of free space until February when I
may buy a new computer with Vista.

Norton Recycle Bin?

Malke

 

[Lem]

Norton Recycle Bin?

Malke

Arrggh! I thought the Norton Protected Recycle Bin went out with Win95.

For the OP -- Symantec says
(http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/security/Content/2006.01.10.html):

Norton SystemWorks contains a feature called the Norton Protected
Recycle Bin, which resides within the Microsoft Windows Recycler
directory. The Norton Protected Recycle Bin includes a directory called
NProtect, which is hidden from Windows APIs. Files in the directory
might not be scanned during scheduled or manual virus scans. This could
potentially provide a location for an attacker to hide a malicious file
on a computer.

Symantec has released a product update that will now display the
previously hidden NProtect directory in the Windows interface.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Panic

Which suggestions did you actually try? Did you search your drive
using Windows Explorer as I suggested after making hidden files
visible? Read my earlier post for details.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Panic]

I don't believe I have a Norton Recycle Bin. I have Norton Internet
Security which, I think, does not include the Norton mod of the Recycle Bin.

 

[Panic]

Go to Start, Control Panel, Folder Options, View, Advanced Settings and
verify that the box before "Show hidden files and folders" is checked and
"Hide protected operating system files " is unchecked. You may need to
scroll down to see the second item. You should also make certain that the
box before "Hide extensions for known file types" is not checked. Next in
Windows Explorer make sure View, Details is selected and then select View,
Choose Details and check before Name, Type, Total Size, and Free Space.

To increase you free space on your XP partition select Start, All
Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp, More Options, System
Restore and remove all but the latest System Restore points? Restore
points can be quite large.

OK. I show all files hidden and otherwise. I did a Windows search for *.*
on my C: drive and selected to show all files and folders, hidden or not.
Then I clicked on the Size column to list them by size. If have 6 files
just over 1GB that seem to be OK. Some large movie conversion files and
hiberfil.sys.

It is likely that an allocation of 12% has been made to System Restore on
your C partition which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700 mb.
Right click your My Computer icon on the Desktop and select System
Restore. Place the cursor on your C drive select Settings but this time
find
the slider and drag it to the left until it reads 700 mb and exit. When
you get to the Settings screen click on Apply and OK and exit.

OK. Sys Restore was using 9GB and I slid it to the minimum 1% or 1GB.
No increase in C: disk free space.

Are you using any Norton utilities?

I have NIS.

FileSize -a useful tool for use with Windows Explorer when investigating
how disk space is being used.
http://markd.mvps.org/

The download link is not obvious. Click the here in the two sentences of
the web page accessed through the link above. "I can't count the number of
times someone has asked for this. So here is a module you can install that
shows a Folder Size column in Explorer."

Note the Search option in Windows Explorer to search for files over 1 mb.
You sort the result in order of size by clicking on size over the list of
files. Search My Computer ensuring you have selected Advanced Options and
clicked on the box before Search System Folders, Search Hidden Files and
Folders and Search Sub-Folders.

OK. As I reported above I used the Search function looking at hidden files
and folders and found no obvious culprits.

The most puzzling thing about my problem is that removing large amounts of
data (up to 20GB) and moving them to my external hard drive does not free up
disk space.

 

[Panic]

I don't believe so. When I get an opportunity I will reboot to the safe
mode and run defrag from there.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

You should not have a 9 gb System Volume Information folder if you
have reduced the allocation from 12% to 1% as it should be no more
than 800 mb! Something not right there! Have a look at the setting
again and check whether it is still 1%. Have you rebooted since you
changed the setting?

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp,
More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System
Restore points again and see what difference it makes.

Using Disk Defragmenter individual system restore points invariably
fragment. Open Disk Defragmenter and select Analyse. After Analyse has
finished select View Report and look at the Most fragmented list.
After running Disk Defragmenter look at the list agin to see if there
are still any files listed. Whilst on the subject of Disk Defragmenter
are the green bands solid or scattered across the disk?

Norton Protected Storage? It is certainly part of Norton System Works
2006.
http://snipurl.com/j8g4
if link broken try
http://service1.symantec.com/suppor...85256c370048ad89?OpenDocument&src=bar_sch_nam

Where are you getting your figures for free disk space. Some sources
misreport. Compressed files are reported as their original size before
compression whereas their size on disk is less. This causes problems
trying to reconcile space used plus free disk space with the size of
the hard disk. Also remember that a 80 gb hard drive is not actually
80 gb.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Somethings going on with my hard drive free space. I had 20GB free
and moved almost 20GB to my external USB drive and it still showed
only 20GB free space. I ran a defrag and it showed large block
areas of fragmented files but during defrag it only defragmented a
few. My free space was still only 20GB.

