Vanishing hard disk space

[JoeSpareBedroom]

WinXP Pro SP2
500 mb of RAM
18 gb hard disk with around 4gb free

Got a warning last night that I was running out of hard disk space. Checked
My Computer & found I was down to around 200 *MEGABYTES*. My first thought
was "That's interesting". Actually, that's not what I thought, but there
might be kids here, so use your imagination.

I download quite a bit of music, but in order to keep about 4gb free, I
religiously move the files to my external HD every few days, so I knew that
wasn't the issue. The only things running at the moment were Firefox and
Outlook Express, along with Avast (antivirus) and ZoneAlarm Pro. I shut down
FF & OE & restarted the computer. Again, I found around 200 MB free.
Unfortunately, I did not check page file use in Task Manager at the time.
However, I compared the list of processes to a screen shot I made for this
purpose in the past, and found nothing unusual. I accept no software updates
(except from Avast & ZoneAlarm) without first consulting a couple of tech
sources for problems, and no new apps have been installed in at least a
year.

Walked away to think about it, came back 10 minutes later, and found I was
back up to 4GB again.

"That's interesting", I thought. I ran a full AV scan using Avast, followed
by a Spybot scan. They found nothing. Upon restarting this morning, the
computer is fine.

I'm mystified. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[db]

your antivirals didn't find anything
because the issue you have is not
with infections but simply due to
low disk space.

what you need to do is to add more
disk space by way of a second hard
drive.

then move all your personal files, docs,
pic's and music onto the new location

which will provide some relief for
windows on the smaller drive.



--
db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- @Hotmail.com
- nntp Postologist
~ "share the nirvana" - dbZen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Daave]

WinXP Pro SP2
500 mb of RAM
18 gb hard disk with around 4gb free

Got a warning last night that I was running out of hard disk space.
Checked My Computer & found I was down to around 200 *MEGABYTES*. My
first thought was "That's interesting". Actually, that's not what I
thought, but there might be kids here, so use your imagination.

I download quite a bit of music, but in order to keep about 4gb free,
I religiously move the files to my external HD every few days, so I
knew that wasn't the issue. The only things running at the moment
were Firefox and Outlook Express, along with Avast (antivirus) and
ZoneAlarm Pro. I shut down FF & OE & restarted the computer. Again, I
found around 200 MB free. Unfortunately, I did not check page file
use in Task Manager at the time. However, I compared the list of
processes to a screen shot I made for this purpose in the past, and
found nothing unusual. I accept no software updates (except from
Avast & ZoneAlarm) without first consulting a couple of tech sources
for problems, and no new apps have been installed in at least a year.

Walked away to think about it, came back 10 minutes later, and found
I was back up to 4GB again.

"That's interesting", I thought. I ran a full AV scan using Avast,
followed by a Spybot scan. They found nothing. Upon restarting this
morning, the computer is fine.

I'm mystified. Anyone have any ideas?

Yes. I did use my imagination , and since kids may have used your
PC, the posibility exists that you do have malware that has not been
detected. I would get a second opinion with MBAM and also a bootable
antivirus CD (I believe Avast gives you the ability to make one. If not,
Avira, Kaspersky, and Bit Defender do.)

Also, JDiskReport can quickly give you a graphical representation of
what's taking up space on your hard drive:

http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/

Also, please explain again what you saw. It sounds like that you had 4GB
free. Then it was only 200MB free. Then again, without doing anything,
it was 4GB free. Do I have that right?

What are your Virtual Memory settings?

Have you run Disk Cleanup? I would always do this before scanning for
malware, FWIW. Is Hibernation enabled? That takes up hard drive space.
Then again, we still need an explanation for the constantly changing
amounts of free space! The next time it gets low again, run JDiskReport.

Also, if you plan on keeping this PC for a few more years, you will
probably be much happier with a larger hard drive. These are fairly
inexpensive these days.

