Loss of Hard Drive space

[Guest]

Recently purchased HP computer with Windows Vista - Hard Drive started with
approx. 15 gig of space used; in less than 2 weeks it has increased to 33 gig
of space used on hard drive without any additional software loaded (minimal
activity, basically, e-mail & internet surfing); have added some photos but
not over 15 gig.

 

[Adam Albright]

Recently purchased HP computer with Windows Vista - Hard Drive started with
approx. 15 gig of space used; in less than 2 weeks it has increased to 33 gig
of space used on hard drive without any additional software loaded (minimal
activity, basically, e-mail & internet surfing); have added some photos but
not over 15 gig.

Have you deleted a lot of files, but haven't emptied the Trash Bin?
The space isn't released until you do.

You can also right click on your hard drive from Windows Explorer,
properties, under the General tab run disk cleanup and it will give
you a list of files you can delete like Temp. Internet files.

 

[Guest]

Yes, I've emptied the trash and temp files - I just checked again and it's up
to 35 gig; literally all I have done is this post, check e-mail and play a
mahjong game today and it added 2 gig to the hard drive; I'm wondering if it
is something peculiar to Vista or if there is something wrong with this
particular computer (maybe something peculiar to HP) virus software or
spyware software has probably updated as well, but that shouldn't take up 2
gig of space?

 

[Lang Murphy]

Yeah... that doesn't sound right. Anyone else using the computer that might
be downloading stuff of which your are unaware? I might suggest that you try
and identify the location of these new files. Assuming we're talking about
the C: drive, open WinExplorer and right click on each folder and get
properties and note the size of the folders. Do it again the next day to
start to narrow down the location of this bloat. It ain't Vista, I don't
think...

Lang

 

[Adam Albright]

Yes, I've emptied the trash and temp files - I just checked again and it's up
to 35 gig; literally all I have done is this post, check e-mail and play a
mahjong game today and it added 2 gig to the hard drive; I'm wondering if it
is something peculiar to Vista or if there is something wrong with this
particular computer (maybe something peculiar to HP) virus software or
spyware software has probably updated as well, but that shouldn't take up 2
gig of space?

As silly as it may sound maybe the quickest way to see what is filling
up your drive is look folder by folder from Windows Explorer.

For example my C drive has 39,530,151,936 bytes used up. I find that
out by right clicking on the C drive folder in Windows Explorer then
the properites tab.

Click on the little arrow to expand this folder to see all your sub
folders in your C drive. One by one right click on each folder and
again check properties to see how much it stored in each sub folder.
You probably only got a handful of folders so it really only takes a
few minutes.

Every once in a great while Windows just burps and makes some super
huge file with a weird name that's really nothing but garbage. I know
this used to happen with FAT32 file systems, I'm not sure if it still
does in NTFS. If you fine one see if you can delete it to the trash
bin, then see if you can reboot ok. If everything runs ok, safe to
empty the trash bin and recover all that wasted space.

 

[Nicole & Tom]

Recently purchased HP computer with Windows Vista - Hard Drive started with
approx. 15 gig of space used; in less than 2 weeks it has increased to 33 gig
of space used on hard drive without any additional software loaded (minimal
activity, basically, e-mail & internet surfing); have added some photos but
not over 15 gig.

I have noticed a similar phenomonon. I have found that on my system it
is mainly due to system restore, and shadow copy.

I made sure the system was stable, and then turned off system restore.
I then turned system restore back on, and found that I had regained the
space. It may be possible to limit how much space it can use, or you
may wish to live without system restore.

Tom

 

[MICHAEL]

Recently purchased HP computer with Windows Vista - Hard Drive started with
approx. 15 gig of space used; in less than 2 weeks it has increased to 33 gig
of space used on hard drive without any additional software loaded (minimal
activity, basically, e-mail & internet surfing); have added some photos but
not over 15 gig.

If you've been installing and/or uninstalling a lot of programs,
your System Restore Points may be getting bloated.

Use Disk Cleanup to delete all you restore points except for
the last one created. Look under the "More Options" tab.

Also, Crap Cleaner is a handy little program for finding all those
temp files that programs create.
http://www.ccleaner.com/


-Michael

 

[jamez.phillips]

If you've been installing and/or uninstalling a lot of programs,
your System Restore Points may be getting bloated.

Use Disk Cleanup to delete all you restore points except for
the last one created. Look under the "More Options" tab.

Also, Crap Cleaner is a handy little program for finding all those
temp files that programs create.http://www.ccleaner.com/

-Michael

Hi Guys,

I have had exactly the same problem. I have lost over 20gig of HD
space and I do not know where it has gone to. I am quite IT savvy so I
have done all the usual things suggested above. I tried to find large
excess files all to no avail. I have counted up the size of the
folders and they do not come close to finding the 20gi lost space.

Your advice is greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[Guest]

Recently purchased TOSHIBA Laptop with Windows Vista - Hard Drive started with
approx. 15 gig of space used; in less than 10 weeks it has increased to 30
gig
of space used on hard drive without any additional software loaded (minimal
activity, basically, e-mail & internet surfing); I added some movies and
deleted but
not over 20 gig.

thanks allot for u help

 

[Marjay]

It is probably being used by Vista for system restore points and
shadow copies which can be up to 15% of your drive space.