I ran disk check - fix and it didn't recover anymore free space. I
compressed C drive since it said it would provide 3GB more free
space. After compression it shows 11GB free.

Help! Any ideas? Is this a hard drive going bad or could it be a
virus?

Compressing the drive is likely not a good idea. It's just not worth the
performance hit.

Used Disk Cleanup?
Is hibernate turned on and do you use that feature?
Uninstalled unnecessary applications lately?

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

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but yuor
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 5% or
higher.
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 128MB and 512MB..

- 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 128MB and 512MB. (Betting it is 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..

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

DX Hog Hunt
http://www.dvxp.com/en/Downloads.aspx

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

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

 

[Panic]

Compressing the drive is likely not a good idea. It's just not worth the
performance hit.

Used Disk Cleanup?
Is hibernate turned on and do you use that feature?
Uninstalled unnecessary applications lately?

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete
the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed..

I could try that but no previous deletion of folders or files has resulted
in an increase of free disk space. Example I had MS Flight Sim X on my hard
drive using 13GB of space. I copied it to my external hard drive and used
Add/Remove to take it off my hard drive. It showed the deletion of all that
material from my C: drive and it no longer shows in Explorer as on my C:
drive. But my free space on my C: drive didn't increase. It seems the FAT
doesn't release that space for new use.

 

[Panic]

....

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

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

I installed the jdisk report on my USB hard drive (to avoid losing more free
space on C It shows only 28GB of folders/files on my 80GB hard drive.
That agrees with what I feel should be used after having moved folders/files
off my C: drive. But when I right click my C: drive and choose properties
it shows 71GB Used Space and just over 11GB free. It seems that somehow my
FAT is not releasing that space to be written again when I delete something.
My free space is withering away. Anytime something is written I have less
space even though the new writing is supposed to only replace something.

 

[Panic]

FWIW. I have Drive Image 7.0 on my computer. My son suspects it may be
causing my problem. But I don't see how. It's not a continually running
program It only runs when I make an image and put it on my external USB
drive or when I use it to recover some files I saved in a previous image.
What do you think?

I had GoBack 3.0 but it stopped working, saying there was so much activity
that it had to stop remembering stuff. So I removed GoBack. If that
excessive disk activity really was going on maybe that has some bearing on
my problem. I'm now using Rollback RX Pro to protect my data.

--
Darrell R. Schmidt
B-58 Web Site
http://members.cox.net/dschmidt1/

...

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

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

I installed the jdisk report on my USB hard drive (to avoid losing more
free space on C It shows only 28GB of folders/files on my 80GB hard
drive. That agrees with what I feel should be used after having moved
folders/files off my C: drive. But when I right click my C: drive and
choose properties it shows 71GB Used Space and just over 11GB free. It
seems that somehow my FAT is not releasing that space to be written again
when I delete something. My free space is withering away. Anytime
something is written I have less space even though the new writing is
supposed to only replace something.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Darrell

You seem to keep speculating on what might be the problem and not
taking the practical steps suggested to find out what it is! I posted
this earlier but what is the purpose if you ignore suggestions. Some
of us here know what can be concealed and taking up disk space. We may
not individually know all the potential causes but as a group we can
solve most windows related problems.

You should not have a 9 gb System Volume Information folder if you
have reduced the allocation from 12% to 1% as suggested it should be
no more than 800 mb! Something not right there! Have a look at the
setting again and check whether it is still 1%. Have you rebooted
since you changed the setting?

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp,
More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System
Restore points again and see what difference it makes.

Using Disk Defragmenter individual system restore points invariably
fragment. Open Disk Defragmenter and select Analyse. After Analyse has
finished select View Report and look at the Most fragmented list.
After running Disk Defragmenter look at the list again to see if there
are still any files listed. Whilst on the subject of Disk Defragmenter
are the green bands solid or scattered across the disk?

