Hard Drive Space-tried all the other ideas

  • Thread starter Thread starter SandiKay
  • Start date Start date
S

SandiKay

I have a 120GB hard drive that contains about 6GB of
information. Unfortunately, Windows 2000 sees 109GB
somehow. The folders in Explorer add up to about 6GB.
TreeSize Pro shows 6GB. I know that I only have 6GB of
data on this machine. What I need is some way to get W2k
to recognize that fact. It won't let me install anything
new or even do SpeedDisk because there is "not enough free
space". When I installed this new hard drive about 1.5
months ago, the space showed correctly. It wasn't until
today that I noticed that something in W2k is eating my
space!

Any solutions are greatly appreciated!
 
It would be a great help had you listed everything you've tried, or
simply added to some originasl thread. I for one have no idea what or
where anything about your problem has been said.

When you say SpeedDisk I assume you mean chkdsk. Ain't no SpeedDisk in
W2k. If somehow you do have SD on your system, maybe your whole system
is flaky.

Invisible or unusable space:
- a huge recycle bin. Clear it.
- an enormous pagefile. Fiddle with it, move it, use a couple of smaller
ones on different drives, etc.
- a failing drive. Download the manufacturer's drive diagnostic utility.
- lots and lots of deleteable temp files/directories.
- go to Disk Management, see what it says about the drive.
- check Event Viewer for any clues.
- set Explorer to display ALL files, including Hidden/System etc.
- go to Device Manager, see whether it reports any drive problems.
....and so on.
 
Several other posts in this forum mentioned a similar
problem and I have tried the suggestions to empty & turn
off Norton's Protected files, empty recycle bins, remove
temp files, search for large hidden files, show all hidden
files, use TreeSize Professional to see the actual files
sizes.
SpeedDisk is part of Norton SystemWorks - although I have
also run chkdsk twice with no errors detected or
corrected. Have run Norton DiskDoctor and Norton
SystemDoctor to no avail.
I've also run both Norton and McAfee virus scans and they
have found nothing. Also, PestPatrol found some spyware
and adware that we have deleted.
The sum total of all of the files (including system and
hidden files) is less than 6.5GB and yet when I right-
click to get properties on c: it says that there are 101GB
used on the drive and only 650MB free. The pagefile is
only 256MB.

One odd thing is that there are files with extremely long
names in the internet temp directory that we can not
delete and we can not get properties on them. I don't
know if that is connected because the directory sizes
don't add up to much - but it makes me wonder if I have a
corruption, bug, or virus.

Those are some of the things we have tried. Without a lot
of luck, I must say! Thanks again for any help!
 
OK, we figured it out. It was the iTunes Music Library.
Don't ask me why, but each mp3 file in the library was
adding 2.25 GB to the "space used" number on the drive,
but when I right-clicked on the each file, the size given
was the more reasonable 2 to 5 MB (depending on the file).

The way I found this was looking at the PC's C: drive from
my iMac having connected to it with DAVE.

I wiped out all of the MP3s and, sure enough, now I am
only using 5.3 GB and have 96.7 GB free.

I tried the test again, copying one single MP3 file from
my iMac to my PC and again, although the file properties
showed as 5.9 MB, it consumed 2.25 GB when checking the
disk properties.

If anyone out there has any idea why this is (is the MP3
format really different between Pentium III and PPC G4?
Between OS X and Win 2k?) then please, let me and everyone
on this board hear it. If you know of a conversion
utility, then please let us know that too.

Thanks for your help.

Sandi
 
Likely those rogue files are relict of some earlier malware infestation.

Removing virus/malware code itself is relatively easy; tracking down and
correcting bad stuff it did if it went active is a different thing
altogether, arduous.

You say you can't see properties (including sizes??) or delete them.
Have you tried various command line deletion attempts (wildcards)? Have
you tried renaming, then deleting? Moving them? The attrib command?

The business of undeletable files pops up here once in a while. Wish I
could remember some specific deletion techniques other wiser heads have
mentioned. Maybe a newsgroup search? Maybe one of the sages will post
now? I've got a dry well here now, but Good Luck... :-)
 
SandiKay said:
One odd thing is that there are files with extremely long
names in the internet temp directory that we can not
delete and we can not get properties on them. I don't
know if that is connected because the directory sizes
don't add up to much - but it makes me wonder if I have a
corruption, bug, or virus.

The cleanest way to get rif of such trash is to delete the entire
Temporary Internet Files folder. To do this, log on as a different user
-- one with administrator rights -- and delete the folder. You can't do
it while logged on as the owner of the profile in question. If you don't
have an appropriate user defined, do so right away. Every system should
have at least two administrative accounts, with the passwords recorded and
stored in a secure location.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Similar Threads


Back
Top