Free disk space does not increase when deleting files!

[Guest]

I have a serious problem. Whenever I delete a file the free disk space does
not increase. For example, I had 80Gb free space as reported by MY COMPUTER.
I deleted a 4Gb file, I should have then 84Gb free, right? Instead, I still
had 80Gb free AFTER deleting the file.
I noticed this problem many times since about a month ago. I always
refreshed, rebooted, did a disk cleanup (deleted temporary files, etc),
scanned for virus and spyware (everything Ok), keep my disk defragmented at
all times, and on top of it I have all writing programs disabled, like system
restore which is turned off. Eventually what happened was that the drive
would run out of space since it would continually increase in size and
deleting files would not claim back any space at all.
So I now deleted all partitions, formatted and reinstalled Windows XP Pro
SP2 cleanly, and now the problem arises again!!!!!
Does anyone know a fix to this or explain what's happening??
Thanks.

 

[VManes]

I hope you're not overlooking the obvious - empty the Recycle bin? Make
sure it's not set with too large a capacity

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I have a serious problem. Whenever I delete a file the free disk space does
not increase. For example, I had 80Gb free space as reported by MY COMPUTER.
I deleted a 4Gb file, I should have then 84Gb free, right? Instead, I still
had 80Gb free AFTER deleting the file.
I noticed this problem many times since about a month ago. I always
refreshed, rebooted, did a disk cleanup (deleted temporary files, etc),
scanned for virus and spyware (everything Ok), keep my disk defragmented at
all times, and on top of it I have all writing programs disabled, like
system
restore which is turned off. Eventually what happened was that the drive
would run out of space since it would continually increase in size and
deleting files would not claim back any space at all.
So I now deleted all partitions, formatted and reinstalled Windows XP Pro
SP2 cleanly, and now the problem arises again!!!!!
Does anyone know a fix to this or explain what's happening??
Thanks.

 

[Guest]

Hi, yes, I did empty the Recycle bin, that's part of the Disk Cleanup tool.
But guess what? I had Norton Protected Bin turned ON!!! So I purged all files
from Norton Protected bin and voila! I claimed back almost 6Gb of disk
space!!!! So that was it! From now on I will have Norton Protected Bin OFF
forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks.

 

[FeMaster]

You've just got to learn how to set it up properly... Set it to delete
after a day or two. It's there on a "just in case" basis, i.e., you deleted
something you actually found out that you might need...