My C: drive's free space is automatically decreasing!!!...please help-Urgent

[ashjas]

Hi,

Today i saw that my c:drive's free space,on which winxp SP2 is
installed is decreasing by 0.01 GB per 6-7 seconds...and this continues
as long as OS is loaded.
And every other application also shows the decreased capacity which
means that something is really multiplying and taking space at this
rate????Whats this is it a virus attack???


Please help...

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Today i saw that my c:drive's free space,on which winxp SP2 is
installed is decreasing by 0.01 GB per 6-7 seconds...and this
continues as long as OS is loaded.
And every other application also shows the decreased capacity which
means that something is really multiplying and taking space at this
rate????Whats this is it a virus attack???

Find out what is taking up the space..

Do you have hidden and system files visible?
How's your system restore settings?
Used Disk Cleanup?
Is hibernate turned on and do you use that feature?
Uninstalled unnecessary applications lately?

Other ways to free up space..

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

DX Hog Hunt
http://www.dvxp.com/en/Downloads.aspx

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed..

http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but yuor
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:

- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest 5% or
higher.
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

 

[ashjas]

but the question is that its decreasing dynamically by 0.01GB per 6
seconds as i see it on the my computer page....the free space against C
dirve is decreasing with such a rate,what can be doing this??

while D,E drives have constant free space...

Any solution please??

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Adding to Shenan's helpful note:

You may use Filemon to see what's happening in the realtime.

<Q>
FileMon monitors and displays file system activity on a system in real-time.
Its advanced capabilities make it a powerful tool for exploring the way
Windows works, seeing how applications use the files and DLLs, or tracking
down problems in system or application file configurations. Filemon's
timestamping feature will show you precisely when every open, read, write or
delete, happens, and its status column tells you the outcome.
</Q>

Sysinternals Freeware - Filemon:
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Filemon.html

In the Filtering options, enable these three checkboxes and click OK

1. Log Writes
2. Log Successes
3. Log Errors

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


Hi,

Today i saw that my c:drive's free space,on which winxp SP2 is
installed is decreasing by 0.01 GB per 6-7 seconds...and this continues
as long as OS is loaded.
And every other application also shows the decreased capacity which
means that something is really multiplying and taking space at this
rate????Whats this is it a virus attack???


Please help...

 

[steam3801]

Hi,

Today i saw that my c:drive's free space,on which winxp SP2 is
installed is decreasing by 0.01 GB per 6-7 seconds...and this continues
as long as OS is loaded.
And every other application also shows the decreased capacity which
means that something is really multiplying and taking space at this
rate????Whats this is it a virus attack???

How do you see this? What steps do you take to get this "indication"
on your screen?

Is it possible that whatever you're doing to check the capacity of
your HDD, the decreasing "meter" that shows you .01Gb per 6-7 secs
reducing, is simply the continuing, ongoing action of the space useage
of your HDD being progressively added up, and that it will stop when
all the contents of yor HDD have been "totalled" and calculated?

 

[ashjas]

i am not running any application that does some work on HDD...no
applications opened...no file transfers of any sort...and i get this
indication from the my computer's page where all drives are
shown...when i fefresh the page the free space reduces by the said
rate...

 

[ashjas]

Thank You for suggesting me the Filemon application... Mr.Ramesh...

I got the culprit please look into the following scanned image for the
log file that is increasing in size...its abt
4.8 GB...a txt file!!

http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/567/17ff5.jpg

When i try to delete it OS says its in use...anybody have any idea what
log is this abou and how can i stop it??..

The path for the log file is there in the image...

Once again thanks...

 

[steam3801]

i am not running any application that does some work on HDD...no
applications opened...no file transfers of any sort...and i get this
indication from the my computer's page where all drives are
shown...when i fefresh the page the free space reduces by the said
rate...

I didn't say anything about running an application - I asked how you
were viewing the info about your HDD capacity? Through My Computer ->
C drive? Through Windows Explorer?

 

[ashjas]

clicking my computer icon on desktop

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

ashjas,

SPPolicy.log - Looks like a file created by Symantec's software. Try
contacting their support team to know how to eliminate the file. (and to
know if it's safe to delete it)

Symantec Search:
http://www.symantec.com/search/

Support - Symantec Corp.:
http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


Thank You for suggesting me the Filemon application... Mr.Ramesh...

I got the culprit please look into the following scanned image for the
log file that is increasing in size...its abt
4.8 GB...a txt file!!

http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/567/17ff5.jpg

When i try to delete it OS says its in use...anybody have any idea what
log is this abou and how can i stop it??..

The path for the log file is there in the image...

Once again thanks...

 

[ashjas]

ok the problem was solved...i used the following program to delete the
file that was not being deleted by windows..

http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/files/deletedr.exe

but i achieved this when i tried to delete it when whole of the c drive
was full..and no write to the log file was possible..

when i restarted..it again got building up and taking up space..and now
this software also cant delete that file...

what to do...

Is there any way of knowing what applictation or what executable is
building up this file or in other words..what application is using this
file??

Thanks..

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

what application is using this file??

One of the Symantec Products which you have in your system.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


ok the problem was solved...i used the following program to delete the
file that was not being deleted by windows..

http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/files/deletedr.exe

but i achieved this when i tried to delete it when whole of the c drive
was full..and no write to the log file was possible..

when i restarted..it again got building up and taking up space..and now
this software also cant delete that file...

what to do...

Is there any way of knowing what applictation or what executable is
building up this file or in other words..what application is using this
file??

Thanks..