Low disk space

[Haim Guivon]

After the computer has been woking for several hours, I receive a message
from Norton AV saying that the free disk space is dangerously low and
instructing me to close running programs.

When I check I can see that the free space in partition C:\ is indeed close
to zero. This is not due to fragmentation.

After a reboot, "Properties" show that disk C:\ has again about 30% free
space.

Two questions, please:

1) How can the disk become full when it is not due to fragmentation? Full of
what?

2) Is there a way except rebooting to restore free space? Closing programs
doesn't help.

Thanks,
haim

 

[Sharon F]

After the computer has been woking for several hours, I receive a message
from Norton AV saying that the free disk space is dangerously low and
instructing me to close running programs.

When I check I can see that the free space in partition C:\ is indeed close
to zero. This is not due to fragmentation.

After a reboot, "Properties" show that disk C:\ has again about 30% free
space.

Two questions, please:

1) How can the disk become full when it is not due to fragmentation? Full of
what?

2) Is there a way except rebooting to restore free space? Closing programs
doesn't help.

Thanks,
haim

What happens when you run Disk Cleanup?

A full drive is a full drive. The only file that I can think of that
automatically rebuilds on a restart is the pagefile. Some temp file clear
on a restart as well but unless you install a TON of software during every
session, this should not be a great impact on disk space.

You might be able to temporarily grab some more space by adjusting allowed
space allotments for Temporary Internet Files (setting is in Internet
Options), System Restore (setting in System properties) and Recycle Bin
(setting in the Bin's properties).

This will give you a bit of breathing room until you decide what you want
to do. Either keep using the drive you have but uninstall large programs
you are not using. Could also consider adding a second drive to be used in
addition to the original drive.

Replacing the existing drive with a larger one could be an option but... If
you have an OEM system, you may have special considerations such as the
system utilizes hidden recovery partitions, recovery programs expecting a
certain size drives or some other odd twist added by the OEM's customized
recovery programs.

 

[Sharon F]

After the computer has been woking for several hours, I receive a message
from Norton AV saying that the free disk space is dangerously low and
instructing me to close running programs.

When I check I can see that the free space in partition C:\ is indeed close
to zero. This is not due to fragmentation.

After a reboot, "Properties" show that disk C:\ has again about 30% free
space.

Two questions, please:

1) How can the disk become full when it is not due to fragmentation? Full of
what?

2) Is there a way except rebooting to restore free space? Closing programs
doesn't help.

Thanks,
haim

PS: XP's Defragmenter requires 15% of total disk space to be free for
defragmentation to take place. It won't hurt to run this tool (after a
fresh restart in your case) if you want to set your mind at ease about
fragmentation being a factor or not in your troubles.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Haim.

Fragmentation means that files are scattered. It does not refer to the
quantity of files, but merely to whether they are split into multiple
pieces. A 10 MB file takes up 10 MB of space, whether it is in a single 10
MB contiguous area or divided into ten 1 MB fragments. And it is not like
NAV to complain of low disk space, but one of the other Norton products, or
WinXP itself.

Many activities can cause disk space to be consumed, either temporarily or
permanently. As a quick example, if you Copy a file, WinXP first writes the
new copy, then deletes the old; temporarily, you have two copies using disk
space. If you Delete a file, WinXP usually just moves it to the Recycle
Bin, where it continues to occupy space until you Empty the Recycle Bin (and
maybe the Norton Protected Files), at which time the space does get
reclaimed. If you are running an application such as a video editor, which
consumes a lot of disk space, you may have many temporary copies of the
file(s) you are working on. When you exit the editor program, it should
clean up the scratch copies, reclaiming all that space. After a reboot, as
you've noted, all programs are closed, so space used temporarily by all your
programs is available again - until you use it up again.

Permanent consumers of disk space include all the files that we can see,
plus many that may be hidden. If you go to Folder Options and check the
View tab, you'll see many checkboxes under Files and Folders. By default,
WinXP is set to not show hidden files and folders, to hide operating system
files and to not display the contents of system folders. These settings are
fine most of the time, and they protect newbies from stumbling into unsafe
territory. For an experienced user, though, changing these options helps to
answer the "where did my disk space go" question.

A couple of other normally-hidden files use large chunks of disk space. The
system cache (also known as the swap file or paging file) is in
pagefile.sys; the default setting is for 1.5 x RAM (768 MB for a system with
512 MB RAM) and the default location is in the Root of the boot volume. If
you use hibernation, you should also find hiberfil.sys there, just slightly
larger than your RAM (it can't be moved elsewhere).

To reclaim your free space without rebooting, you'll need to determine which
programs are using the space and not relinquishing it when done. If you
mention your favorite programs, someone here may know some "tricks of the
trade" that will make them less hungry for disk space.

RC

 

[Haim Guivon]

Thank you very much. About Disk Fragmentation I check it with Norton System
Doctor, so this is not the issue. About the pagefile, I monitor it with
Cacheman, and is never bigger than 50 MB, very small compared compared with
the free disk space at startup, which is about 3.5 GB.

I'll try your advice about performing a Disk Cleanup when I get the message
of Low Disk Space. Tell me if you want me to post feedback.

But about the Temp files, or the Recycle Bin they are not of significant
size compared with 3 or 4 GB that are "stolen" when the disk free space
drops to zero. So I still don't know who is the culprit.

Thanks again,
haim

==========================================================

 

[Ken Blake]

In

After the computer has been woking for several hours, I receive
a
message from Norton AV saying that the free disk space is
dangerously
low and instructing me to close running programs.