Is SP2 patched? Even if it is, you should be aware that support for it
(in the form of critical security updates) will end in a few months, so
you should consider upgrading to SP3. And since that can be an involved
process with certain PCs (especially ones running ZA!), you can start
another thread when you are ready and we can provide all the guidance
you need for a smooth upgrade.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

WinXP Pro SP2
500 mb of RAM
18 gb hard disk with around 4gb free

Got a warning last night that I was running out of hard disk space.
Checked My Computer & found I was down to around 200 *MEGABYTES*.
My first thought was "That's interesting". Actually, that's not
what I thought, but there might be kids here, so use your
imagination.
I download quite a bit of music, but in order to keep about 4gb
free, I religiously move the files to my external HD every few
days, so I knew that wasn't the issue. The only things running at
the moment were Firefox and Outlook Express, along with Avast
(antivirus) and ZoneAlarm Pro. I shut down FF & OE & restarted the
computer. Again, I found around 200 MB free. Unfortunately, I did
not check page file use in Task Manager at the time. However, I
compared the list of processes to a screen shot I made for this
purpose in the past, and found nothing unusual. I accept no
software updates (except from Avast & ZoneAlarm) without first
consulting a couple of tech sources for problems, and no new apps
have been installed in at least a year.
Walked away to think about it, came back 10 minutes later, and
found I was back up to 4GB again.

"That's interesting", I thought. I ran a full AV scan using Avast,
followed by a Spybot scan. They found nothing. Upon restarting this
morning, the computer is fine.

I'm mystified. Anyone have any ideas?

I would get rid of Zone Alarm and Avast and replace the with the Windows
Firewall (especially if you are already behind a NAT router) and Avira
Antivirus. ZoneAlarm is often more trouble than it is worth for the home
user and is utilizing resources for many who have it installed they would
likely enjoy more elsewhere without losing any level of protection. I have
nothing against Avast (free or pay) - but have found that of the free ones,
Avira antivirus seems to work the best for most users. You could go an
purchase eSet NOD32 antivirus (antivirus only) and get really good results -
but I am not about to suggest (only) that you spend $60 U.S. - you'd likely
stop reading. *grin*

I would also uninstall Spybot Search and Destroy. I just don't favor it as
much as I used to - there are definitely all-around better products out
there.

You have an 18GB drive - that is small. You have to be *very* watchful with
your space. There are a few things you can do to ensure you have as much
space as possible and then - something you can do to see where all the space
is being used.

Clean up and then see what you have left to do.

Download/install this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

After installing, do the following:

Start button --> RUN --> type in:
"%ProgramFiles%\Windows Installer Clean Up\msizap.exe" g!
--> Click OK.

(The quotation marks and percentage signs and spacing should be exact.)

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
( Particularly of interest here - #4 )
( Alternative: http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm )

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but your
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 moving
the slider until you have just about 1GB (1024MB or close to that...)
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 64MB and 128MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.

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/

Other ways to free up space..

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

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

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

In the end - a standard Windows XP installation with all sorts of extras
will not likely be above about 4.5GB to 9GB in size. If you have more space
than that (likely do on a modern machine) and most of it seems to be used -
likely you need to move *your stuff* off and/or find a better way to manage
it.

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

WinXP Pro SP2
500 mb of RAM
18 gb hard disk with around 4gb free

Got a warning last night that I was running out of hard disk space.
Checked My Computer & found I was down to around 200 *MEGABYTES*. My first
thought was "That's interesting". Actually, that's not what I thought, but
there might be kids here, so use your imagination.

I download quite a bit of music, but in order to keep about 4gb free, I
religiously move the files to my external HD every few days, so I knew
that wasn't the issue. The only things running at the moment were Firefox
and Outlook Express, along with Avast (antivirus) and ZoneAlarm Pro. I
shut down FF & OE & restarted the computer. Again, I found around 200 MB
free. Unfortunately, I did not check page file use in Task Manager at the
time. However, I compared the list of processes to a screen shot I made
for this purpose in the past, and found nothing unusual. I accept no
software updates (except from Avast & ZoneAlarm) without first consulting
a couple of tech sources for problems, and no new apps have been installed
in at least a year.

Walked away to think about it, came back 10 minutes later, and found I was
back up to 4GB again.

"That's interesting", I thought. I ran a full AV scan using Avast,
followed by a Spybot scan. They found nothing. Upon restarting this
morning, the computer is fine.

I'm mystified. Anyone have any ideas?

Mysterious loss/gain of free disk space is often the result of System
Restore. Check your System Restore settings and modify them if necessary. If
this was my machine then I would add a second internal disk and keep only
the OS and the applications on the first disk. All the rest goes to the
second disk. Ask your dealer for the price of a 100 MByte disk (if he has
one this small) - you'll be pleasantly surprised!

