Hello to everyone. I'm having a problem as described in the topic title, and hopefully someone can point me to the cause. First, a little background. About two months ago I bought an HP Envy DV7-7333CL laptop. Windows 8 preinstalled with all the Microsoft and HP bloatware. Smooth sailing until last weekend when I lost my network connection and no matter what I tried, I could not reconnect. Out came my old HP Mini so I could get online and do some troubleshooting. Microsoft's support site was of little help, so I ended up on HP's support site. Found the appropriate topic and went down their 8 point checklist. If this doesn't work, then try this, and so on and so on. Ended up at the last step, which said I needed to re-install Windows(**GROAN**). So about three hours later I had a brand new, bright and shiny Windows 8 OS. Another couple of more hours to apply Windows updates, bring Norton Internet Security up to date, re-install several system drivers from HP, update some but not all of the HP freeware, and re-configure all the items in Control Panel to my liking. At this point, I decided to uninstall some of the bloatware I would never use, like the trial version of MS Office, HP Music powered by Meridian, and 16 or so Wild Tangent Games. After this I installed Piriform's CCleaner and Defraggler to clean up the file system, the registry, and do a thorough disk defrag. At this point, my hard drive had 44.5 GB of files. Now, on to my problem.
A couple of days later, I did another full defrag (not the quick defrag) and noticed my hard drive had gone from 44.5 to 45.5 GB. In had not installed any new apps or downloaded any large files. I thought this was a little odd, maybe one of Windows little quirks, so I decided to start keeping track of my hard drive's data. Here's where things get interesting.
Went from 45.5 to 46.2 GB after doing a quick defrag (the first time I used this option) before shutdown on the same day.
Went from 46.2 to 47.1 GB after doing another quick defrag immediately after startup the next day.
Went from 47.1 to 47.5 GB after doing another quick defrag before shutdown that same day.
Went from 47.5 to 48.4 GB after doing a Windows Update (8 important plus 1 optional update). This was on Wednesday morning (8/13/2013).
Went from 48.4 to 48.9 GB after doing a quick defrag before shutdown on the same day.
Today I started up and decided to do a full defrag instead of the quick defrag. I sat there the entire time and watched as my data total climbed from 48.9 at the start to 49.2, then 49.4, then 49.6, then 49.8, then 50.0, and end up at 50.9 GB when the defrag finished. A total of 1 GB in one session! I wouldn't believe it unless I sat there and watch it happen right before my eyes.
So what is wrong? It should be known that after I downloaded and installed Defraggler, I left all the settings as is. Also, I ran CCleaner prior to each defrag session. And I never ran the Windows Defragmenter since the re-install.
Has anyone on the forum experienced anything similar to this? Should I have configured Defraggler differently prior to using it? Or is it Windows 8 doing something I'm totally unaware of? I'm aware that the paging file could be a part of this. I'm also aware that Windows squirrels away all sorts of log files on a continual basis. But gaining 6.5 GB of data in just a few days is just a bit too much. And to repeat, I did not install any new programs or download any files since this problem began.
I'm going to sit back a couple of days and let everyone come up with their theory on this. I just want to know if Defraggler is doing something wrong, or if Windows is just being Windows? Or did the FBI sneak 6.5 GB of kiddie porn past Norton Internet Security and will be breaking down my door at 3 AM this evening? If I'm still here on Friday, I'll check in and see what all of you think the problem is. Thanks for reading this and hopefully someone can help.