C Drive Suddenly full

[Guest]

I got a message yesterday that my C drive is full. I have no idea how this
happened. The only thing I can think of is that I was on my Winamp player
watching a bunch of music videos they have on their program, but I wasn't
aware of any files being saved to my computer -- I thought it was simply
streaming from the internet.

I even did a search on my C drive to see if any of the files saved anywhere
and they didn't show up in the search. Is there any way to tell which files
on my C drive are the largest so I can see if a new folder was created or
something that is taking all the space????

Also, I noticed when I ran a defragment analysis there was quite a bit of
space that was fragmented -- like over half, but when I try to run a
defragmentation I get a message that there isn't enough space to run it. I
only have 4% free space vs the 15% required. Any ideas????

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I got a message yesterday that my C drive is full. I have no idea
how this happened. The only thing I can think of is that I was on
my Winamp player watching a bunch of music videos they have on
their program, but I wasn't aware of any files being saved to my
computer -- I thought it was simply streaming from the internet.

I even did a search on my C drive to see if any of the files saved
anywhere and they didn't show up in the search. Is there any way
to tell which files on my C drive are the largest so I can see if a
new folder was created or something that is taking all the space????

Also, I noticed when I ran a defragment analysis there was quite a
bit of space that was fragmented -- like over half, but when I try
to run a defragmentation I get a message that there isn't enough
space to run it. I only have 4% free space vs the 15% required.
Any ideas????

Use this..
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

And this..
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

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

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 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/

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.

 

[M and D]

Check for viruses and spyware.

Steven

 

[Anthony]

Brandon,
The first thing I would check is how big your swap file has gotten. The file
is PAGEFILE.SYS probably located in the root directory C:\. Use Windows
explorer to view the files on the drive and make sure you go to TOOLS>FOLDER
OPTIONS then click on the view tab. Under files and folders make sure that
Show hidden files and folders is selected and UNCHECK the Hide extensions
for known file types AND hide protected system files. This way you will be
able to see the swap file and it's size. If it has grown incredibly large,
above 2 gig, re-boot the system.
The other thing to check is the Temp directory, Temp Internet files. Make
sure that any huge video giles have been deleted after viewing.
Hope this helps
Anthony