Losing disk space rapidly,need help/advice
 

The free disk space of my c: drive is about 600/500 megas! It's low, I know. And get a bit lower when I'm seeing streaming videos, downloading etc.
But today, it drop to 30 megas without any explanation. I ran disk cleanup, the "disk free up" from TuneUp Utilities2008, deleted the files of the Temp and Temporary Internet Files directories manualy. Did the same to the other user profile of my Pc. Only got 150 mb of free space.
When this happend I was playing F-117 in dox-box, but I don't think that this is the cause!

After schearching around I found out a huge file log of 800 mb, the log file of Dr.Watson. Did a little recherch in the net and deleted the file, got 900 mb of free space.
But, since I think the sudden drop of free space is not related to the big log file (one thing got me to look closer and discover a big file that possibly had that size even when I had my "normal" free disk size) I asking all the guys here, if You have an explanation, an idea and an advice for this odd thing.

Do a scan for viruses, trojans, and spyware. That's a very likely culprit.
These things can sometimes be made to eat hard drive space.

Run Scandisk to check for errors, then defrag your HD afterwards.

The video stream could be getting cached on your HD and then not getting wiped afterwards. If it's a player that was installed, check that player's folder in 'Program Files' and 'Documents and Settings\<your user name>\Application Data\' to make sure it hasn't kept a copy in one of those places.

If it's a streaming feed through your web browser, check your browser's cache folder to make sure it's not keeping the vids. Sometimes this can be stored in 'Documents and Settings\Default User\Application Data\' or '\All Users\Application Data\' instead of the usual folders in 'c:\Windows'.

Also check 'Documents and Settings\<user name>\Local Settings\' for some of those huge mystery files in the various folders there.

There is a possibility that DOSBox caused an error and the game data got dumped by Dr. Watson, making a huge file.

You need to change your System settings in Windows to limit the size and types of memory dumps and log files. Unless you're very skilled with OS debugging, you can disable memory/stack/core dumps completely.

Yup, run an anti-virus/spyware scan.

I had a similar issue on my old PC, something was downloading endless copies of itself into a hidden folder and naming itself after every conceivable type of pornography. My HD space was constantly decreasing, and ths was quite an issue for my 20GB drive! Naturally I got this from using file-sharing software. Oh, how young I was :p

Anyhoo, it wasn't until I ran AVG and watched every filepath it scanned until I could find the hidden folder. From then it was a simple deletion.

Sounds normal to me. Swap file is your issue. It can range as much as a GB or more. As it gets smaller, you get more space. As it gets bigger...

Dr. Watson is from a system crash. It will re-write itself again next time your computer has a problem.

No need to panic however. Delete some stuff already!

-S

PS. You can set a maximum swap file size by the way. If you have 3 GB or more, you can even turn it off safely, though some apps expect it and will require one be present.

Go to Start->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Cleanup and run it...my guess? Too many internet temporary files.

Start deleting some of your porn :up:

Seriously, Like the other posters, check spyware and internet caches they can add up fast.

I would get another hard drive myself...and start dumping stuff on to that. I would also get some more memory...perhaps it will help reduce the size of the swap file...

IMHO...

Go hardcore back up data to dvd then reformat PC. Your have a clean, fast HDD.:)

http://gigasmilies.googlepages.com/03a.gif ahahaha, the oldest advice in solving computers problems...

No viruses, trojans, and spyware! Kaspersky, spybot, ad-ware and spyware doctor didn't find anything. :hmm: Just weird...:hmm: http://gigasmilies.googlepages.com/39.gif

SUBMAN1, yes, already deleted the file. Log files shouldn't be so enormous...

Platapus, Porn?No, that's on my other drive of the disk, the backup one...ehhehehe

JSLTIGER, did you read the first post? I said that I raned the disk cleanup. And the similar utility of tuneup, plus deleted manually the temp/temp internet files and folders. I clean the internet temp files regulary, they tend to occupy a lot of space.

If you're 100% sure losing drive space is not due to malware and even cleaning the file system of temp, junk, and cache files, along with double checking system settings still has not solved your troubles...

Either your FAT has become corrupted somehow and keeps giving random errors on free space available or your HD is on its last bit of life before it has a catastrophic failure.

It might be a good idea to back up your data until you get this nailed down.

list all files by searching all files and folders with a blank search box.

Arrange files by size.

Spot the offending file.

Thank you all for your advices!:up: Apparently the problem is now solved. Got back the old 1,09 Gb of free space. Did some search around the disk. Deleted more big log and backup files. And download crapcleaner, run it and got back back up tp 150 mb of disk, from files that I never thought that they were there... :o

This all situation made me think that after 5 years soner or later this pc as to be formated, but think I can manage another five years............. :lol:

The good of all this is a manage to get rid a log file of 800 mb:huh: ...jasuó!!!!!

External storage is really cheap now. You should look into that anyway. (500GB for less than $100. Sometimes better)

I'm still waiting for those 15-terabyte holographic optical drives to drop in price from $20,000 US to a more reasonable price for home users. :yep:

You can never have too much disk space. :know:

Yes! I will wait to!;)