[Pyroflash]

My computer is having a problem that I do not know how to fix. The problem is that my computer stays at 300MB or underon my Hard Drive no matter what I do, I have a 120 GB HDD with about 20 GB software + XPSP2 installed. This is a problem, since i cannot install or download anything at the moment. HElp would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[mphenterprises]

Hi Pyroflash and welcome to PCWorld. :-)




Okay, a couple of points. I have renamed the title of your Discussion to better reflect your concern. Also, since this issue could be related to any number of issues, I have moved this Discussion from the Windows Community into the Answer Line Community.




Now, I have some questions for you:

- How long have you noticed this issue?

- What was the last application you installed before you noticed this issue?

- Have you, at any time, downloaded applications or files from a P2P site?

- What security applications do you have and what were the results of any scans?

- Have you backed up your important data?

[VladTheImpaler1990]

Hey there well i had the same issue and i deleted some programs i forgot what they are sorry, but i am sure its a program that is affecting your hardrive, but i will leave you in the hands of Mhp he will help you sought this out. Good Luck and welkom to PC World

[Pyroflash]

the last app i remember installing is a wing commander patch. i ran spyware scans using uniblue and norton. nothing came up. last torrent i downloaded was 4 months ago when i downloaded project reality. although, this problem might have been occuring long before this instance since i never seem to have enough space to install all my games...

[VladTheImpaler1990]

Hey can you do me a favour, can you go into your hardive and highlight all your files in the whole harddrive and then right click and go to propertis, and can you tell me how many gigs thaose files are.

[rgreen4]

Pyroflash - if you have deleted files and your capacity does not change, then look at the recycle bin. The default mode on deleted files in recent Windows is to not remove the file from the Hard Drive, but to move it to the recycle bin. Double click on the recycle bin icon on the desktop and it opens a window displaying the contents of the recycle bin. On the left side panel under recycle bin tasks is an option to empty the recycle bin, review the contents, and if you don't want to keep any, click on empty the recycle bin.
If that doesn't free up a good amount of space, open Windows Explorer and in the tree menu, right click on the various folders and choose properties to find the one that uses the most disk space. For reference, in my XP Pro machine, I have a 160GB HD and am only using 40GB or so. I do not keep data on the machines, but on a network storage device which has about 70GB of data files, (just to keep things in prospective). Check the Windows folder, it should be in the range of 4-6GB (mine is 4.5), and then check the program files folder and see what it is occupying. I would be surprised if either has an exceptionally large amount of material. Check Documents and Settings (min is about 2.5GB because this is where I archive my old e-mails).

If you have a recent factory built machine you may have a recovery partition that is either hidden or has a drive letter such as D: Recovery, but it should only take about 8-12GB and maybe less.

[snorg]

Also check the temporary folder, the "Temp" folder may be full of stuff left over from past installs & uninstalls, there can be hidden files & folders in there too, these can all be deleted.
First, close ALL open programs, including any running in the background, like your anti-virus program, etc.
The Temp folder is hidden, to see it go to "Folder Options" and choose "show hidden files", when you are finished set it back to "do not show hidden files".
The Temp folder is located at C:Documents and SettingsuserLocal SettingsTemp (where user is your user name).

You can also delete everything in C:WindowsTemp

[Pyroflash]

should i delete files in my C:WINNTTemp folder?

after selecting all the folders and clicking proporties the files come to about 118GB, but after scanning each individual folder including windows, the space comes to about only 20 GB anyone have any ideas about deleting possible system restore points to save space seeing as my sys restore is broken anyways.

[mphenterprises]

Hi PyroFlash. Let's take all the guess work out of the equation. I would advise you to download CCleaner and let the application delete the temporary files for you. You can set this application to scan your computer up to seven times to securely remove all traces of temporary and personal data.

[snorg]

Hi mphenterprises
I read the info at CCleaner site, it sounds like a dandy, I like that you can also choose what you want to keep.

[Pyroflash]

i have installed cccleaner latest version, and my problem still exists after clearing programs, scanning my registry, and scanning and deleting all my temp files and cookies.

[coastie65]

Go to control panel then add/ remove programs, check each one for the amount of space it is using. If necessary get out your hand held calculater and add themup as you go. coastie65

[Pyroflash]

if this is any help, my HDD is losing exactly 100MB per hour. I found this out after a couple of hours of closely monitoring the data space loss.

[Pyroflash]

by the way to answer your question, the total space my programs occupy totals to 18 GB + XP so about 30GB total space occupied by files, programs, and my OS. The rest is totally unaccounted for.

[mphenterprises]

I just did a quick scan and did not see any reference to security. I have never heard of a viral infection eating away hard drive space at a rate of 100MBs per hour. In any case, please tell us what security application(s) you use and the results of the latest scan(s).

[Pyroflash]

I use Norton Internet Security 2007 for my Anti Virus, and Uniblue Spyeraser for my spyware. Uniblue catches a lot more than SpyBot just incase anyone is wondering.



also my scans came up with a lot of spyware + one trojan, but they are all gone now. Still nothing related to my problem that has been picked up by either of them.

[snorg]

Pyroflash said:

I use Norton Internet Security 2007 for my Anti Virus, and Uniblue Spyeraser for my spyware. Uniblue catches a lot more than SpyBot just incase anyone is wondering.

also my scans came up with a lot of spyware + one trojan, but they are all gone now. Still nothing related to my problem that has been picked up by either of them.

OK Pyroflash you are following mphenterprises advice, which is your best bet.
You have scanned and checked, yadda, yadda, yadda, which is good.
There is only one more scan you can do, Boot Sector Virus Scan, since is mphenterprises astronomically smarter than me, let him give you a link to download the program you need.
NOW after that if its not fixed you only have one alternative, back up all your user files & stuff on DVD or CD and FULL format your hard drive and install windoze.
I have been around for a Coon's age and never heard anything near the problem you are having.

[mphenterprises]

LOL :D Hi Snorg. Believe me, I am not smarter than you or anyone within this forum. I have crammed years worth of computer experience into 18 months of business ownership.

Anyway, just about all reputable security applications have boot sector virus scans. I believe AVG Anti-Virus Free has this ability. Additionally, Norton is a resource hog. You may want to consider replacing that with AVG. Now, applications like Norton and McAfee do not play well with other security applications. If you would like to follow our suggestions and run AVG, you would first have to uninstall Norton. Norton digs so deep into your computer's registry that it requires its own removal tool to completely remove all traces from your computer.

Norton Removal Tool

Also, I would like to add that using only one application each for viruses and spyware is like shooting yourself in the foot. Here at PCWorld, we preach the layered (or tiered as I call it) approach. Without cluttering this post, basically you can have as many security applications protecting you as you want as long as only one is active at any given time.

In your situation, you may want to run the AVG scan in Safe Mode. To get into Safe Mode, follow the steps within this Document

[snorg]

My dear mphenterprises:
Dont fool yourself, if I knew what you forgot, THEN Id know something.

As for as I can tell from this thread Pyroflash is screwed, blued, & tattooed.

His only hope is to follow my last suggestion, the only other person who mite have a better idea is you.

[mphenterprises]

Wow. Thank you, Snorg. I really appreciate that. :D

Yeah, I am with you on this one. I have never heard of any viral infection eating away hard drive space at such a high rate.