Getting Desperate For Space

[EuPHoriC PoisoN]

I NEED HELP!

What little Hard Drive space I had left on my laptop seems to have mysteriously been filled up. After trying to get a DVD onto my computer through a decoding program, etc., I got the dreaded "you are dangerously low on disk space" message. I aborted what I was doing. Then I zipped up all of my music and photos and deleted old movies/music/etc. When finished, my sorry little HD had 7.5GB free. Then the next day, after downloading nothing at all, I get the message again. I deleted some more movies, ran the disc cleanup wizard, ran my adware checker, virus checker, EVERYTHING!!! I only managed to re-gain 3.5GB. Anyone know what's going on here? I've deleted all unnecessary accessory programs with the add/remove programs wizard. But I cannot seem to recover any more space!

[Burner110]

well there is a virus going around that shrinks you HD space by a ton than slowly expands it again just to shrink it again if u have the time run a virus scan if nothing comes up which it might not because its rare to find it try updating it if u can PM me for more help

[Flash]

I NEED HELP!

What little Hard Drive space I had left on my laptop seems to have mysteriously been filled up. After trying to get a DVD onto my computer through a decoding program, etc., I got the dreaded "you are dangerously low on disk space" message. I aborted what I was doing. Then I zipped up all of my music and photos and deleted old movies/music/etc. When finished, my sorry little HD had 7.5GB free. Then the next day, after downloading nothing at all, I get the message again. I deleted some more movies, ran the disc cleanup wizard, ran my adware checker, virus checker, EVERYTHING!!! I only managed to re-gain 3.5GB. Anyone know what's going on here? I've deleted all unnecessary accessory programs with the add/remove programs wizard. But I cannot seem to recover any more space!

Are you using Vista, beth?

[EuPHoriC PoisoN]

I'm using Windows XP.

EDIT- I'm updating my Virus protection software now. Once it's done, I'll run a full scan and see if it finds anything.



EDIT2 - Nothing found, big surprise. I now have 4.36GB of HD space. This is bizarre!

[Rocket]

Try disconnecting yourself from the internet. Then do a few things.

Do you have limewire or any other P2P share program? If so, you may want to check where those files downloaded to. Could be something in there that auto downloaded.

Run your disk cleanup wizard, and see how much room temporary downloads and download program files that are not necessary on on your HD. Also look at what can be compressed

Run your Disk Defragger.

I see you have already ran your cleanup, but just give it a go again.

Go into where you store your documents, movies, music, pics etc. Look at each ones space amount. Anything out of the ordinary? Did you perhaps not delete the folders once you made the compressed file?

Go into your folder options and turn on the ability to see hidden files. This may reveal something you did not know was there.

[Azeron]

Once you're running that low on space you'll forever be deleting one thing to add another, plus having your music and movies zipped sounds like a pain. I reccomend getting an external hard drive, they're dirt cheap these days. I bought mine three months ago, 160 gigs for €80 and I love it.

Here's amazon's selection (http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=amb_link_3401592_8?ie=UTF8&node=172483&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=gp-left-1&pf_rd_r=15DG009100AWHACAYQBE&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=299727601&pf_rd_i=541966) of external hard drives.

[codedigital]

As Azeron said, it'd be a good bet to get an external drive and move all of your my documents stuff over there.

Also, you can go buy you a new internal drive and have your local IT company "Ghost" the data over to your new drive. That way you'll alleviate any further issues with your OS drive.

[graf1k]

well there is a virus going around that shrinks you HD space by a ton than slowly expands it again just to shrink it again if u have the time run a virus scan if nothing comes up which it might not because its rare to find it try updating it if u can PM me for more help

Are you using Vista, beth?



HAHAHAHA, I was just going to say, that 'virus' is called Vista. My sis has the same problem with her laptop where I think it's the page file or indexing system or something will eat up all her HD space and then release it later so it's always going up and down. It's really stupid.


But seriously Joe's wife, I would suggest just making a backup of all your files then format your hard drive and reinstall Windows. It's the easiest solution and guaranteed to work. Alternatively you could try restoring your laptop to a time before your hard drive started shrinking using System Restore. And buying an external HDD is not a bad idea either. Shop around and you can get 500GB for like $150.

[EuPHoriC PoisoN]

Thanks guys, for all the wonderful suggestions.

@ Graf1k - I may attempt the system restore, but I can't do the disc format. I don't have a windows disc for this unit. I do have one that I used on my old desktop unit, which i don't use anymore. If there's a way I can release the verification code from that unit and use it to restore my laptop, I might try that.


More than likely, I'm just going to sucker up and buy and External HDD. I have so much on my computer that I DON'T want to get rid of. Not to mention, a few programs that are ginormous. (aka - ps cs3, azureus vuze, and others)

[EuPHoriC PoisoN]

@ Rocket -

Thanks for mentioning the "hidden files". After running my disk-defragmenter I found two VERY LARGE files that would not defragment. One was my temporary azureus folder that was for some reason hidden. I emptied that FAST! The other was a temp file buried very deeply. I'm not sure what all was in there, but I dumped it out, too. I now have 48% free HD space as opposed to less than 5%. I don't know if this will cure the fluctuation, but for now, I'm ok.

[Rocket]

@ Rocket -

Thanks for mentioning the "hidden files". After running my disk-defragmenter I found two VERY LARGE files that would not defragment. One was my temporary azureus folder that was for some reason hidden. I emptied that FAST! The other was a temp file buried very deeply. I'm not sure what all was in there, but I dumped it out, too. I now have 48% free HD space as opposed to less than 5%. I don't know if this will cure the fluctuation, but for now, I'm ok.

No problemo!