Hard drive is being filled up by something I don't know 3

[campbell2]

Hello:

I got a new Lenovo thinkpad T60 this year in March and already I only have 5GB of free space out of 49.5 GB in my C drive. I have not done much on the laptop besides using the internet and saving some work but nothing that big. The strange thing is that when I highlight all the folders inside the C drive, right click on properties, it only shows the total size to be ~14 GB which I can believe. However, when I am looking at the C drive itself (bascially looking at the C drive icon under "Computer"), it's saying I'm using 45 GB out of the 49.5 GB available. I do not understand this discrepancy. I do believe that I am somehow using 45 GB and not 14 GB because I get a message saying my diskspace is low. I have Windows Vista and Office 2007. Here are the things that I've tried but they have not resulted in any significant increase in C drive storage:

1) Defragmenting
2) Disk Cleanup (under Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools).

Would you know what might be causing my hard drive to get filled up so quickly and by what? I would really appreciate any suggestions to get my hard drive space back.

Thank you very much,
Tammy

 

[IllogicallyLogical]

Try checking the drive for errors. Open a command prompt (Start> Run> type cmd and hit Enter). At the command prompt type chkdsk /r and hit Enter. It will ask you if you want to schedule the disk check at the next restart. Select yes and restart the computer to begin the drive checking process and see if this resolves anything.

Try out one of these utilities. These will allow you to see which directories and files are consuming your disk space.

- TreeSize

http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml

- DISKdata

http://www.digallery.com/diskdata/

Also, have a look at Thread779-810374.





Joey
CCNA, MCP, A+, Network+, Wireless#

 

[ArizonaGeek]

The other thing you can do is search your hard drive for large files. I had a friend that was running Real Player and for some reason had a 47 gig cache file, not sure why but I pretty much told him to ditch Real Player anyway. Just click Start, search, All Files and Folders, "All or part of the file name:" type *.* and click "What size is it?" and select Large (more than 1MB) then click search.

That should give you any file bigger than 1mb, if you have a lot of files bigger than 1mb (lots of pictures or MP3s) you can select Specify Size (in KB) and put in 500kb which is roughly 5mb, so it'll find files bigger than that. At least that will tell you where and what the large files are.

From there you can determine if you need the files. Remember, don't just delete them, make double (or triple) sure you really don't need them. The last thing you need is to delete some large file that Windows needs.

Cheers
Rob

The answer is always "PEBKAC!

 

[campbell2]

Thanks so much IllogicallyLogical and ArizonaGeek. I'll try those out.

 

[wahnula]

WinDirStat provides a clear graphical image of what's eating up your space...it's up to you to find out how they got there but it's crystal clear and, more importantly, graphical.

http://windirstat.info/

Tony

 

[campbell2]

A graphical image would definitely be helpful. Thanks for the tip!

 

[kiddpete]

Have you emptied the recycle bin?

 

[campbell2]

Yep, when I did the Disk Clean up, it was suppose to empty the recycle bin. I think it cleaned up like 1 GB from the recycle bin, but I still have about 30 GB to go.

Thanks for the post.

 

[Curlo]

Hi,
I have exactly the same problem with the Lenovo ThinkPad I bought only 3 months ago. I too have selected all of the files/folders on the C drive and it adds up to 24.5GB but according to the properties of the C drive it is 55GB. I have tried all of the above suggestions but it seems that like Windows Explorer neither TreeSize, DISKdata or windirstat can see the extra 30GB. They all say that the disk only has 24.5GB on it and then give the breakdown of that. I too am confident that the extra 31GB is on there somewhere because I am getting disk full messages and when I have run virus checkers the total files scanned equals 55GB.
An addition note is that the disk is steadily getting fuller by the day. Does anyone have any further suggestions, especially on other ways of being able to see all of the files on the disk?
Thanks very much I too really appreciate all of the suggestions so far.

 

[campbell2]

Yeah, your issue sounds just like mine. I guess we're not alone. I've noticed my diskspace steadily disappearing everday too; it's become a constant battle now. I really hope to resolve this soon. I'll share anything else I find useful.

Good luck.

 

[Curlo]

Finally, I found the solution and have my 30GB back. The Lenovo Notebooks have this feature called Rescue and Recovery which makes backups of your c drive, including all of your documents and settings, automatically. In my case a single one of these backups was 12GB. As you have discovered these backups are hidden from Explorer and it appears most other search programs. You can view and delete them by going to the ThinkVantage Productivity Centre which you can access directly from the start menu. Click on ThinkVantage Technologies and then Rescue and Recovery. In this you can delete the backups by going into the Advanced menu at the top. When I tried to delete the big backups one at a time I kept getting an ironic error message saying Rescue and Recovery did not have enough disk space to complete task but if you delete all of the backups at the same time it seems to work fine. You then might like to make a new backup but at least you can change the settings and have a bit of control over it all.
Good luck
Ali

 

[campbell2]

Hi Ali,

Thanks so much for the post!! I'll check out your method tonight. I'm hopeful it'll work for me too; it makes sense. You've saved me a lot of pain and frustration.

Best,
Tammy