Re: Low Disk Space every boot

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 01:44:01 -0700, rroentgen
<rroentgen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

This thread concerns low disk space. I was raising the possibility that
failure of proper cleanup of temporary files is one possible reason for a
full hard drive.


If anybody's hard drive gets full because of undeleted temporary
files, he is in *dire* need of more hard drive space. For almost
anyone, simply deleting temp files would makes so small a difference
as to be inconsequential. I've never seen any drive with enough
undeleted temporary files to make a significant difference in amount
of free space.


If the original poster has a regular virus scan in operation
then it seems to me possible that temporary files will never be removed.

Gerry, do you have any opinion on my postulate that a virus scan, of
whatever brand (be it OneCare, Norton, McAfee, Whatever) results in a file
being marked as having been accessed at the time that it is scanned.


I'm not Gerry, but let me point out that running a virus scan followed
by a quick look at your temp folder would demonstrate that your
"postulate" is false. I can't speak for *every* anti-virus program,
but I've never seen this occur.



If it
does, then the disk cleanup utility that comes with windows XP will not
remove the temporary files if a virus scan has been done in the last 7 days.


As I said above, anti-virus programs don't do that, so it doesn't
matter when the last scan was done.

But where did you get the idea that disk cleanup won't remove a
temporary file that's been accessed within the last seven days? please
cite a web page that states that, if you know one. If that's true,
it's news to me. As far as I know, the only rule preventing the
deletion of a temporary file is that it can't be deleted if it is
currently in use (open).


Worse, disk cleanup will never remove temporary files if a virus scan is done
more than once a week.

I will take your suggestion and start a new thread on what may be a
deficiency with the disk cleanup utility.

Kenneth

"Gerry" wrote:

You are obviously not the person posting the original problem. I know
little about Windows Live OneCare. You need someone who does. You could
of course uninstall OneCare. You would do better to start your own
thread and not piggy back someone elses thread as this leads to
confusion. Hence my uncertainty when I replied to your first message.
Use the New Message option to start a new thread and then use Reply to
for follow ups.
http://www.microsoft.com/library/gallery/components/wn/3/locales/help/help_en-US.htm#GettingStarted

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

rroentgen wrote:
"Gerry" wrote:

Did you make the original post?

Which post?

Disk CleanUp has never been the most effective tool. You need to run
it in all user profiles as otherwise it only removes file with in
the User Profile it is being run. You should also restart the
cpmputer before running Disk CleanUp as otherwise the system may not
have finished with them. Was the box before Temporary Files checked
before you ran Disk CleanUp?

I have Windows Live OneCare which runs Disk Cleanup Automatically as
part of a regular TuneUp schedule. There is no choice to run Windows
Live OneCare in any particular user profile. Since tuneup is set to
run weekly, the computer will have been rebooted several times in
between.

You can use cCleaner (freeware) which does a more thorough job.
http://www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp
http://www.ccleaner.com/

The problem is not that Disk CleanUp is not doing a thorough job. The
problem is that it is not doing its job at all!!


With any cleaner you need to proceed with caution. To be safe you
should create a restore point before using cCleaner. cCleaner also
offers backup before removal.

When using cCleaner think twice before checking Autocomplete Form
History under Internet Explorer. You do get a warning but this one
has irritating consequences. You may need to restore your system's
recollection of passwords after use so keep a record off computer so
that they can easily be re-entered.

Leave the Scan for Issues option alone.

I am surprised that you managed to generate 20 gb of temporary files.
Was this over a long period? What programme created so much?

Most of these Temporary files in the Windows/temp folder were created
after 16 June 2007; which is about the date that I first installed
Windows Live OneCare.

Furthermore most of these temporary files were created at about the
date and time on which OneCare ran one of its schedules or when I run
OneCare to view scan reports.



--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

rroentgen wrote:
Disk Cleanup may not remove temporary files if they have been
created or accessed within the last seven days. If a virus scan is
run then all files that are scanned, including temporary files, may
be marked as if having been accessed at the time of the scan.

At the moment my Windows/temp folder occupies 20Gig of drive space
because I had Windows Live OneCare set to run a virus scan daily
with the result that the "date accessed" of the files in the temp
folder never got to be more than 7 days old. This is agravated by
OneCare seeming to create a temporary file for its own use whenever
it runs, of about 75Meg, which it fails to remove when finished
with what its doing.

"Gerry" wrote:

Are you using a backup programme such as Norton Ghost?

I am not sure whether you are seeing all files and folders. 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. Even then there are still
certain folders that remain hidden and this regularly promps
discussion about "lost" disk space. The System Volume Information
folders containing System Restore points, which by default is
allocated 12% of the drive / partition, is just one example of
what remains hidden.

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.

Another default setting on a large drive which could be wasteful is
that for temporary internet files especially if you do not store
offline copies on disk. The default allocation is 3% of drive.
Depending on your attitude to offline copies you could reduce this
to 1% or 2%. In Internet Explorer select Tools, Internet Options,
General, Temporary Internet Files, Settings to make the change. At
the same time look at the number of days history is held.

The default allocation for the Recycle Bin is 10 % of drive. Change
to 5%, which should be sufficient. In Windows Explorer place the
cursor
on your Recycle Bin, right click and select Properties, Global and
move the slider from 10% to 5%. However, try to avoid letting it
get too full as if it is full and you delete a file by mistake it
will bypass the Recycle Bin and be gone for ever.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp
to Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files. Also
select Start, All Programs, accessories, System Tools, Disk
CleanUp, More Options, System Restore and remove all but the
latest System Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Italo3 wrote:
I have been getting the "low disk space" message every time i boot
up, saying that i only have 20MB-200MB left on the C drive, which
i know is completely wrong. I have deleted numerous files and
transfer countless files to my external hard drive for the past
week, and if this keeps continuing, im not going to have any more
files to delete to create space!! (running Windows XP, 40GB hard
drive, 2.8gh P4, 1gb RAM~ Dell 4600) In the past week i have
cleared at least 10GB from my hard drive since ive gotten the
message.

When this occurs, windows explorer decides to restart itself
countless times in a row until i create more space, which has
become annoying. Also, for some reason, (dont know if this is
related) my taskbar has been resetting its settings and no
programs show up on the taskbar and it removes the quick launch
bar. AND i have to go in and uninstall/reinstall the audio device
every boot up to get it to work.

I noticed that going to regedit everytime i boot up is a short
term fix for the taskbar problem, but i really dont feel like
going through the trouble everytime i turn my computer on.

I also have noticed that the processes running on my computer have
decreased, from 50 to around 38+ which is weird.

I know a decent amount of stuff about computers and have been able
to keep the computer going like this for a week or so. Also, i am
debating buying a new computer just because of this one is getting
old, or is there a way that i can avoid that and just fix this
issue.

Any help would be much appreciated! thanks!!




--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
Please Reply to the Newsgroup
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