Disappearing hard disk space

[Guest]

Hi, when I turn on or restart my computer, my hard disk (C: drive) has
between 700 and 800 MB of free space. However, within an hour or two, even
if I download nothing, the remaining free space dwindles rapidly until it
hits 0 MB. I've looked at the processes running under Task Manager, and none
of them seems to be a back door. And I've also run antispyware and antivirus
programs, none of which turn up any problem. This "disappearing hard disk
space" trouble has only been happening for the past few days or so. Does
anyone know what the cause and/or solution might be? Thanks very much!

 

[philo]

Hi, when I turn on or restart my computer, my hard disk (C: drive) has
between 700 and 800 MB of free space. However, within an hour or two, even
if I download nothing, the remaining free space dwindles rapidly until it
hits 0 MB. I've looked at the processes running under Task Manager, and none
of them seems to be a back door. And I've also run antispyware and antivirus
programs, none of which turn up any problem. This "disappearing hard disk
space" trouble has only been happening for the past few days or so. Does
anyone know what the cause and/or solution might be? Thanks very much!

if you don't have much ram,
your pagefile may be growing...
however... if you have only 800 megs of free space
it's definately time to get a larger drive!

 

[Guest]

Hi, I have 512 MB of RAM. What's a pagefile? Thanks for your help!

 

[Guest]

As Philo said, you probaly are running XP on a machine made for 98 or ME. A
larger drive is needed. You should have at least 5GB of hard drive space
free. 800MB won't cut it.

 

[Jim]

Hi, I have 512 MB of RAM. What's a pagefile? Thanks for your help!

It is the file which Windows uses to pretend that you have a 4GB address
space. The size of the page file varies over time.
Jim

 

[Kelly]

Hi Maxtone,

It can depend on many issues and arena's. This is common within many of the
Photo programs.

Suggestions: Run the full combo listed below.

Run Ad-Aware SE, Spybot, CWShredder and HijackThis:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads31.html

Note: Update the first two programs, once installed, before running.

Added info and checkpoints to consider:

Run the Task Manager, go to View/Select Columns, and turn on the following
columns: "I/O Read Bytes" and "I/O Write Bytes." This will give you details
as to which process is accessing the disk.

Although many processes will be accessing the disk, look for one with a high
total or a fast rate of increase, especially when you hear the drive being
accessed.

Suggestion: Run the undo on line 367 (right hand side):
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

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

How to Locate and Correct Disk Space Problems on NTFS Volumes in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=315688

Windows XP Does Not Recognize All Available Disk Space
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-gb;316505&ln=en-gb

Hard Disk Performance Is Slower Than You Expect
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q308219

Good luck and keep us posted.
--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com

Vote: Bo

 

[Guest]

Thanks, all. I'll try out your suggestions and see what happens. Thanks
again!