Mysterious Monster Eating Up HD Space
Moderator: Thanas
Mysterious Monster Eating Up HD Space
Like the title says... For some odd reason, the amount of HD space I have available keeps dropping for no apparant reason. And I'm talking about very significant amounts (180 MB just somehow got used up in 2 hours). I've temporarily solved the problem by freeing up HD space, but it would be very nice to be able to stop the problem at the source... I have a single physical HD divided into 3 partitions, and C: (Where Windows is installed, if it that matters) is the only one that's suffering from this problem. Even when I don't save/create any new files, the free HD space just keeps dropping. I've checked Temporary Internet Files and TEMP, but the problem isn't there. I've scanned for spyware and viruses, but both turned up absolutely nothing. As far as I know, I don't have any programs running that should be taking up that much space, and I really have no clue what is causing this... I really don't have a good idea on when this started, but I just noticed it about 3 days ago. Any advice on this would be appreciated. I'm running Windows XP and if you need more information, please ask.
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It couldn't happen to be the MS Office "Fast Find(?)" insanity, would it?
Clarification: This is just another one of those "helpful" (*snicker*) functions in MS programs, it's suppose speed up search function by creating some sort of search index, and it's been known to chomp up hard disk space like no tomorrow.
Clarification: This is just another one of those "helpful" (*snicker*) functions in MS programs, it's suppose speed up search function by creating some sort of search index, and it's been known to chomp up hard disk space like no tomorrow.
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Try this, use properties to check the size of all the big folders in your root C drive (Program Files, Windows, Documents and Settings, anything else). Write the sizes down. Come back in two hours and recheck them. Find the one that is about 200 mb larger, and do the same thing with all folders in there until you narrow it down to the offending program.
The problem is that if its a system file or some other stuff Bill gates don't think you should see, you won't see it.Praxis wrote:Try this, use properties to check the size of all the big folders in your root C drive (Program Files, Windows, Documents and Settings, anything else). Write the sizes down. Come back in two hours and recheck them. Find the one that is about 200 mb larger, and do the same thing with all folders in there until you narrow it down to the offending program.
I remember having several "hidden" temp internet folders before on my previous OS, no matter how hard I tried to access it, even using DOS, I couldn't enter those folders, even though I know that files are in there thanks to the find files function.
Alternatively, if you're using XP, check the system files...... Especially thumbs database and "album art" for MP3s. They like to balloon to god knows what extremely fast.
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Download this, unzip, and run it.
It'll let you easily find what's eating up the space.
Edit - Oops, didn't realize my link was broken.
It'll let you easily find what's eating up the space.
Edit - Oops, didn't realize my link was broken.
Last edited by Shadowhawk on 2004-07-10 05:17pm, edited 1 time in total.
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"Sufficiently advanced technology is often indistinguishable from magic." -- Clarke's Third Law
"Then, from sea to shining sea, the God-King sang the praises of teflon, and with his face to the sunshine, he churned lots of butter." -- Body of a pharmacy spam email
Here's my avatar, full-sized (Yoshitoshi ABe's autograph in my Lain: Omnipresence artbook)
You should just be able to go to Folder Options, and under the Hidden Files thing select "Make all viewable" or somesuch and that should let you see everything.PainRack wrote:The problem is that if its a system file or some other stuff Bill gates don't think you should see, you won't see it.
I remember having several "hidden" temp internet folders before on my previous OS, no matter how hard I tried to access it, even using DOS, I couldn't enter those folders, even though I know that files are in there thanks to the find files function.
Alternatively, if you're using XP, check the system files...... Especially thumbs database and "album art" for MP3s. They like to balloon to god knows what extremely fast.
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We rise with noble intentions,
And we risk all that is pure..." - Angela & Jeff van Dyck, Forever (Rome: Total War)
"On and on, through the years,
The war continues on..." - Angela & Jeff van Dyck, We Are All One (Medieval 2: Total War)
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." - Ambrose Redmoon
"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight
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Hit up spywareinfo.com for a copy of Hijack This! and run it.
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That works for files. However, what happened in this case was that I have several folders that were totally inaccessible from the windows tree, I know they're there because several files from there turned up in my search. However, I can't access any of the files, or any of the folders, even when I used MS DOS.RogueIce wrote: You should just be able to go to Folder Options, and under the Hidden Files thing select "Make all viewable" or somesuch and that should let you see everything.
Let him land on any Lyran world to taste firsthand the wrath of peace loving people thwarted by the myopic greed of a few miserly old farts- Katrina Steiner
Thanks for the advice guys - unfortunately, my monitor broke down, so it'll be awhile before I can get my hands on my regular computer again... The good news is that the problem seems to have stopped, or at least temporarily slowed down.
Farce: I don't think so, I almost never use the help files for Office, or for that matter, any program.
Praxis: I am running a SQL server, except:
1. It's installed on E, not C.
2. It's installed only for my personal use (Testing PHP scripts before I upload)
So I really doubt if that is behind the problem.
Anyways, I'll give the stuff a try when I get my computer back up and running. And Painrack, try booting up in DOS instead of using the Windows DOS prompt.
Farce: I don't think so, I almost never use the help files for Office, or for that matter, any program.
Praxis: I am running a SQL server, except:
1. It's installed on E, not C.
2. It's installed only for my personal use (Testing PHP scripts before I upload)
So I really doubt if that is behind the problem.
Anyways, I'll give the stuff a try when I get my computer back up and running. And Painrack, try booting up in DOS instead of using the Windows DOS prompt.
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