Hard Drive Space Disappearing

faceless041974

New Member
So the other day I had downloaded a bunch of videos. When I woke up the next day after they finished I had a low disk space message. when I checked my hard drive it said that it was full. So I deleted a bunch of stuff off the drive but within minutes it was saying 0GB were available. Ive deleted probably close to 70gb worth of stuff and its still saying I only have about 40GB left. That was this morning. I have yet to go home and see if its gone back down to 0GB available. What would cause this?
 

My Computer

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
I suggest you first take an inventory of your disk .

1. Run WinDirStat to find out how much you have in terms of files.
2. Open an elevated Command Prompt (run as admin) and type: vssadmin list shadowstorage - the allocated number will tell you how much space is being taken by restore points.

Post the numbers you find and we will go from there.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell
    CPU
    Q6600
    Memory
    4GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP w2207h
    Hard Drives
    2x250GB HDDs
    1x60GB OCZ SSD
    6 external disks 60 to 640GBs
    Other Info
    Also 1xHP desktop, 1xHP laptop, 1xGateway laptop
hi there. Most space is taken by system restore. it builds up over time. Even if you reformatted you Hard drive and reinstalled the OS restore takes up 15GB. So the more things you do like install or uninstall it will make a point. I reinstalled vista and as soon as it was done i disabled it and I got back 18GB of HDD space. IF YOU WANT to you can disable it. POST BACK if you want to do that.

hope this helps.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Gaming Rig 780G
    CPU
    AMG Athlon II X2 255 3.8/2MB/2500MHz 45nm AM3
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-MA78LMT-S2 AM3, Core Boost, Ultra Durable 3
    Memory
    2X 4GB Kingston DDR3 1066MHz @ 1666MHz Dual Channel
    Graphics Card(s)
    HIS HD Radeon 7770 GHz Edition iCooler Core: 1000MHz
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell E2311H DVI/VGA 5ms response, Full HD
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080 @ 60Hz
    Hard Drives
    320GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.02 SATA II
    PSU
    Cooler Master Extreme Power Plus 700w
    Case
    Lian-Li PC-6010 With Side Window
    Cooling
    Aywun A4 80mm fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech K120 Wired Keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech K120 Wired Mouse
    Internet Speed
    802.11B/G/N 17Mb/s
    Other Info
    AMD Catalyst 12.6
    Thomson A/B/G/N Router
    LiteON CD/DVD Player
    GAME PERFORMANCE:
    Battlefield 3: 41 FPS High 1x AA @ 1280x720
    Mass Effect 2 and 3: 60 FPS Highest 4x AA @ 1920x1080
    Counter Strike Source (and other Valve games):
    300 FPS (max FPS in game) Highest settings 8x AA 16x AF @ 1920x1080!!!
This is just a shot in the dark, but I had a similar problem with a Yahoo Messenger crash log. My entire 80GB hard drive was consumed by this one massive file! I don't know where this file is stored and can't verify because that was on my work computer.

However, you can see what files are causing this by seeing what files were last modified.
View Last Modified Files on Windows Vista - How-To Geek

An excerpt from there:
The simplest method that doesn’t require any additional software is to open up Vista’s Search panel (You can hit the F3 key while Windows Explorer is open).

Change the location to your C: drive or whichever drive you are trying to check, set the Date modified to today, and then check the box for “Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files”.

Press the Search button, and then make sure that the Date modified column is showing up in the list. If that column isn’t showing up, you’ll need to add it by right-clicking on the column area, choosing More and then checking the box for it.

You can then just sort by Date Modified descending to see all the recently changed files, which should give you some insight into what your computer is doing behind your back.
So, first thing in the morning, free up some space, wait a bit, and then do the above. Look at which files were modified, and you should see which files are taking up all the space. Hopefully that tells you something. For me, it was a crash log.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Paviliona6109n
    CPU
    AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core
    Memory
    2 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ViewSonic VX1935wm-5
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    ST332082 0AS SCSI Device
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