Mysteriously loss HD space after Winrar

[P. Lui]

Hi,

I was trying to unrar something that is very big (a few GB's) and
apparently one of the rar file was corrupted. I tried to unrar it a
couple of times and now my HD mysteriously losses 20-30GB. I checked
each folder by looking at their properties to check the size. The
sizes don't add up when I do a property on the drive itself. There's
nothing in the recycle bin. Could the files be hiding somewhere?

P.S. I've set it to show all files, including hidden & system files.

 

[Mark Dormer]

Check out the temp directories
c:\windows\temp and
C:\Documents and Settings\yourprofilename\Local Settings\Temp

Regards
Mark Dormer

 

[P. Lui]

Actually, the location of where I unrar the file is not in C:. It's
not the C drive that losses HD space but the D:, where I specified it
to unrar. I've tried downloading a lot of software to see if I can
get the space back. Programs such as Window Washer, SpaceSearcher,
etc. But no success yet. I'd be really grateful if anyone can help.

Patrick

 

[Bro. Howard]

Patrick,

Your problem is the same as mine.

I was downloading some .iso images and had to disconnect several times. Now
my available free space on C: is disappearing rapidly even though I was
downloading to D:. The file is temporarily kept in some temp space mon C
and then moved to D after completion of the process. Since the process
never completed (for your case or mine), the temp file was never deleted.

I downloaded the free trial version of DiskData from
www.digigallery.com/diskdata/ and it reveals the location of the oversized
space-hogging files. The problem is that XP doesn't see the files - and
therefore won't let me delete them, even though it sets the space aside for
them.

Whatever fixes one of our situations will also, I suspect, fix the other.

I also noticed my pagefile.sys is huge and wonder if that is related?

Bro. Howard

 

[P. Lui]

Patrick,

Your problem is the same as mine.

I was downloading some .iso images and had to disconnect several times. Now
my available free space on C: is disappearing rapidly even though I was
downloading to D:. The file is temporarily kept in some temp space mon C
and then moved to D after completion of the process. Since the process
never completed (for your case or mine), the temp file was never deleted.

I downloaded the free trial version of DiskData from
www.digigallery.com/diskdata/ and it reveals the location of the oversized
space-hogging files. The problem is that XP doesn't see the files - and
therefore won't let me delete them, even though it sets the space aside for
them.

Whatever fixes one of our situations will also, I suspect, fix the other.

I also noticed my pagefile.sys is huge and wonder if that is related?

Bro. Howard

[snip]

Bro. Howard,

Yeah, my problem is similar to yours. My problem is not the C: but
the D: where I wanted my files to unrar to. I used a similar program
to DiskData called Space Searcher but it can't find where it's taking
all these space on the drive. It just listed 40% of my drive as
"Others", not "Folders" or "Free". Searching through the
documentation doesn't really say what falls under "Others".

Have you tried this program called Window Washer? There's a free
trial on the site. I don't have the address on me at the moment but
you can google it fairly easily.

Patrick

 

[Bro. Howard]

Patrick,

Some guys from another newsgroup gave me a couple of solutions. I tried the
first, but it didn't help me. The second answer DID fix my problem, though.
I went from less than 10 MB back up to 1.4 GB. Here are their answers, in
case they help you:


Open Windows Explorer and click Tools>Folder Options, then the View tab.
Check "Show hidden files and folders" and then "Apply". In Windows Explorer,
open "Documents and Settings", then
look for the folder with your user name and open it. Open "Local Settings"
(a hidden folder) and you will see folders for your Temp files and Temporary
Internet Files. Open these, click one file
and then Ctrl + A. This will select all files in the folder which you can
then delete except index.dat (a system file). Clean out both folders. There
is also a Temp folder in the Windows folder,
again, clean this out. Pagefile.sys is the swap file required by Win XP. If
you delete it, it will be generated again. After deleting the files, run a
disk check and defrag on your drive. It sounds like you need a larger or
second hard drive. You should keep about 15% of your total drive space empty
so your pagefile and Defrag have room to work. Some extra space can be had
by reducing the amount of space
reserved by the Recycle Bin, System Restore and Temporary Internet Files,
but you might consider dumping some unused programs as well.
Jeff


Hi, Bro. Howard.

In Internet Explorer, click Tools | Internet Options... On the first
(General) tab, there is a section for Temporary Internet Files. You can TIF
and cookies from here. You can also click Settings... and adjust the amount
of space that TIF uses - or even move the TIF to a different drive to free
up some space on C:.

You might also want to click the Advanced tab, scroll down to Security, and
check the box that says to Empty the TIF when you close IE. If you have
broadband, IE can reload a page from the 'net just about as fast as it can
retrieve a copy from your TIF cache.

The page file is an essential part of WinXP. You can manage it yourself,
but I prefer to let WinXP do it. Either way, the place to set it is at
System Properties | Advanced | Performance Settings | Advanced | Virtual
Memory Change. You can, among other choices, move the page file to some
drive other than C:.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP

 

[P. Lui]

Patrick,

Your problem is the same as mine.

I was downloading some .iso images and had to disconnect several times. Now
my available free space on C: is disappearing rapidly even though I was
downloading to D:. The file is temporarily kept in some temp space mon C
and then moved to D after completion of the process. Since the process
never completed (for your case or mine), the temp file was never deleted.

I downloaded the free trial version of DiskData from
www.digigallery.com/diskdata/ and it reveals the location of the oversized
space-hogging files. The problem is that XP doesn't see the files - and
therefore won't let me delete them, even though it sets the space aside for
them.

Whatever fixes one of our situations will also, I suspect, fix the other.

I also noticed my pagefile.sys is huge and wonder if that is related?

Bro. Howard

[Snip]

Okay, I've solved it with the help from people on techtv's board.
Here's the link:
http://cgi.techtv.com/messageboards...=12&topic_id=28&thread_id=2959481&per_page=50

I guess this works if you happen to have Norton install on ur
computer.

Patrick