unexplainable loss off hdd space

A few days back I felt my laptop was getting a bit low on HDD space (down to (3-4gb)
so I uploaded to a media server on-line and deleted the unneeded files from my HDD. I managed to clear about 18GB of files taking my free space to 20gb. I ran a full disk clean up using glary utilities and ccleaner. I was happy with the amount of space I had after this and left it at that. No settings were changed, nor anything installed or anything like that. I come to use the laptop today and the HDD space is down to 11gb again. I can't work it out how it has disappeared. Any ideas guys..
:eek:

The first thing that comes to mind is virus or malware
The second thing is shadow copies
Run your antivirus and download and run malwarebytes
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

You can use disk cleanup to remove all but the most current restore points.
You can disable system restore.
Disk Cleanup

If you want to disable System Restore instead and delete all the System Restore Points, then see:
System Restore

Have you tried to Run A Virus scan?

Also could you Do a System Restore to a Point before this Happened

See http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76905-system-restore-how.html?ltr=S For more Information


Hope This Helps,
Josh

richc46 said:

The first thing that comes to mind is virus or malware
The second thing is shadow copies
Run your antivirus and download and run malwarebytes

Click to expand...

You beat me to it

Just means that my fingers work faster than yours, does not detract from the value of your contribution.

I Suppose you are Older than me

Thankyou for the swift replies guys, I shall have to have a go.
My laptop is pretty secure imho but you never know these days.
I already use malware bytes as well as a host of other things, I'll run them later and see what it turns up..

I would immediately think virus, there are some odd ones that do this, but I would also think dying hard disk drive. How old is this computer in years? Download and install Sea Tools for Windows. SeaTools | Seagate

Run a SMART scan if available, both short scans, and one of the two long scans, you choose! If even one fails, it is bad, but come back here first.

just download and install this..............

WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics

run it and look for any large files (they aint hard to spot with this app) then hover over the files (or click i forget) and it will tell you what it is and where it is and what size it is , then you'll know exactly whats eating your HD space

i doubt you have a virus it is most likely system restore so use disk cleanup and see if it frees up alot of space (click the MORE OPTIONS tab) select cleanup system and restore shadow copies) if that frees up a sh!t load of space you have your culprit

then you can either do this http://www.vista4beginners.com/System-Restore-Space-Used or just leave it be , windows will shrink the system restore volume as your hard drive space shrinks

I left the laptop on overnight, and had a look this morning and hey presto it's the free HDD space is back up to 19.8gb from 11.2 (or something).. very weird.
I'll have a look at some of the suggestions you have left for me above. Once again cheers fellas

niemiro said:

I would immediately think virus, there are some odd ones that do this, but I would also think dying hard disk drive. How old is this computer in years? Download and install Sea Tools for Windows. SeaTools | Seagate

Run a SMART scan if available, both short scans, and one of the two long scans, you choose! If even one fails, it is bad, but come back here first.

Click to expand...

Thankyou for this suggestion, I have just installed and now I will run it. The laptop is only 18months old.

Just one detail, which is quite important. Please take a note of the total capacity of your hard disk drive each day, and space filled, just for the next 7 days or so. I would really like to know if something is filling up your hard disk drive, or your hard disk drive is changing capacity, as modern fault tolerant disks might.

On a modern fault tolerant disk, any bad sectors are recorded, and not used again. In its lifetime, all hard disks will get bad sectors, and lose a few kb of space. This can happen in massive proportions in a failing disk, but with this jumping, and such big proportions, I would think not, but we may as well check.

Thanks!

Richard