Bootup Drive Filling Up

[hanstatdg]

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

[Aethec]

Did you install a lot of programs lately ?

C:\Windows\Installer can become quite big if you do...

[hanstatdg]

Did you install a lot of programs lately ?

C:\Windows\Installer can become quite big if you do...

 

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

[marmite]

You could try using something like this to analyse your disk usage ... http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

 

The graphical representation of usage makes things easy to visualise.

 

If that doesn't come up with anything out of the ordinary, try doing a Windows file search based on recent dates. If the list is too large, narrow it down by date or file size.

[CTskifreak]

http://windirstat.info/ No offense to you marmite - but WinDirStat is much more useful in my opinion. It shows a graphical representation for every single file on the harddrive, making them as big as they are in comparison to another file. For instance, a 1Gb file would be a huge rectangle taking up most of the space, while a 2 KB log file will show up as a near minuscule block. And, you can click on each block to see what it correlates to.

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

AJ

[hazelnut]

Do you have or have had BootVis?

 

Could be for something you have set to produce logs, can you think of anything, firewall logging for example?

 

Even though you say you have powerful security, (what is it?) it won't hurt to follow the cleanup routine here JUST IN CASE.

 

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=20120

[metalj]

WinDirStat is much more useful in my opinion.

Here's a portable version of WinDirStat.

Extract the files to your desktop (it won't be actually installed).

[marmite]

No offense to you marmite - but WinDirStat is much more useful in my opinion. It shows a graphical representation for every single file on the harddrive, making them as big as they are in comparison to another file.

None taken. Diversity of opinion and the debate that it generates are things I value about this place

 

Funnily enough, I had a need for this type of utility yesterday. I tried WinDirStat first but actually found JDiskReport to be more useful. The problem with WinDirStat's display was just information overload. JDiskReport gave me a cleaner view and I could drill down through the folder structure more efficiently.

 

Thinking about it (but not too deeply!!) WinDirStat may be better when searching purely by file (size), but JDiskReport may be better when searching by folder structure. The tabs on JDiskReport give really useful overview stuff ... like details of files/sizes by modification date, top 50 by size in the current directory. And all of this changes dynamically as you drill down. And it's really fast.

 

Just another horses for courses thing I guess In the end I left both installed because they each have their strong points.

[hanstatdg]

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

[marmite]

Well there are many programs that spew out log files, some of which the user is unaware of. You could review your CCleaner configuration to make sure you haven't missed an application or a setting. What about the applications that you explicitly don't clean in CCleaner - is there anything there that's generating a lot of log files? Not all applications are listed in CCleaner either ... maybe look at what you use regularly and see if there's anything you've overlooked there.

 

Also, is there anything in the Windows Application or System Event Logs that might suggest a misbehaving application that's maybe throwing out more error logs than usual?

 

Your system drive will almost always use more space as time goes on, new apps, updates, log files. I guess it's just trying to determine whether your increase is abnormal or not.

 

You may also want to consider repartitioning at some point to increase the size of your system partition.

[login123]

Ahhh, but CTskifreak, have you considered the famous "Ring Chart" in JKDiskReport? When you mouse over a sector it shows you information about it in little boxes. Pretty kewell. I couldn't get the exe to work, used the Java edition.

 

 

and

 

[hanstatdg]

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

[DennisD]

I would go along with hazels advice if the other suggestions above don't work out for you. There is Malware out there which can eat up your drive space as one of the things they're designed to do, and your current Security Software may not have picked it up.

 

Allso, besides enabling "show hidden files and folders", I would uncheck "hide protected operating system files", and then have a look for any unusual files in your root drive, C:\. Don't delete anything you're not sure of without asking, but it's worth a look.

 

Have you added any extra memory lately?

 

If so the "paging file", depending upon your settings for it, could have increased in size in line with the extra memory. A long shot that one, but worth asking just in case.

[hanstatdg]

I would go along with hazels advice if the other suggestions above don't work out for you. There is Malware out there which can eat up your drive space as one of the things they're designed to do, and your current Security Software may not have picked it up.

 

Allso, besides enabling "show hidden files and folders", I would uncheck "hide protected operating system files", and then have a look for any unusual files in your root drive, C:\. Don't delete anything you're not sure of without asking, but it's worth a look.

 

Have you added any extra memory lately?

 

If so the "paging file", depending upon your settings for it, could have increased in size in line with the extra memory. A long shot that one, but worth asking just in case.

 

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

[hanstatdg]

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

[DennisD]

You can do that if as you say, drive C and D are actually two partitions on the same drive, as it's simply a case of using a partition managing program to reallocate "free" space. I've done that on two occasions.

