Windows question, where did it all go?

[another view]

So the other day I'm getting ready to do a defrag, because it's been awhile. I notice that my 120gb internal drive is almost full - like about 5gb left. I have no idea where all that space went, so I got rid of most of the images and a few other things. That gave me back about 2gb. I click on the "C" drive, and hold the mouse over "Documents and Settings". It tells me that file has 93gb in it. I open the folder, hold the mouse over each of the folders in it, and come up with a total that's nowhere close to 93gb. With Windows XP SP2, 1.5gb of music and some programs I should probably be about what, 10gb? Any ideas what's going on? Thanks...

[Michael Fanelli]

So the other day I'm getting ready to do a defrag, because it's been awhile. I notice that my 120gb internal drive is almost full - like about 5gb left. I have no idea where all that space went, so I got rid of most of the images and a few other things. That gave me back about 2gb. I click on the "C" drive, and hold the mouse over "Documents and Settings". It tells me that file has 93gb in it. I open the folder, hold the mouse over each of the folders in it, and come up with a total that's nowhere close to 93gb. With Windows XP SP2, 1.5gb of music and some programs I should probably be about what, 10gb? Any ideas what's going on? Thanks...

Did you look at hidden files? I always set Windows to show me everything. It is quite possible that the disk has lots of hidden stuff.

A less likely situation is that you somehow changed the minimum size that each file takes up. File space is allocated in blocks. If you block size is 10 M and you file is only 1 M, it still takes up 10 M of space (bad numbers but the correct idea). This is the same for all computers. This can happen if you used some "tune-up" program or installed some weird software.

Also do a spyware/adware scan. These malicious programs can eat up space as well as slow your computer down.

[Sebastian]

Something similar happened to a machine here. Turns out someone opened an attachment they weren't supposed to, and all of a sudden there were 30 gig of warez going in and out. Do you have spyware and virus protection running?

[dmm96452]

Holding the mouse over the folder doesn't always tell you the full size. Right click on the folder and select properties. It will then do a count of all files and folders within that folder and tell you the total amount of disk space used. Be patient, if all or most of that 93gig is in one folder it may look like it has stopped counting for a few seconds but will resume. That will tell you the full size of the folder.

[another view]

Thanks guys - I am running Norton Anti-Virus (although my annual subscription lapsed about 2 weeks ago hmm...) and did a Spybot search last week.

I'll try that with "properties" and see what happens.

[Michael Fanelli]

Thanks guys - I am running Norton Anti-Virus (although my annual subscription lapsed about 2 weeks ago hmm...) and did a Spybot search last week.

I'll try that with "properties" and see what happens.

Did you figure this out?

[dmm96452]

Did you figure this out?

Curious about that as well.

[greghalliday]

Checking the hidden files is probably the first thing to do. My desktop has 4GB of RAM. If you have your computer set to enable hibernation, then that "hibernation file" is allocated 4GB of space. Also if windows is managing your pagefile it will usually set 1.5x the amount of RAM you have. Thus 6GB for the pagefile. 10GB right there that are completely invisible unless you check the show hidden files box.

Hope that helps,
Greg

P.S. I did once have a problem with a LARGE file delete. I had saved 2 DVD movies on an external drive. They took up about 8GB. When I deleted them, the file system somehow corrupted and it didn't give me back the 8GB even though the files were gone and I had to reformat the partition to regain the space.

[danag42]

First off, search for all files such as *.tmp and delete them. Searrch the whole drive.

You can't really defrag a drive unless it has 15% free space.

Also periodically get rid of all the files in the Temporary Internet files folder, if you use IE, or set Mozilla to clean out all cookies and trash when you close the application. You'd be supreised how much junk you can accumulate just using the Internet.

[another view]

Sorry for the suspense... I figured it out. It was in the hidden files, there was a lot of temporary stuff built up that I didn't notice before. I think the main one was one (or a few) Photoshop files but not sure what they were and why they were so big. I didn't really take the time to figure it out - I found them and zapped them.

Thanks!

[Harry Hing]

Thanks guys - I am running Norton Anti-Virus (although my annual subscription lapsed about 2 weeks ago hmm...) and did a Spybot search last week.

I'll try that with "properties" and see what happens.

If you go to the download portion of my website, you will find some links to some free software that will help you out here www.nottspcservices.co.uk

[Harry Hing]

Sorry for the suspense... I figured it out. It was in the hidden files, there was a lot of temporary stuff built up that I didn't notice before. I think the main one was one (or a few) Photoshop files but not sure what they were and why they were so big. I didn't really take the time to figure it out - I found them and zapped them.

Thanks!

Download something called tracks Eraser. Besides the obvioius, it does a remarkable job on tempory files. you can always run the windows disk clean up wizard, if you have a few hours to spare