Extreme Disk Usage

[Guest]

My notebook is using an extreme amount of disk space. This is suprising since I have a similar configuration on my desktop but have installed much less on the notebook. I have a 40GB hard drive and over half is being used by a directory called C:\Windows\CSC\. There are 8 sub-directories (d1-d8) which have thousands of some sort of system files. All 8 directories seem to have been created within a 4 day period but I have no idea what created them and whether they are needed. These directorys are not even visible unless I use Diskview or Treesize so I do not know if I can even delete the directories if I want to

I have tried all the disk cleanup utilities, deleted system restore points (even turned off system restore), cleared internet explorer history, deleted offline files, reduced the size of the recycle bin, even did the hookey pookey... Nothing works.

 

[CS]

My notebook is using an extreme amount of disk space. This is suprising since I have a similar configuration on my desktop but have installed much less on the notebook. I have a 40GB hard drive and over half is being used by a directory called C:\Windows\CSC\. There are 8 sub-directories (d1-d8) which have thousands of some sort of system files. All 8 directories seem to have been created within a 4 day period but I have no idea what created them and whether they are needed. These directorys are not even visible unless I use Diskview or Treesize so I do not know if I can even delete the directories if I want to.

I have tried all the disk cleanup utilities, deleted system restore points (even turned off system restore), cleared internet explorer history, deleted offline files, reduced the size of the recycle bin, even did the hookey pookey... Nothing works.

Have you scanned your notebook with a good virus program? By good I
mean one that is up to date and current.

 

[Guest]

I run Norton Antivirus on both my computers which gets updated automatically whenever Symantic publishes updates. Being the cautious type I also us the live update if I have not received any automatic updates in a while. I have a simple home network so I almost never check for emial on my notebook and I do most of my internet surfing on my desktop computer, so the risks of viruses on the notebook are farely low. The virus definitions are 2 days old and I just ran a scan last week. I also use ZoneAlarm Pro as a firewall and I periodically use I Since my notebook is used Ad-aware to remove pesky traking objects. Since the folder/files in question were all created within a few day period last November, I would have expected the tools I use to have noticed this problem by now. I suspect these were created by something I did inadvertantly.

 

[CS]

I run Norton Antivirus on both my computers which gets updated automatically whenever Symantic publishes updates. Being the cautious type I also us the live update if I have not received any automatic updates in a while. I have a simple home network so I almost never check for emial on my notebook and I do most of my internet surfing on my desktop computer, so the risks of viruses on the notebook are farely low. The virus definitions are 2 days old and I just ran a scan last week. I also use ZoneAlarm Pro as a firewall and I periodically use I Since my notebook is used Ad-aware to remove pesky traking objects. Since the folder/files in question were all created within a few day period last November, I would have expected the tools I use to have noticed this problem by now. I suspect these were created by something I did inadvertantly.

OK, that's good. At least you've eliminated the possibility of some
obscure virus or worm creating those folders. Of course, the problem
remains as to whether or not you should get rid of them. If you have
researched carefully and determined the folders are not part of
anything you currently have installed, them it's probably OK to delete
them. If you can delete them from Explorer without complaint from the
OS, then all is well. If you can't.......

I'm assuming your HDD is formatted as NTFS, so you would not be able
to boot with a Win98 EBD or boot disk and delete them. You can try
booting to safe mode and deleting them from there. If that doesn't
work and you do not wish to do a repair install (I don't recommend it
anyway), it's possible you can remove the HDD from the machine and
slave it to another HDD in an other XP machine and delete them that
way.

 

[Guest]

Thanks CS for your support. In a round about way (using google) I found out that CSC stands for "client side cache" and the CSC directory is where the offline files are kept for sychronizing the client copies of the files with the host versions. I have no idea why my directories were so large. Since I was using this feature in the past I was encouraged even though I had already cleared all the offline files. Since I knew another piece of the puzzle I went to the appropriate section of the WindowsXP User manual and read up on home networking and offline files. Luckily there was a bonus topic on clearing the CSC directory when deleting the offline files does not clear up the disk space. By going to My Computer, Tools, Folder Options, Offline Files (tab), there is a button for "delete files". I had done this a billion times but the trick is to hold the Control/Shift key when pressing the button so you Offline File Cache will be "re-initialized" (intuitive). One reboot later and I had recovered 50% of my disk space.

 

[CS]

Thanks CS for your support. In a round about way (using google) I found out that CSC stands for "client side cache" and the CSC directory is where the offline files are kept for sychronizing the client copies of the files with the host versions. I have no idea why my directories were so large. Since I was using this feature in the past I was encouraged even though I had already cleared all the offline files. Since I knew another piece of the puzzle I went to the appropriate section of the WindowsXP User manual and read up on home networking and offline files. Luckily there was a bonus topic on clearing the CSC directory when deleting the offline files does not clear up the disk space. By going to My Computer, Tools, Folder Options, Offline Files (tab), there is a button for "delete files". I had done this a billion times but the trick is to hold the Control/Shift key when pressing the button so you Offline File Cache will be "re-initialized" (intuitive). One reboot later and
I had recovered 50% of my disk space.

Great! Glad you got back the other 50 % of your disk space. And
thanks for letting us all know how you resolved it. Happy computing
and regards.