 

There is another option if you maybe have a "Recovery Partition" on your System Drive.

 

I decided recently that I would never put my System Drive back to "Factory State" again by reinstalling Windows. Way, way too much trouble catching up with SP3 and all the other Windows Updates, not to mention the software I would lose.

 

I now keep a regularly updated and regularly verified "Disk Image" of my System Drive, and I merged my "Recovery Partition" D:, into my System Drive C:. I think I gained about 9GB, which I really needed.

 

Not for every one, but it suited me, and it is an option.

 

You could also move your paging file to your D drive, which would free up some space, and it's one school of thought which says it's a more effective way to use the page file.

 

If you do only have one drive, I'll try sort out a decent free partition manager for you. Of course the other guys will probably also have suggestions if you go in that direction.

[marmite]

I wouldn't worry too much about a few Sys or App Event Log errors; I was thinking of something churning out many, many errors.

 

Unless you can identify a specific cause this is sounding more like re-partitioning being a good approach. Two free partition management tools I've heard good things about (though I've not had experience of those particular programs) ...

 

http://www.partition-tool.com/easeus-parti...comparison.html

 

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/pm-express/

 

Done with care, repartitioning your hard drive is a fairly safe exercise, but it would be wise to make sure that you have backed up your system and your data. Probably easier if these are partition back-ups ... so if you have an external hard drive you could use for this it would come in handy

[marmite]

You could also move your paging file to your D drive, which would free up some space, and it's one school of thought which says it's a more effective way to use the page file.

That would certainly be another very quick gain; particularly if it's currently a few Gb. Might be useful if you want to put off repartitioning for a while. Also it's pretty risk-free!

[hanstatdg]

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

[marmite]

Hi David

 

Moving the page file is a very quick and straightforward task. If that gives you enough space for now (even to plan what you want to do with your C drive in future) then it's a sensible option.

 

But as you suggest, you can't just move the file yourself. Here are Microsoft's instructions ... http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307886

 

Or the watered down version ... http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/...y-pagefile.html

 

Post back if you're unsure about anything

[Aethec]

DennisD >> Moving the pagefile on another partition will not be more effective, because it's the same disk.

[DennisD]

If you do only have one drive, I'll try sort out a decent free partition manager for you.Of course the other guys will probably also have suggestions if you go in that direction.

 

Aethec, we weren't actually sure at this stage as to whether the OP had two drives or one, and it would probably be more useful directing your correct observation to the OP, asking him to make sure what his setup is before going ahead with anything.

[Tasgandy]

David, I also highly recommend WinDirStat http://windirstat.info/ apart for all the previous benefits stated:

 

"It shows a graphical representation for every single file on the harddrive, making them as big as they are in comparison to another file. For instance, a 1Gb file would be a huge rectangle taking up most of the space, while a 2 KB log file will show up as a near minuscule block. And, you can click on each block to see what it correlates to."

 

You can also open / launch / view all files + run video / movie files, a great way to inspect / decide / discover "I did not know I had 3 copies of that file (or very large movie file) stored in that directory and that directory etc.

 

You can also run this app across a LAN, something I do regularly to keep a check on my Wife and Son's PC available storage space. When I see an issue looming I can even send them an e-mail from within WinDirStat to them which list / show the UNC path of the suspect duplicated files for deletion.

 

There are many other benefits to numerous to list here, do yourself a BIG favour, go and read up on WinDirStat. By the way there is (was) no cost for the SW. Donations are always welcome they tell me.

 

Regards

Tasgandy

[metalj]

However, it seems that there will always be a 'creeping' loss of free memory.

You're right. You will always loose a little bit of disk space every time you use your computer.

This is because of internet cache, system logs, restore points, program usage, etc, etc...

So, your real options are:

 

1. Run CCleaner every time you use your PC.

2. Delete all but the most recent restore point (using Disk Cleanup).

3. Uninstall programs you don't use.

 

2. Moving some free space from D to C.

 

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.

You can only do this if C and D are on the same drive.

 

If you are going to partition your drive(s), I recommend EASEUS Partition Master.

I've used it myself many times, and it's really good and very easy to use.

 

"How to"s are available here.

Be careful though, ask if you're not sure.

[hanstatdg]

Hi David

 

Moving the page file is a very quick and straightforward task. If that gives you enough space for now (even to plan what you want to do with your C drive in future) then it's a sensible option.

 

But as you suggest, you can't just move the file yourself. Here are Microsoft's instructions ... http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307886

 

Or the watered down version ... http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/...y-pagefile.html

 

Post back if you're unsure about anything

 

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