Re: winxp is using all of my hard drive space

Chris

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.

You still will not see the System Volume Information folder.
How to Gain Access to the System Volume Information Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;309531

Next right click your My Computer icon on the Desktop and select System
Restore . Which drives are shown as Monitored and which as Turned Off?
You only need to monitor the drive containing your Windows
operating system.
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/adjustdihealthy.html

To increase you free space on your C select Start, All Programs,
Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp, More Options, System Restore and
remove all but the latest System Restore points? Restore points can be quite
large.

You should 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.

It is likely that an allocation of 12% has been made to System Restore on
your C partition which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700 mb. Right
click your My Computer icon on the Desktop and select System Restore.
Place the cursor on your C drive select Settings but this time find the
slider
and drag it to the left until it reads 700 mb and exit. When you get to the
Settings screen click on Apply and OK and exit.

Are you using any Norton Utilities?

Please look in the System and Application logs in Event Viewer for
Warning and Error Reports over the last 2 days use and post copies here.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools,
and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the error, information
regarding Event ID, Source and Description are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308427&sd=tech

Part of the Description of the error will include a link, which you should
double click for further information. You can copy using copy and paste.
Often the link will, however, say there is no further information.
http://go.microsoft.com/fw.link/events.asp
(Please note the hyperlink above is for illustration purposes only)

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Double click the button and close Event
Viewer. Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body
of the message. This will paste the info from the Event Viewer Error
Report into the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting
from Event Viewer.


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Chris King" <Chris King@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:12C22741-F963-4A70-B7E3-21D433FB94F3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Same isse here! Problem is I just noticed it 2 days ago when I started
> getting warnings about low disk space. I ran across a KB article on
> Microsoft that said go to your C drive, select all and right click on a
> folder and view properties. When I did this the drive only shows to be
> using
> 17.2gb. The drive itself is a 60gb drive. After installing the Moveax
> app
> suggested below by vemoex this little test shows to be pretty accurate.
>
> When I look in my event log I do see that the system restore service has
> been having some issues for about 3 weeks that I was not aware of. When I
> click on properties on My Computer and click on the System Restore tab it
> keeps crashing. I tried to reinstall it but it keeps failing. My next
> step
> is to reinstall WinXP sp2 to see if that fixes any corrupt files.
>
> I continuously perform disk cleanups. This usually frees up about 2-3gb
> but
> then slowly bu surely it goes back down to less then 200mb. I start the
> whole process over, recover about 2-3gb and then it goes back down again.
> This is really odd. At one time 30+ gb of free space! I'm running
> Spybot,
> Counterspy and fiddled with HijackThis. There doesn't appear to be any
> spyware, malware or viruses on the system. There is nothing unusual going
> on
> in the task manager. All systems appear normal accept I keep losing
> gigabytes of space.
>
> Any other ideas?
>
> Chris
>
>
> "Gerry Cornell" wrote:
>
>> Are you using any Norton Utilities?
>>
>> I suggested FileSize earlier. Did you download and install?
>>
>> FileSize -a useful tool for use with Windows Explorer when investigating
>> how
>> disk space is being used.
>> http://markd.mvps.org/
>>
>> The download link is not obvious. Click the here in the two sentences of
>> the
>> web page accessed through the link above. "I can't count the number of
>> times
>> someone has asked for this. So here is a module you can install that
>> shows a
>> Folder Size column in Explorer."
>>
>> Using Filesize and in Windows Explorer you should be able to identify
>> an extra 20 gb of files of files on a 40 gb disk, unless the files are
>> hidden.
>>
>> I only know of System Restore and Norton Protected Storage remaining
>> hidden if you have changed all the settings in the way set out in one of
>> my first message. Did you make all the changes suggested?
>>
>> If you changed the System Restore disk allocation as suggested you could
>> only gain 700 mb. I await your answer regarding my first question about
>> Norton Utilities before we can check out whether Norton Protected
>> Storage is a problem.
>>
>> You may check on pagefile (virtual memory) usage with Page File Monitor
>> for
>> XP:
>> http://www.dougknox.com/
>>
>> If you get anything much more than 20 / 30 mb virtual memory usage you
>> need to add RAM memory. The system uses virtual memory for a
>> limited number of tasks rather than RAM memory.
>>
>> Make sure you study the readme.txt file carefully to ensure you get the
>> utility to work as it should.
>>
>> Have you installed any "memory boosters" ?
>>
>> --
>>
>> Hope this helps.
>>
>> Gerry
>> ~~~~
>> FCA
>> Stourport, England
>>
>> Enquire, plan and execute
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>>
>>
>> <sucraf@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> news:1135204667.382618.12120@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> > gerry that is my exact problem. my pagefile.sys says it's around 700mb
>> > and it doesn't change size. i unhide everything on my c: drive and
>> > check it's usage and it's around only 20g so 20g should be free. after
>> > running winxp a while the free space drops but i check c: drive again
>> > and only 20g is still being used and pagefile.sys hasn't changed too.
>> > where di my other free 20g go? when i reboot all my space is back. i
>> > notice this even if i don't run any programs and just leave winxp
>> > running. should i try to boot in safe mode and see if this still
>> > occurs. how can i find what is taking the free space. thanks.
>> >
>>
>>
>>


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