Hard-drive full... But it's not :(

Effluo

As above

Think it might have been a problem for quite some time.
Unfortunately i cannot put a timeframe on it as it is my mommy's laptop.

It would seem that on the 110gig hard-drive we're missing around 80gigs :eek:

I determined this by enabling hidden files + then just seeing how large all the folders were.

I've run ccleaner + chkdsc to no avail.

Running windows vista and the only issue which there has been for the lappy so far has been a messy windows update incident. Can;t exactly remember what happened, was quite some time ago.

remember having to go into safe mode, go to a restore point + then stop an update from installing as it was "breaking" the computer.

Cheers everyone for the help

Khannie

Try this:

http://windirstat.info/

unnameduser

spacemonger is also useful.

Overheal

Khannie wrote: »

Try this:

http://windirstat.info/

+1.

Ultimately a surefire way to restore space is a reformat. Other than that its hard to recover filespace occupied by crap that cant even be read in most cases.

Effluo

And the result from WinDirStat



I'm going to take the hard-drive out and see what another pc makes of it.

The colour of the sector suggests it's a big jpeg file... But it couldn't be right?

Is it agreed that a reformat will prob be the only solution

ED E

Here's a random thought that might be completely idiotic or it may just help.

Tell vista to index the whole drive. It may make it cop on to whats there and what isnt. I had issues on my laptop with vista before where it held the indexes for files I'd deleted several months previously. Maybe this kind of issue can go deeper that simply search indexes. Just a thought.

Overheal

You need to Highlight the Yellow File to see where and what it is. In that image you have the Windows folder selected and thats the White Box around the Windows folder and its contained files.

It seems like its the 75.6 GB of Unknown Filespace though, in that image. Windirstat sees the 110gb.

Thats your issue anyway.

I noticed this in Vista too. So hey, it could be an indexing bug. I reformat my laptop a couple times a year since discovering the same issue in windirstat, just not such a huge file

EKRIUQ

Click on the big Jpeg and it should tell you where that file is on the HD

Overheal

EKRIUQ wrote: »

Click on the big Jpeg and it should tell you where that file is on the HD

If you look at the information in the file tree up in the top left, its the 75.6gb unknown filespace. Which fits the File Map, given the unkown file takes up 70% (well, 68.6%) of the drive, as well as 70% of the map.

I dont think its a JPEG at all. No more than those 2 larger green files are videos: they would be the Pagefile and Hiberfile. Windirstat's color map isn't entirely accurate. It only uses about a dozen colors to represent hundreds of file types.

ED E

Another thing to watch is Shadow Copies. As part of the recovery system Vista(All variants) keeps each version of your documents, so even if you save a change and in three weeks decide the old page(for instance) was better, you can go back and retreive it via document properties(Only in Business/Ultimate editions, scabby gits). If the limits for this are set incorrectly it will fill your drive. I dont know if its hidden or not, but i suppose its possible it would cause the above.

Effluo

Cheers for all the posts guys

I just fixed it earlier today, strange enough actually
I took the hard-drive out and using my sata to usb connector(+ power conector which i thought odd cause it was a 2.5" drive) the second the xp pc recognised the drive it reported "Windows deleted a file on drive F: due to it being corrupted" or something like that.

Once i saw corrupted i got scared, but it's all turned out good and all the space on the drive is back + it's working fine!

Not a conclusive end, but i don't mind

Cheers again

Effluo

It has happened again!!!
It seems really quite random

And this time I don't have the sata to usb adapter

Anyone any ideas on how I might be able to get it this time?

Anti

Navigate to the winsxs folder. I bet thats the real culprit. The longer you have vista installed the larger it gets, and there is no real safe way of getting rid of the info in it without a lot of tomfoolery. Backup and reinstall is the bets hting for vista every 2/3 months. Thankfully, 7 does not seem to have this problem.

dubfir

This happened to me before and turned out to be system restore had got huge as it was holding onto lots of restore points.......

Effluo

Argh,

I really don't fancy the bother of a reformat...


Ideas would be appreciated.
Like can anyone think of what function on xp would have been able to tell straight away that there was a "corrupted" file on the hard-drive.

If I could get a program like that then I could at least avoid all the hassle.

Cheers again

bonzodog2

You might try:
Delete files in temporary folders e.g.
C:\Documents and Settings\dell\Local Settings\Temp
C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
clear browser cache, cookies, history
disable hibernation unless you need it
empty recycle bin
move any movies/music you can to a reliable external drive (some USB sticks are not)
disable restore points

then defrag

Overheal

Anti wrote: »

Navigate to the winsxs folder. I bet thats the real culprit. The longer you have vista installed the larger it gets, and there is no real safe way of getting rid of the info in it without a lot of tomfoolery. Backup and reinstall is the bets hting for vista every 2/3 months. Thankfully, 7 does not seem to have this problem.

So there really was a Vista Virus? Well, more of a cancer and a tumor.

Man, the fanbois will have a field day. :pac:

Capt'n Midnight

make sure you run the treesize type program as administrator / with admin rights

system restore is also a hidden folder

if it was server I'd also look at the drive properties in case you are saving previous versions on another drive


if all else fails then run chkfdk / scandsk to in case it's just a corrupt index