 

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Yes. I did use my imagination , and since kids may have used your PC,
the posibility exists that you do have malware that has not been detected.
I would get a second opinion with MBAM and also a bootable antivirus CD (I
believe Avast gives you the ability to make one. If not, Avira, Kaspersky,
and Bit Defender do.)

No kids here, and I don't visit any weird web sites, although being a
musician, I sometimes have to visit another player's myspace page. I hate
doing that, since myspace is as buggy as licking the snot off of a roomful
of toddlers.

Also, JDiskReport can quickly give you a graphical representation of
what's taking up space on your hard drive:

http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/

Thanks - I knew I'd heard of such a utility, but couldn't recall the name.

Also, please explain again what you saw. It sounds like that you had 4GB
free. Then it was only 200MB free. Then again, without doing anything, it
was 4GB free. Do I have that right?

That's exactly right.

I'm watching it today and it's varying between 4.0 GB and 4.08 GB, with my
usual apps running.

What are your Virtual Memory settings?

It's been set to "let Windows decide" since the day I got the machine. I
used to fiddle with it on earlier machines because it seemed like a cute
thing to do. But not any more. Page file use is varying between 490 and 515
MB.

Have you run Disk Cleanup? I would always do this before scanning for
malware, FWIW. Is Hibernation enabled? That takes up hard drive space.
Then again, we still need an explanation for the constantly changing
amounts of free space! The next time it gets low again, run JDiskReport.

Haven't run disk cleanup in about 2 months. As far as "constantly changing",
that doesn't seem to be the case, until last night. As I said earlier, I
keep an eye on it regularly because I *know* I'm due for a larger HD. About
the only time it suddenly runs lower is when I compress OE folders (every
couple of weeks). Then, the reason is obvious because OE dumps 400 MB of
backup files into the recycle bin. Even then, I'm still left with 3.5 MB of
free space.

Also, if you plan on keeping this PC for a few more years, you will
probably be much happier with a larger hard drive. These are fairly
inexpensive these days.

Soon. I just need a free day to reinstall XP.

Is SP2 patched?
Yes.


Even if it is, you should be aware that support for it (in the form of
critical security updates) will end in a few months, so you should
consider upgrading to SP3.

I haven't taken the time to check a couple of tech sources to see if SP3
breaks anything. My bad.

 

[JoeSpareBedroom]

I would get rid of Zone Alarm and Avast and replace the with the Windows
Firewall (especially if you are already behind a NAT router) and Avira
Antivirus. ZoneAlarm is often more trouble than it is worth for the home
user and is utilizing resources for many who have it installed they would
likely enjoy more elsewhere without losing any level of protection.

Last time I checked, the Windows firewall did not protect against outgoing
nasty things - just incoming. Is that still the case?

 

[Daave]

No kids here <snip>

LOL Now, I understand! I read this bit wrong:

Actually, that's not what I thought, but there
might be kids here, so use your imagination

You meant here in this newsgroup.

 

[Daave]

Last time I checked, the Windows firewall did not protect against
outgoing nasty things - just incoming. Is that still the case?

Yes. But incoming is realistically all you need. And ZA and Windows
Firewall are comparable in this repsect. (But ZA is heavy on the
resources.)

Consider this: If a nasty somehow gets in, chances are that it is
sophisticated enough to bypass any mechanism to prevent it from causing
unwanted outbound traffic. That is, outbound protection is more often
than not a placebo. Although I can see the appeal in having yet one more
layer of security, realistically it (outbound monitoring) doesn't really
offer that much more benefit for the extra cost involved (money plus hit
on resources).

 

[JoeSpareBedroom]

LOL Now, I understand! I read this bit wrong:


You meant here in this newsgroup.

Right, which is why I didn't type the actual words contained in my initial
reaction.

 

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Yes. But incoming is realistically all you need. And ZA and Windows
Firewall are comparable in this repsect. (But ZA is heavy on the
resources.)

Consider this: If a nasty somehow gets in, chances are that it is
sophisticated enough to bypass any mechanism to prevent it from causing
unwanted outbound traffic. That is, outbound protection is more often than
not a placebo. Although I can see the appeal in having yet one more layer
of security, realistically it (outbound monitoring) doesn't really offer
that much more benefit for the extra cost involved (money plus hit on
resources).

All true, I suppose. But no computer of mine has been infected with anything
nasty in almost 8 years, and although I know ZA isn't primarily responsible
for this, I pretend that it is.

