Rapid Low Disk Space

[Akshaya]

Hello, I have recently reformatted my hard drive and installed Windows XP,
and if my computer is left on for an extended period of time (like i used to
keep it) All of the space on my OS drive is gone. For example, if i leave my
comp running overnight, by the next morning i would have like 28kB left on
the drive. I thought it might have to do with the page file, but i set the
page file to my secondary hard drive, and turned off the page file on the OS
drive, but it still happens. Thanks for listening.

[Bert Kinney]

Hi,

The first step would be to insure the system is virus and malware free.
Here are some tips for Virus and Spyware removal and prevention.
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/spyware.html

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org

Akshaya wrote:
> Hello, I have recently reformatted my hard drive and installed
> Windows XP, and if my computer is left on for an extended period of
> time (like i used to keep it) All of the space on my OS drive is
> gone. For example, if i leave my comp running overnight, by the next
> morning i would have like 28kB left on the drive. I thought it might
> have to do with the page file, but i set the page file to my
> secondary hard drive, and turned off the page file on the OS drive,
> but it still happens. Thanks for listening.

[Jonas Åström]

Bert Kinney wrote:
> Hi,
>
> The first step would be to insure the system is virus and malware free.
> Here are some tips for Virus and Spyware removal and prevention.
> http://bertk.mvps.org/html/spyware.html
>

Those were some solid tips. Also, if they turn up nothing interesting,
try out Crap Cleaner from http://www.ccleaner.com/ . I used to have a
similar problem, but that problem solved it for me. It basically
searches your harddrives for crap that can be cleaned :)

Best regards,
Jonas Åström

[Enkidu]

Jonas Åström wrote:
> Bert Kinney wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> The first step would be to insure the system is virus and malware free.
>> Here are some tips for Virus and Spyware removal and prevention.
>> http://bertk.mvps.org/html/spyware.html
>>
>
> Those were some solid tips. Also, if they turn up nothing interesting,
> try out Crap Cleaner from http://www.ccleaner.com/ . I used to have a
> similar problem, but that problem solved it for me. It basically
> searches your harddrives for crap that can be cleaned :)
>
That is just masking the problem. A better long term idea
would be to find out what is using the space.

Cheers,

Cliff

--

Barzoomian the Martian - http://barzoomian.blogspot.com

[Gerry Cornell]

You should have left a small page file on your main C drive, Say 50 mb.

http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

To investigate how you are using hard disk space you need to make sure
that you can see all files. Go to Start, Control Panel, Folder Options,
View, Advanced Settings and verify that the box before "Show hidden
files and folders" is checked and "Hide protected operating system files
" is unchecked. You may need to scroll down to see the second item. You
should also make certain that the box before "Hide extensions for known
file types" is not checked. Next in Windows Explorer make sure View,
Details is selected and then select View, Choose Details and check
before Name, Type, Total Size, and Free Space.

How large is your hard drive? Is it partitioned? How much free space on
each drive / partition. How is the drive formatted -FAT32 or NTFS. To
get this information whilst in Windows Explorer place the cursor on the
drive, right click and select Properties.

Some ways to find out what is using your hard disk space. On your hard
disk you will see various folders e.g. Windows. Whilst in Windows
Explorer place the cursor on the Windows folder, right click and select
Properties. You will see the size of the folder and all sub-folders and
files, the size on disk and the number of sub-folders and files. If you
list the various main folders and their size you will start to see how
your used disk space is made up. Within the main folders you
can find the larger individual files by using the Search facility within
Windows Explorer to look for files over 1 mb by selecting All files and
folders, What size is it etc. Make certain you also select More Advanced
Options and check Search System Folders, Search Hidden Files and
Folders, and Search Sub-Folders.

Now some ways to increase the available free space. Select Start, All
Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp, More Options, System
Restore and remove all but the latest restore points? Restore points can
be quite large Mine are currently 41 mb, although all except the latest
are compressed to 20 mb on disk. By the way System Restore Points are
hidden files which you will not see even after you have taken the
measures to show hidden files detailed above.

You can limit the disk space used by System Restore. Right click on the
My Computer icon on your Desktop and select, Properties, System Restore,
Settings. This will give you the amount of Disk Space allocated to
System Restore in terms of % of size of Drive and megabytes or
gigabytes. The default maximum is 12%, which is often excessive. You can
move the slider to the left to reduce the size of the allocation. Once
the allocated space is fully taken the oldest restore point is removed
when a new restore point is created ( or it should be ). If yours is set
to 12% it is 13 gb and I would reduce it to 6% i.e. 6.6 gb.

You should also use Disk CleanUp regularly to Empty your Recycle Bin and
Remove Temporary Internet Files. Whenever you remove redundant files you
should always run Disk Defragmenter by selecting Start, All Programs,
Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter.

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
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"Akshaya" > wrote in message
...
> Hello, I have recently reformatted my hard drive and installed Windows
> XP,
> and if my computer is left on for an extended period of time (like i
> used to
> keep it) All of the space on my OS drive is gone. For example, if i
> leave my
> comp running overnight, by the next morning i would have like 28kB
> left on
> the drive. I thought it might have to do with the page file, but i set
> the
> page file to my secondary hard drive, and turned off the page file on
> the OS
> drive, but it still happens. Thanks for listening.