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View Full Version : Where does my diskspace go to?



ApeTheDog
28 May 2005, 03:59 PM
This isn't an emergency or a distress signal or anything, just me wondering about something and seeing if one of you might know what the cause of something that I've been wondering is.

You see, since a while now, my hard disk sometimes refuses to release free space after I delete something. This morning, for example, I installed Max Payne. When I tried to run it, it refuses to work. I removed it because I'd already installed the patch, and I wanted to see if it would run unpatched instead. But after I deleted the program, my hard disk doesn't make new free space. I installed it again, didn't work either, then I discovered it was an SP2 incompatibility. So I removed max payne again.

But where I had over 2GB available before doing all this, I now have only 145MB of free space left.

The answer really eludes me. I've checked my TEMP directory, I can't imagine my swap file to have grown by 2GB. This is not the first time this has happened either. I've lost up to 3GB in this way. Just gone.

They mysteriously show up a few days later again, when suddently my hard disk catches up to reality and shows me how much free space I really have again.

I'm on a laptop, and hard disk space is not a luxury here. I need to juggle my free space a bit. That's why I'm wondering what might be causing this, and if there's a solution.

Like I said, it's not a problem. I know in a few days, at most, the free space will be there again. It's just... I rather want to play max payne right now, and I'd quite like it not to happen again, as well, if possible.

One thing that might be causing it is either SP2, because I know for a fact this never happened before I installed it - or Norton Utilities. Although I'm certain I did not enable any norton undelete stuff, and did not allow norton to manage my garbage can. (I never use it. I SHIFT-Delete everything)

Shai Gar
28 May 2005, 04:19 PM
format c:

ApeTheDog
28 May 2005, 04:26 PM
Won't work. Much like the hospital germs become resistant to regular treatment over time, so too has my hard disk become resistant to formatting over the years.

Shadow
28 May 2005, 04:39 PM
Some space eaters:

* On Windows XP, the system restore feature can eat a lot of disk space. The maximum amount of space it uses is a percentage, a percentage of your partitions total space, that is.
* Page/Swap File (but you probably have already checked that)
* Hibernation memory dump. This will be the same size as the amount of RAM you have installed. Usually in %SYSTEMDRIVE%\hyberfil.sys (which is usually C:\hyberfil.sys)
* Memory dumps from crashes. If you system is set up to do a full memory dump upon a system crash, it will write %SYSTEMROOT%\memory.dmp as a file the same size as RAM.

Division56
28 May 2005, 10:24 PM
Run: All Programs--> Accessories--> System Tools--> Disk Clean Up


I have the same problem. Tell it to clean out your recycle bin.

Sir Isaac Lime
29 May 2005, 12:11 AM
What exactly are you doing to delete the program?

ApeTheDog
29 May 2005, 01:03 PM
I'm doing SHIFT+DELETE, so it should bypass my recycle bin.

I'm trying disk clean up now, it's doing some calculations on how much disk space it can save by compressing everything.

I've already bypassed the problem by deleting another large game, but that's of course not very efficient.

Claverhouse
29 May 2005, 11:50 PM
Coincidentally:

http://www.intpcentral.com/uploads/dilbert2005052441528disk_drive.gif


Claverhouse :ph34r:

ApeTheDog
30 May 2005, 03:43 PM
Like his age should be multiplied by seven, so too is dogberts wisdom seven times larger than that of man.

It was indeed a case of computer rot. I brushed my pc's virtual teeth and had the computercavities filled with some norton quicksilver and everything is okay again now.

(Actually, I removed SP2. And now I'm installing it again. I don't know what I'm doing! But I did manage to gain 5GB of space due to disk compression in that microsoft disk clean up program - I seem to have a lot more old files than last time I ran it. So my problem is solved for now)

Snowflake
30 May 2005, 04:08 PM
You're not using Norton Protected Recycle Bin, are you?

Claverhouse
30 May 2005, 04:22 PM
Aaaiiieeee, Norton ! The kamikaze of the PC.


Claverhouse :ph34r:

ApeTheDog
30 May 2005, 04:30 PM
No, I'm not using norton protected recycle bin. I knew for certain before installing that I didn't want it, so I won't have checked it upon install.

Because I don't know where my recycle bin is, at the moment, I'm not sure, though. I disabled it in XP one time and now I don't really know where to enable it again.

Anyway, I think I'll just remove norton entirely and get a new virus scanner. That's all I use it for anyway.