 

[Mark Adams]

No kids here, and I don't visit any weird web sites, although being a
musician, I sometimes have to visit another player's myspace page. I hate
doing that, since myspace is as buggy as licking the snot off of a roomful
of toddlers.



Thanks - I knew I'd heard of such a utility, but couldn't recall the name.



That's exactly right.

I'm watching it today and it's varying between 4.0 GB and 4.08 GB, with my
usual apps running.




It's been set to "let Windows decide" since the day I got the machine. I
used to fiddle with it on earlier machines because it seemed like a cute
thing to do. But not any more. Page file use is varying between 490 and 515
MB.



Haven't run disk cleanup in about 2 months. As far as "constantly changing",
that doesn't seem to be the case, until last night. As I said earlier, I
keep an eye on it regularly because I *know* I'm due for a larger HD. About
the only time it suddenly runs lower is when I compress OE folders (every
couple of weeks). Then, the reason is obvious because OE dumps 400 MB of
backup files into the recycle bin. Even then, I'm still left with 3.5 MB of
free space.



Soon. I just need a free day to reinstall XP.

Use the cloning software that comes with the new hard drive to clone the old
to the new. No reinstallation of your OS is necessary. Everything transfers
to the the new drive; OS, apps, and data all in one shot. It takes about a
half hour including opening your computer, adding the new drive, making the
clone, disconnecting the old drive, and buttoning up the computer. Don't
reformat the old drive until you are satisfied that everything is running
smoothly on the new one.

 

[Daave]

All true, I suppose. But no computer of mine has been infected with
anything nasty in almost 8 years, and although I know ZA isn't
primarily responsible for this, I pretend that it is.

And there's your placebo. <VBG>

 

[dadiOH]

It's been set to "let Windows decide" since the day I got the
machine. I used to fiddle with it on earlier machines because it
seemed like a cute thing to do. But not any more. Page file use is
varying between 490 and 515 MB.

Amount of page file use has no particular bearing on page file *size*. I
suggest you check the latter.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

[Unknown]

I'll bet his dealer will scratch his head.------100MByte disk???????????????

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

So he should! How about 100 GBytes, or maybe 200 GBytes?

 

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Mysterious loss/gain of free disk space is often the result of System
Restore. Check your System Restore settings and modify them if necessary.
If this was my machine then I would add a second internal disk and keep
only the OS and the applications on the first disk. All the rest goes to
the second disk. Ask your dealer for the price of a 100 MByte disk (if he
has one this small) - you'll be pleasantly surprised!

SR was already at the lowest possible setting, which said 200MB. I ran disk
cleanup only to the point where it evaluated the possibilities, and I guess
I keep a clean house, because it only suggested that it could save about
300MB of space, mostly temporary internet files. None of this seems to
explain how 4 GB turns into 200 MB, and then back again. If it happens
again, I'll try running jdiskreport, as suggested by someone else.

 

[JoeSpareBedroom]

I want 100ZB.

So he should! How about 100 GBytes, or maybe 200 GBytes?

 

[Paul]

SR was already at the lowest possible setting, which said 200MB. I ran disk
cleanup only to the point where it evaluated the possibilities, and I guess
I keep a clean house, because it only suggested that it could save about
300MB of space, mostly temporary internet files. None of this seems to
explain how 4 GB turns into 200 MB, and then back again. If it happens
again, I'll try running jdiskreport, as suggested by someone else.

Another one I tried, was SequoiaView. That is a tool which graphically
represents files on a partition. The download link for it, is in the
left hand menu.

http://w3.win.tue.nl/nl/onderzoek/onderzoek_informatica/visualization/sequoiaview/

Each file is represented according to size. Holding the mouse cursor over an
item, displays the path.

http://i.ehow.com/images/GlobalPhoto/Articles/4832846/SequoiaView1_Full.jpg

Paul

 

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Another one I tried, was SequoiaView. That is a tool which graphically
represents files on a partition. The download link for it, is in the
left hand menu.

http://w3.win.tue.nl/nl/onderzoek/onderzoek_informatica/visualization/sequoiaview/

Each file is represented according to size. Holding the mouse cursor over
an
item, displays the path.

http://i.ehow.com/images/GlobalPhoto/Articles/4832846/SequoiaView1_Full.jpg

Paul

I'll keep this in mind. I wonder, though, if any of these utilities would
even be able to run with disk space as low as it was, along with a fair
amount of disk thrashing.