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hanstatdg

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Everything posted by hanstatdg

  1. Update on my shrinking free space issue. I think the problem can now be considered solved. The free space is now reasonably steady at between 14.2 & 14.6 GB. I don't know for sure why it swings between these two extremes, but it is somewhere in "Documents & Settings", and occasionally the creation of Restore points. Ccleaner does not identify any temporary files in "Documents & Settings" which would account for it, nor does MS Disk Clean. I'm satisfied that they are system files which occasionally vary in size, and which is normal. I only noticed it when I began to run out of free space, which was largely my own fault. With adequate free space, the variations would scarcely have been noticed. I have found TreeSize Personal to be a useful utility, because it can save a profile and then automatically compare it in detail with the current position. This does make it easy to compare like with like, right down to individual files. TreeSize Free cannot do this. The printed profile is only a brief summary, so useful comparisons cannot be made as easily. It can be done on-screen with the aid of a pencil & paper, because the same detail is available on screen as with the Personal version, but it can't be saved, nor printed in that detail. Thanks once again for all your help. David Hanstater
  2. Thanks, DennisD, I've just downloaded, installed and run TreeSize Free, now up to v. 2.33. It generates a simple snapshot of the selected drive. It can't be saved, but it can be printed, which is as good. It shows more or less the same as Windows Explorer, plus folder sizes. So I can compare with future ones. Incidentally, there is a professional version available for about $50, which from the website pictures looks much the same as the freeware WinDirStat and JdiskReport programs combined, but it does have a lot of very useful functions and reports, such as tracking changes in file and folder sizes. However, I'm not prepared to spend that sort of money, because I think I can now do this manually with TreeSize Free. David CORRECTION. I've just downloaded a fully functional 30-day free demo of TreeSize Pro. As I expected, it's much more complex, and will take time to learn, but I think it will be very useful. CORRECTION 2! There is also a TreeSize Personal, which seems to be much the same as TreeSize Professional, but it's only $17.95. It also has a free 30-day demo version. I might go for it when the freetime expires. David
  3. My apologies. Its in the Options/Settings dialogue, but I got it wrong. It means analysing and deleting more securely, NOT analysing and deleting security files. I have a feeling that some of the erratic free space problem might have been caused by Microsoft Update. It does modify many files, and might alter their size significantly, in either direction. Normally, it wouldn't be noticed until one day the computer refuses to perform a normal procedure such as Defrag, because there isn't sufficient memory. This isn't what happened to me, because I didn't let it get that far. I was always concerned about the relatively small amount of free space on my C Drive, and noticed how it inevitably got smaller, because by default many programs post files to C Drive even if the main program is on D Drive, for example, to the Documents & Settings\<username>\Application Data folder. David Hanstater
  4. DennisD, I did not run Wipe Free Space without completing. I do use Disk Cleanup to remove old restore points, but not on this occasion. I did not run Hibernation, because I've turned it off in Control Panel. Also I haven't run any video conversion software - ever. However, I will download and run Windirstat and record the results. That will give me a atarting point. As you say, it's a mystery. By the way, I do not use the Ccleaner option to analyze security files. Should I? David Hanstater
  5. Hazelnut, Those are good ideas. I will investigate all of them. I'm particularly interested in the AVG removal tool, because I did use AVG free briefly when my usual security service stopped working. I have got back to using Ztron. I wasn't aware that they own Authentium, which is the name I know them by, and they have their own web page. David Hanstater
  6. I thought my problem had been dealt with satisfactorily - and it has. My C Drive free space has remained steady at a comfortable 12.6GB since moving free space from Drive D. Now, today, my free space has suddenly increased to to 14.6GB, although I've done nothing which could account for the 2GB increase. I've tried using Recuva to see if it would find any big deleted files, but it found nothing significant. The C Drive total size hasn't changed since I increased it to 36GB . Any suggestions?
