where did my free space go?

[muzikool]

My C: drive is a partition of about 3.5 gigs that holds little more than what XP installed onto it. I've had about 350MB free for quite a while, but yesterday I noticed that I only had 40MB available. I checked disk cleanup to see if I had a lot of temp files or restore points, but I didn't. I cleared my temporary internet files and all of the temp folders I could think of, but that didn't get me very far. The only thing I can remember installing recently is WildTangent, so that I can play a couple of games on Pogo.com when I'm bored. I figured it probably installed some stuff into C:, so I went ahead and uninstalled it too... didn't free much up though. Can someone help me figure out where all of my space went?

 

[dubstar]

did somebody else in your house download anything?

did you do a windows update?

empty the recycle bin?

have you rebooted since? maybe your comp is confused..

(just guesses, but im sure you figured that out.)

 

[Un4gIvEn1]

You do know that your system usually uses 1 to 1.5 times your ram for a swap file, don't you? If you have 512MB of RAM then you can expect that 512-768MB is just for a swap file. Also, try clearing out temporary internet files. Check "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp" That is where a lot of profile specific temp files are saved. Hope this helps.

 

[yoyo]

It may be the natural growth. 3.5 GB isn't much for a C: drive. Even if your programmes are installed elsewhere many of them will write data to the Windows and Documents and Settings directories.

Did you run bootvis? If so look for a file trace.log. It usually is in C:\Windows\system32\logfiles\WMI and can be very big.

Also run a virus scan to make sure that nothing bad is going on.

 

[2z]

SequoiaView 1.3 (freeware)

reveals files & folders that cannot be viewed in windows explorer

Ever wondered why your hard disk is full? Or what directory is taking up most of the space? When using conventional disk browsing tools, such as Windows Explorer, these questions may be hard to answer. With SequoiaView however, they can be answered almost immediately. SequoiaView uses a visualization technique called cushion treemaps to provide you with a single picture of the entire contents of your hard drive. You can use it to locate those large files that you haven't accessed in one year, or to quickly locate the largest picture files on your drive.

 

[pappcam]

Use a partition manager like Partition Magic and resize your C drive to 5-6 GB. 3.5 isn't big enough because even if you install programs to another partition they still install things on your boot drive.

 

[Hipster Doofus]

My boot drive is 4gig. It is fully loaded (partitions) & I still have one & a half gig spare. Tons of room. Don't forget about your system restore, hibernation, etc.

 

[muzikool]

Thanks for the replies, but as I stated originally:
1) I've run disk cleanup (including restore points).
2) I've manually deleted temp files and internet files
3) The space I have alotted has been enough, and still should be.

I messed with my swap file a long time ago, so it should be fine. The Windows Update might have done it since I think I ran it a week or so ago, but I don't remember for sure. I have Bootvis, but I haven't run it yet. There is also one other user account on this computer, and I went into its settings and got rid of all of the temp stuff. I haven't restarted yet but I'll try that next. Thanks everyone.

 

[muzikool]

Checked my task manager after my last post, my page file usage was at 0.98GB! I've never had that happen before. I restarted and now everything seems normal. Problem solved! :happy:

 

[lieb39]

An Amazing Program!!!

The other day I came across this program, and its god! Amazing layout, amazing features and an even more amazing printed view!
It's called TreeSize, and basically it looks at your hard disk (or folder you choose) and tells you what is taking up the most amount of space. It's AMAZING to find where your space is.
Download at C|Net here or just copy and paste this into your browser " http://download.com.com/3000-2248-10139401.html?tag=lst-0-2 "

Let us know what you think of the program

 

[chaos945]

Try THIS great tool from Ashampoo, I find it to be very useful. That TreeSize was pretty cool too.

 

[muzikool]

lieb39, thanks for sharing the app, I've been wanting a tool like that. It will definitely come in handy in the future. I don't really want to use a suite of tools such as WinOptimizer, I find that a collection of separate tools is a better choice, since one company usually can't produce the best tool for every job. I would know because I've had experience with Ontrack Systemsuite and Norton Systemworks. Thanks for the suggestion though.

If anyone could shed some light on why my pagefile got so freakin' big, it would be interesting to know. Maybe it was just a fluke, but I haven't encountered that in the past. Thanks guys.

 

[lieb39]

Your pagefile is so big probaly because it's windows manged. But don't worry, as it is not "that" big for nowadays (well, for us as we use our full system's potenial) Mine is about 2gb (not windows manged, don't trust microsoft) but again, I like to have all my chat programs open (irc, aim, msn), my photoshop files, and a vmware session (run any o.s. under windows, i prefer nt 4.0 server!)

my suggestion is that you change your pagefile to your customization, but again if you don't mind having windows making it bigger, don't touch it.

hope that helped, because i'm sure not reading it again.

-lieb39

 

[j79zlr]

If you use all the chat progs, you should use trillian, all in 1 chat program. AIM, IRQ, IRC, MSN, and Y!. Just enter in your screenname/passwords for each and it will automatically add your buddy lists (doesn't work for IRQ though).


http://www.trillian.cc/trillian/index.html

 

[FoSsiL]

can someone recomemend a path of folders in windows i can delete to free up some space in my C:. I delete temp folder in my document and windows/temp and my space still gets eatten up.

 

[lieb39]

Check your Internet Temp Files, and maybe page file? Run Disk Cleanup too. (If you don't know any of this refer to window's help.)

-lieb39

 

[FoSsiL]

yeah my browser dump temp files on close. I just wanna if there are any hidden useless files with i can delete.