230 Gb of "Unknown" files??

[Ralph IB]

My C Drive is 288 Gb and has 15 Gb of known files, 23 Gb free and 230 Gb of
what WinDirStat lists as <unknown> files.
My setup is:
HP m8150n with Intel Viiv Intel Core2 Quad Processor Q6600 (2.4 GHz)
Windows Vista Ultimate
3 Gb PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM
NVIDIAGeForce 8400 SEgraphics
640 Gb 7200RPM SATA HD
C Drive 288 Gb
D Drive Restore 9 Gb with 8 Gb full; 1 Gb free
E Drive 298 Gb

Several days ago I received message that C Drive is full. I checked and it
had 287.5 Gb full with 500 Mb free. I moved Pictures, Video & Music to my E
Drive and now have 23 Gb free.

When I check each folder, the total of all is 15 Gb. The C Drive shows 23
Gb free. Nothing else shows up in folders, definitely not the 230 Gb of
unknown files.

I ran Disk Cleanup, Defrag, went to Comd Prompt & ran chkdsk /f c:; went to
Organize/Folder/View and checked "Show hidden files" & unchecked "Hide
extensions" & "Hide protected OS".

Set Restore Points at 2 Gb max.

Ran Disk Cleanup again and ran WinDirStat. I still have 230 Gb listed as
<unknown>.

I cannot see them on my C Drive, so I don't know what kind of files they
are. This group only shows up in WinDirStat, but obviously they are taken up
because I only have 23 Gb free.

Any ideas on how I can "view" these unknown files so I can determine if and
how I can delete them? Any programs out there, other than WinDirStat, that
might help me identify them?

 

[Victek]

My C Drive is 288 Gb and has 15 Gb of known files, 23 Gb free and 230 Gb

of
what WinDirStat lists as <unknown> files.

When you ran disk cleanup, did you opt to delete all but the current restore
point/shadow copies?

 

[Ralph IB]

Yes. It didn't make any difference, but that did not surprise me since it is
supposed to only keep the last Restore Point if working properly. Even if it
didn't, when I limited Restore Point to 2 Gb, that would have cleared it.

 

[Victek]

Yes. It didn't make any difference, but that did not surprise me since it

is
supposed to only keep the last Restore Point if working properly. Even if
it
didn't, when I limited Restore Point to 2 Gb, that would have cleared it.

Well, If you can't identify the files can you feel reasonably confident that
all of your data is visible on the hard drive and also backed up somewhere?
If so then why not just delete the mystery files? It seems unlikely that
it's data. If you really want to cover the bases image the hard drive
first.

 

[Ralph IB]

I have received quite a bit of advice under the File Management group here.
One of those advised me to run WinDirStat as Administrator. I did that. I
will post my response here that I posted there:

I do have backups. After having 23 Gb free for the past 3 or 4 days, tonight
I got another "Disk Full" message. I looked and had 4 Mb free space!

I did not know I could run WinDirStat as Administrator. I did that and,
sure enough, it showed all the files. It listed 264.3 Gb as Windows files.
Breaking that down, 248.9 Gb are temp files. Most of these have been created
in October and this month. 6 of those files are 781.0 Mb. 6 are 699.5 Mb.
Then many at 400.2 Mb. These are all recent files. But the files have been
accumulating for a year (when I purchased this system).

I tried to delete one of the files and got the following warning: "Do you
know what you are doing? You are going to remove
c:\Windows\temp\TMP000001AC20F5242FC17BDF90 from your computer. Deletion of
system files or directories can seriously damage your system. Continue?"

I cancelled it and will ask you all for advice. Would I damage my pc by
deleting these temporary system files?

Thanks for all the advice.

 

[Richie Hardwick]

I cancelled it and will ask you all for advice. Would I damage my pc by
deleting these temporary system files?

Answered in the other thread... but if it will finally END this
madness, DELETE THEM ALL.

Richie Hardwick

 

[Victek]

I have received quite a bit of advice under the File Management group
here.
One of those advised me to run WinDirStat as Administrator. I did that.
I
will post my response here that I posted there:

I do have backups. After having 23 Gb free for the past 3 or 4 days,
tonight
I got another "Disk Full" message. I looked and had 4 Mb free space!

I did not know I could run WinDirStat as Administrator. I did that and,
sure enough, it showed all the files. It listed 264.3 Gb as Windows
files.
Breaking that down, 248.9 Gb are temp files. Most of these have been
created
in October and this month. 6 of those files are 781.0 Mb. 6 are 699.5
Mb.
Then many at 400.2 Mb. These are all recent files. But the files have
been
accumulating for a year (when I purchased this system).

I tried to delete one of the files and got the following warning: "Do you
know what you are doing? You are going to remove
c:\Windows\temp\TMP000001AC20F5242FC17BDF90 from your computer. Deletion
of
system files or directories can seriously damage your system. Continue?"

I cancelled it and will ask you all for advice. Would I damage my pc by
deleting these temporary system files?

Thanks for all the advice.

--

I have been emptying the the windows temp folder with no ill effects since
Windows 95. Simply delete everything in that folder. If you delete these
files with Explorer you can speed up the process by turning OFF the recycle
bin. Otherwise at least some of those files will wind up in the bin.
Alternately, you can use Ccleaner to do the job (you may want to "run as
administrator" in this case). And while you're at it you can delete all the
old Hotfix installer backups in the Windows folder that are more than six
months old (it's very unlikely you will ever uninstall a security update
that six or more months old). They are the folders that start with "$" and
are normally hidden.

 

[DevilsPGD]

In message <[email protected]> "Victek"

I have been emptying the the windows temp folder with no ill effects since
Windows 95. Simply delete everything in that folder. If you delete these
files with Explorer you can speed up the process by turning OFF the recycle
bin. Otherwise at least some of those files will wind up in the bin.
Alternately, you can use Ccleaner to do the job (you may want to "run as
administrator" in this case). And while you're at it you can delete all the
old Hotfix installer backups in the Windows folder that are more than six
months old (it's very unlikely you will ever uninstall a security update
that six or more months old). They are the folders that start with "$" and
are normally hidden.

If you want to quickly remove the contents of a directory, open a
command prompt, change to that directory and type "rd /s ."

This will obliterate absolutely everything without further prompting, so
be very careful.

 

[Andrew Rybenkov]

If you delete these files with Explorer you can speed up the process by turning OFF the recycle bin.

or just keep pressing SHIFT while clicking "Delete" to the same effect