  7. I used Paragon Freeware because it was recommended to me by someone who has used it several times and found it did what was required very well. So I saved myself ?40 Sterling by NOT buying Norton Partition Magic - and then took my wife out to lunch - it cost almost exactly ?40 Sterling . David Hanstater
  8. The whole point about Ashampoo Magic Defrag is that it runs in the background, but only works if the computer is idle. It takes up no time at all. I agree that in normal circumstances it is not necessary to clean drives very often, and common sense suggests that the more work you give a hard drive the shorter its life. It has been said - many times - that there are only two types of hard drives, those that are going to crash and those that have crashed . However, in my case, the critical lack of free space on my boot Drive C threatened to stop the computer booting up at all. I was fighting a losing battle to claw back some free space. Now all is sweetness and light . David Hanstater
  9. Just a note to everyone that I took DennisD's advice and used a freeware partition manager which moved 8GB from my big D Drive to the smaller C Drive without problems. Just a point about defragging. I use Ashampoo's Magic Defrag, which works in the background and keeps my hard drives defragged. So a big thanks to DennisD and all who sent me their valuable suggestions. David Hanstater
  10. DennisD, thanks for the info. I've done lots more checking, and I've now managed to increase my free space to 4.75GB, which is a big improvement. But I would still like to discover why it so rapidly reduced from about 8GB. There must still be more rubbish on my C Drive. I did discover that uninstalling AVG (see my earlier message) left some files behind, one of which was a .dll file which generated some temporary files every time I used the internet. I've dealt with that. It also left behind some 'Prefetch' files and also some registry entries (I backed up first), which has helped. I still know that I'm missing something which would account for the 4GB. I take your point about freeware v. payware. Is it easy to use Paragon Free just to move some free space from D to C without affecting anything else? Norton Partition Magic costs about ?40 sterling, and that's a lot to pay for a one-off exercise David Hanstater
  11. Marmite, thanks for your reply. I've checked, and I find that I moved the page file to Drive D years ago, but forgot about it. So that option isn't on. Talking to a friend yesterday, who is a computer consultant in his spare time, he suggested that in his opinion, it is not difficult to transfer free memory from Drive D to Drive C using Norton Partition Magic. It's expensive, but is probably preferable to using freeware products. So I might give it a try. My computer is settling down now, with the free space more or less stable, provided I use Disk Cleanup and Ccleaner regularly. Mostly it's just temporary internet files that have to be removed. I now have 4.48GB free space available, which is much better. David Hanstater
  12. Once again, a big thank you to all who have replied to my request. I have discovered - with your help - that the main reason for the rapid fill-up of my free space on Drive C was a mistaken use of hibernation, which added a 1.5GB file. I've now disabled hibernation and regained the free space. However, it seems that there will always be a 'creeping' loss of free memory. It seems I have two options: 1. Moving the paging file to my D Drive. This would give me another 1.5GB, which would keep me going for a long time. This is my preferred option, and I would appreciate some help with step-by-step advice on doing it. I presume that simply moving the pagefile.sys file wouldn't do. 2. Moving some free space from D to C. This seems to be a bit risky, but I might be willing to have a go. I do have a fairly big external USB hard drive which I could use to backup what I need to backup, although I have a suspicion that it would take all day. Maybe I only need to backup some files. I would need advice on how to do this partitioning, preferably from someone who has had experience of it, because if I do something wrong it might wreck my system completely. David Hanstater
  13. OK, I've deselected Hibernation in Control panel, which automatically removed hyberfil.sys, rebooted and immediately regained 1GB of free space on C Drive. It seems that Windows XP does increase the size of some system files as time goes on, and if free space is already restricted, it could become critical. I think that my computer, a Sony Vaio, was poorly designed, with a small (30GB) bootup Hard Drive C. it simply isn't big enough, and it gradually fills up. Drive D is much bigger, 350GB. I think I've actually got only one physical HD, divided into two logical storage devices. If so, I wonder if there is any way to increase the size of Drive C by taking some from Drive D without screwing things up! David Hanstater
  14. I haven't added any extra memory. I unchecked the "Hide Protected Files" and found a file 'hyberfil.sys' which seems to have been created recently. It is 1,047,988kb in size. I've Googled it, and it's to do with hibernation, which I don't need. So I'm following the instructions to remove it. David Hanstater
  15. Thanks to all of you for the advice. I'll have a go at them, but obviously it will take time. One of the problems is that many of them involve installing yet more programs. Although I'm careful to install them on my D Drive, almost inevitably some of them put files on my C Drive as well. I'm looking at uninstalling several programs which I no longer use. Again, although they are all on my D Drive, they often place files on the C Drive as well. For example, I've just uninstalled Google Chrome, because I don't use it. This gave me a few extra KB on the C Drive. Marmite, I have very carefully configured Ccleaner, and I'm satisfied that it's removing all it can safely can. I've had a look at the system event logs, and there are some errors. I'll need to research them further. I've managed to claw back about 0.5GB, but I'm really looking to find at least 3GB of unwanted files to delete, and that's a tall order! The good news is that the free space has stabilised at about 3.57GB, and isn't going down significantly. David Hanstater
  16. Thanks to everyone for your advice. I'll try them all and see if it helps. I should point out that one of the first things I did was to search my C Drive by most recent dates, because although the free space has been gradually reduced over the years, at has recently been happening somewhat faster. There is nothing I have done which would obviously cause this - except perhaps for one thing. I normally use Authentium's Payware Security Suite, which includes Anti-Virus, Anti-Spy and Firewall. Recently something went wrong, and it refused to load. Whilst it was being sorted out (it took just 24hrs for the solution was sent to me) I used the Freeware AVG Suite to ensure continued protection. After Authentium was restored, I deleted AVG. David Hanstater
  17. Thanks for your reply. No, I have installed only one or two, but have also deleted some. I checked that folder. There have been 20 files added in the last month, most of them .msp files, totalling about 30KB. I've lost about 5GB in the same period. David Hanstater
  18. I have Windows XP Home. My computer has two hard drives. Drive C is the bootup drive, and is 30GB. The other, Drive D, has 350GB, with plenty of free space. Both are NTFS. I always try to ensure that Drive C has at least 10GB free space. I regularly use Ccleaner, also Disk Cleanup, removing all but the most recent Restore point, and defragging. I also manually move or delete files sent to folders on Drive C by default. I search Drive C frequently for any new files, including hidden folders. Recently, the free space on Drive C has started filling up, and it is now down to 3.5GB. I'm sure I don't have a virus or any malware, because I have powerful security, which is kept up-to-date daily. I'm concerned that if this continues, one day I won't have sufficient free space, and the computer will refuse to boot up. Has anyone any idea what might be causing Drive C to fill up, and what can I do about it. David Hanstater
  19. My anti-virus software also reported a virus in CCleaner v 2,14. It is Authentium ESP Security Suite. It's not the first time I've had this problem with a CCleaner download. This time I took your advice and downloaded the no-install version. It worked fine. I checked it with my virus killer and it didn't detect a virus. So, problem solved, thanks.
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