Norton Protected Storage? It is certainly part of Norton System Works
2006.
http://snipurl.com/j8g4
if link broken try
http://service1.symantec.com/suppor...85256c370048ad89?OpenDocument&src=bar_sch_nam

Where are you getting your figures for free disk space. Some sources
misreport. Compressed files are reported as their original size before
compression whereas their size on disk is less. This causes problems
trying to reconcile space used plus free disk space with the size of
the hard disk. Also remember that a 80 gb hard drive is not actually
80 gb.

You mention removing Norton GoBack. This Norton component will stop
System Restore working. Once you have had Norton components on your
computer they are extremely difficult to remove cleanly. They change
Registry settings and leave files on the disk to ruin system
performance etc.


--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FWIW. I have Drive Image 7.0 on my computer. My son suspects it
may be causing my problem. But I don't see how. It's not a
continually running program It only runs when I make an image and
put it on my external USB drive or when I use it to recover some
files I saved in a previous image. What do you think?

I had GoBack 3.0 but it stopped working, saying there was so much
activity that it had to stop remembering stuff. So I removed
GoBack. If that excessive disk activity really was going on maybe
that has some bearing on my problem. I'm now using Rollback RX Pro
to protect my data.

 

[Rock]

FWIW. I have Drive Image 7.0 on my computer. My son suspects it may be
causing my problem. But I don't see how. It's not a continually running
program It only runs when I make an image and put it on my external USB
drive or when I use it to recover some files I saved in a previous image.
What do you think?

I had GoBack 3.0 but it stopped working, saying there was so much activity
that it had to stop remembering stuff. So I removed GoBack. If that
excessive disk activity really was going on maybe that has some bearing on
my problem. I'm now using Rollback RX Pro to protect my data.

I don't see how it can be Drive Image. I would look at Rollback Rx Pro.

 

[Panic]

Darrell

You seem to keep speculating on what might be the problem and not taking
the practical steps suggested to find out what it is! I posted this
earlier but what is the purpose if you ignore suggestions. Some of us here
know what can be concealed and taking up disk space. We may not
individually know all the potential causes but as a group we can solve
most windows related problems.

I have done all suggestions except the new defrag attempt. Note: "None of
the suggestions so far has helped. I downloaded Hard Drive Mechanic
and checked my hard drive from a DOS 98 boot floppy. It showed no drive
problems. I use Norton AV but I just downloaded and ran AVG and it also
shows no viruses." That statement from my previous post should indicate I
have done the suggestions except for the new defrag.

You should not have a 9 gb System Volume Information folder if you have
reduced the allocation from 12% to 1% as suggested it should be no more
than 800 mb! Something not right there! Have a look at the setting again
and check whether it is still 1%. Have you rebooted since you changed the
setting?

After reboot System Information is now 1 GB. But my C: drive free space is
still only 11GB.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp, More
Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System Restore
points again and see what difference it makes.

Using Disk Defragmenter individual system restore points invariably
fragment. Open Disk Defragmenter and select Analyse. After Analyse has
finished select View Report and look at the Most fragmented list. After
running Disk Defragmenter look at the list again to see if there are still
any files listed. Whilst on the subject of Disk Defragmenter are the green
bands solid or scattered across the disk?

I have time for the defrag today. I'll print this and try it.

Norton Protected Storage? It is certainly part of Norton System Works
2006.

I don't have Norton System Works. I have Norton Internet Security 2005.

http://snipurl.com/j8g4
if link broken try
http://service1.symantec.com/suppor...85256c370048ad89?OpenDocument&src=bar_sch_nam

Where are you getting your figures for free disk space. Some sources
misreport. Compressed files are reported as their original size before
compression whereas their size on disk is less. This causes problems
trying to reconcile space used plus free disk space with the size of the
hard disk. Also remember that a 80 gb hard drive is not actually 80 gb.

I am using Explorer to go to my C: drive, highlight it, right click, choose
Properties and it shows 65.6GB Used and 10.6GB Free on the actual 76.3GB
available on my "80GB" hard ddrive.

You mention removing Norton GoBack. This Norton component will stop System
Restore working. Once you have had Norton components on your computer they
are extremely difficult to remove cleanly. They change Registry settings
and leave files on the disk to ruin system performance etc.

I know GoBack is a very "jealous" program and screws around with the hard
drive operation. That's why I removed it. Since then I had to reformat and
reload WinXP so it should be gone. And that's why I asked about Rollback RX
Pro. I have that operational now and have some suspicions that it might be
the problem.