Free Disk Space Disappearing

  • Thread starter Thread starter lwestatbus
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lwestatbus

I have Win XP with all updates applied running on a 3-year old laptop with
only 100 GB of hard disk space. A week ago I had 15 GB free but as of this
morning I am down to just 5.5 GB. I cannot figure out what has consumed the
extra 10 GB of space. Can anyone tell me how to identify where in the file
system large file activities have taken place in the recent past?

I have been doing some video projects using Pinnacle's Studio product but
all source files are on an external drive and I burn the output directly to
DVD, not to a disk image. I have used this product for years and have not
had it consume inordinate disk space before. I have deleted the project
files (relatively small files) after each project is completed.

I have also viewed a few videos within IE on YouTube but I didn't think that
these consumed hard disk space.

Thanks for any help.
 
lwestatbus said:
I have Win XP with all updates applied running on a 3-year old laptop
with only 100 GB of hard disk space. A week ago I had 15 GB free but
as of this morning I am down to just 5.5 GB. I cannot figure out
what has consumed the extra 10 GB of space. Can anyone tell me how
to identify where in the file system large file activities have taken
place in the recent past?

I have been doing some video projects using Pinnacle's Studio product
but all source files are on an external drive and I burn the output
directly to DVD, not to a disk image. I have used this product for
years and have not had it consume inordinate disk space before. I
have deleted the project files (relatively small files) after each
project is completed.

I have also viewed a few videos within IE on YouTube but I didn't
think that these consumed hard disk space.

Thanks for any help.

Try running Disc Cleanup:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312
 
lwestatbus said:
I have Win XP with all updates applied running on a 3-year old
laptop with only 100 GB of hard disk space. A week ago I had 15 GB
free but as of this morning I am down to just 5.5 GB. I cannot
figure out what has consumed the extra 10 GB of space. Can anyone
tell me how to identify where in the file system large file
activities have taken place in the recent past?

I have been doing some video projects using Pinnacle's Studio
product but all source files are on an external drive and I burn
the output directly to DVD, not to a disk image. I have used this
product for years and have not had it consume inordinate disk space
before. I have deleted the project files (relatively small files)
after each project is completed.

I have also viewed a few videos within IE on YouTube but I didn't
think that these consumed hard disk space.

More than likely - temp files are created on your local drive when editing
video - and it definitely is when you burn to DVD - you are not (trust me)
writing directly to DVD during such a process.

Anyway - you should free up a lot more space by moving *your* stuff
elsewhere. ;-)

Download/install this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

After installing, do the following:

Start button --> RUN --> type in:
"%ProgramFiles%\Windows Installer Clean Up\msizap.exe" g!
--> Click OK.

(The quotation marks and percentage signs and spacing should be exact.)

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed...
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm
( Particularly of interest here - #4 )
( Alternative: http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm )

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but your
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:

- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest moving
the slider until you have just about 1GB (1024MB or close to that...)
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 64MB and 128MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Other ways to free up space..

SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.

In the end - a standard Windows XP installation with all sorts of extras
will not likely be above about 4.5GB to 9GB in size. If you have more space
than that (likely do on a modern machine) and most of it seems to be used -
likely you need to move *your stuff* off and/or find a better way to manage
it.
 
I have a similar problem with the loss of HDD space. Awhile back, I was
having the problem of "Disc Cleanup" running slow or locking up when it got
to doing the "Compress Old Files" operation. I found a repair patch somewhere
that removed or made the "check-box" option hidden for that feature, and
things had been running smoothly for awhile. Now I am running out of disc
space quickly it seems everytime an update comes along. I normally do not add
new programs or have many large audio or video files installed on this HDD,
just mainly the system files. Does anyone know how I can restore the
"Compress Old Files" check-box option back into the "Disc Cleanup" utility,
or repair the program?
HERMIT
 
lwestatbus said:
I have Win XP with all updates applied running on a 3-year old
laptop with only 100 GB of hard disk space. A week ago I had 15 GB
free but as of this morning I am down to just 5.5 GB. I cannot
figure out what has consumed the extra 10 GB of space. Can anyone
tell me how to identify where in the file system large file
activities have taken place in the recent past?

I have been doing some video projects using Pinnacle's Studio
product but all source files are on an external drive and I burn
the output directly to DVD, not to a disk image. I have used this
product for years and have not had it consume inordinate disk space
before. I have deleted the project files (relatively small files)
after each project is completed.

I have also viewed a few videos within IE on YouTube but I didn't
think that these consumed hard disk space.

Shenan said:
More than likely - temp files are created on your local drive when
editing video - and it definitely is when you burn to DVD - you are
not (trust me) writing directly to DVD during such a process.

Anyway - you should free up a lot more space by moving *your* stuff
elsewhere. ;-)

Download/install this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

After installing, do the following:

Start button --> RUN --> type in:
"%ProgramFiles%\Windows Installer Clean Up\msizap.exe" g!
--> Click OK.

(The quotation marks and percentage signs and spacing should be
exact.)

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can
delete the uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has
installed... http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm
( Particularly of interest here - #4 )
( Alternative:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm )

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but
your latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the
system's memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of
the hiberfil.sys file will always equal the amount of physical
memory in your system. If you don't use the hibernate feature and
want to recapture the space that Windows uses for the hiberfil.sys
file, perform the following steps:

- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start,
Settings, Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check
box, then click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting
Never under the "System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab
doesn't delete the hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power
Schemes tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and
click on the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I
suggest moving the slider until you have just about 1GB (1024MB or
close to that...)
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can
utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores
to a
size between 64MB and 128MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section,
do the following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:"
to something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline
contents" (the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this
could take 2-10 minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open
Internet Explorer.

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Other ways to free up space..

SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being
used.

In the end - a standard Windows XP installation with all sorts of
extras will not likely be above about 4.5GB to 9GB in size. If you
have more space than that (likely do on a modern machine) and most
of it seems to be used - likely you need to move *your stuff* off
and/or find a better way to manage it.
I have a similar problem with the loss of HDD space. Awhile back, I
was having the problem of "Disc Cleanup" running slow or locking up
when it got to doing the "Compress Old Files" operation. I found a
repair patch somewhere that removed or made the "check-box" option
hidden for that feature, and things had been running smoothly for
awhile. Now I am running out of disc space quickly it seems
everytime an update comes along. I normally do not add new programs
or have many large audio or video files installed on this HDD, just
mainly the system files. Does anyone know how I can restore the
"Compress Old Files" check-box option back into the "Disc Cleanup"
utility, or repair the program?

Compression - at least the file compression you will be getting through the
built-in functionality - is not a solution.

Cleanup using my tips and then - if you still don't have enough space - it's
time to invest inm a larger hard disk drive.
 
Stanley,
I am currently in the process of and working towards cloning this HDD (10Gb)
to a larger (250Gb) drive, and have already preformed the majority of your
cleanup tips, but need to cleanup more space to possibly do a DEFRAG and
convert the FAT32 files to NTFS before doing the cloning. Do you know of a
way to restore the "Compress Old Files" check-box option in the Disc Cleanup
utility?....or have any other suggestions of how to do it, or to find info on
restoring the option?
HERMIT
 
HERMIT said:
Stanley,
I am currently in the process of and working towards cloning this HDD (10Gb)
to a larger (250Gb) drive, and have already preformed the majority of your
cleanup tips, but need to cleanup more space to possibly do a DEFRAG and
convert the FAT32 files to NTFS before doing the cloning.

Do all of that AFTER cloning.
 
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