When I check I can see that the free space in partition C:\ is
indeed
close to zero. This is not due to fragmentation.

After a reboot, "Properties" show that disk C:\ has again about
30%
free space.

Two questions, please:

1) How can the disk become full when it is not due to
fragmentation?
Full of what?

The disk being full has nothing to do with fragmentation.
Fragmentation means the pieces of the file are scattered, but
they don't take up any more space.

2) Is there a way except rebooting to restore free space?
Closing
programs doesn't help.

How big is your drive? How much is free when the problem occurs?
How much is free after rebooting? (Not percentages, but actual
numbers.)

 

[Sharon F]

Thank you very much. About Disk Fragmentation I check it with Norton System
Doctor, so this is not the issue. About the pagefile, I monitor it with
Cacheman, and is never bigger than 50 MB, very small compared compared with
the free disk space at startup, which is about 3.5 GB.

I'll try your advice about performing a Disk Cleanup when I get the message
of Low Disk Space. Tell me if you want me to post feedback.

But about the Temp files, or the Recycle Bin they are not of significant
size compared with 3 or 4 GB that are "stolen" when the disk free space
drops to zero. So I still don't know who is the culprit.

Thanks again,

You mention one of the Norton system tools. Do you use Norton's protected
bin as well? That little stinker can collect all kinds of files that you
thought were long gone. When using this tool empty the recycle bin twice:
Empty the Windows bin first. Then the Protected bin.

Or just uninstall that portion of Norton's.

 

[Plato]

the free disk space at startup, which is about 3.5 GB.

Which is WAY to low for an XP PC. You want to start with at LEAST 10 gig
free for an XP PC.

 

[Haim Guivon]

Hi, R.C.White,

First, thank you for your very detailed answer. I understand, but I'm
talking about a much bigger drain on my free space:

I am presently monitoring my disk fragmentation and disk free space with
Norton System Doctor (it is great, and I've just discovered it!). At the
start of a Windows session, it shows about 4 GB of free space and all the
space consuming unnecessary files that you mention are, together, orders of
magnitude smaller than that.

Now, a new insight I just had, is that the free space drain takes place even
when the computer is idle (not hibernating), disk activity and screen light
turned off after several minutes of inactivity. In these situation I left
today the machine for four hours, and when I went back, NO DISK SPACE was
left. This is even more upsetting considering that when the disk space falls
very low, the Restore Point files are erased.

Please, what else can it be?

TIA
haim

PS: For some reason your answer does not show in my Preview Pane; I found it
by chance when I performed a "find" for messages with the subject. On the
other hand, Sharon's answer shows (thank you, Sharon). What could this be?

=============================================================================

 

[Alex Nichol]

Thank you very much. About Disk Fragmentation I check it with Norton System
Doctor, so this is not the issue. About the pagefile, I monitor it with
Cacheman, and is never bigger than 50 MB, very small compared compared with
the free disk space at startup, which is about 3.5 GB.

Start by getting rid of Cacheman. The way these things work it may well
be the source of the trouble. Even when they do not cause a run away
physical file (maintaining that none is in use which is likely true)
they are doing nothing useful

 

[Alex Nichol]

Which is WAY to low for an XP PC. You want to start with at LEAST 10 gig
free for an XP PC.

My system is very happy on a 7.5 GB partition with 1.5 free. Page file
is, it must be said on a different physical drive, but is working on
initial size 100MB and not growing

 

[Haim Guivon]

Thanks to everybody. Everyone helped steering me in the right direction. I
found the culprit. (made a search for all files bigger than 1 MB).

It was a program from MS called BootVis. This program opens a file called
....\System32\Logfiles\WMI\trace.log. This file keeps growing all the time,
limitless. Even after I set the program not to perform a trace, after a
reboot it reset itself and started tracing again.

So, I deleted the program (it doesn't have an uninstall program), rebooted
and only then was I able to delete the file. Everything is fine now.

So far for poorly designed programs.

Thanks again,
haim

==============================================================

 

[Sharon F]

Thanks to everybody. Everyone helped steering me in the right direction. I
found the culprit. (made a search for all files bigger than 1 MB).

It was a program from MS called BootVis. This program opens a file called
...\System32\Logfiles\WMI\trace.log. This file keeps growing all the time,
limitless. Even after I set the program not to perform a trace, after a
reboot it reset itself and started tracing again.

So, I deleted the program (it doesn't have an uninstall program), rebooted
and only then was I able to delete the file. Everything is fine now.

So far for poorly designed programs.

Congrats. Good detective work on your part. BootVis can be tricky to turn
off before removing it. Thanks for posting the info about what was eating
your disk space.

 

[Plato]

My system is very happy on a 7.5 GB partition with 1.5 free. Page file
is, it must be said on a different physical drive, but is working on
initial size 100MB and not growing

Where are your temp internet files?

 

[Ken Blake]

In

Where are your temp internet files?

My wife, by the way, runs Windows XP of a 10GB hard drive, in a
single partition. She has never used more than half of it, so if
the drive were only 7.5GB (or even smaller), she too would be
fine with it.

True, she doesn't have a lot of applications installed, but the
drive isn't empty either.

 

[Alex Nichol]

Where are your temp internet files?

Limited to 50 MB, which ought to be enough for any contingency. I do
not make a practice of downloading very large files without saying where
to put them in advance, though

 

[Plato]

Limited to 50 MB, which ought to be enough for any contingency. I do
not make a practice of downloading very large files without saying where
to put them in advance, though

Setting your temp internet files to such is a good idea for anybody.