Big Problem

[cartooncreator9 0]

I have a dell laptop with Windows XP. The total amount of memory my hard drive can hold is 60 GB. Somehow, I only have 1 GB of space left on it. I've checked all of my files and folders and all together they should only add up to 15 GB. I don't have any games or anything unneccesary on it. I talked to a friend of mine about it, who is really good with computers, but he couldn't figure it out. I can't figure out the problem. I've tried reinstalling the OS but it doesn't work. I've tried partitioning the drive but it said that the drive I wanted to partition contained files needed to install the OS and it wouldn't let me. If anyone can help me asap I would greatly appreciate it.

[Sampson 0]

Since it is a Dell, a call to their support would not be out of the question. As to where all the space is gone, without looking at the contents of the hard drive, here are the usual culprits. However, none of these should have swallowed up that much space:

1) Dell has some hidden directories on the hard drive for their diagnostics.

2) If you are running IE, it can use a massive amount of the hard drive to store its cache.

3) Depending on the number of emails you store on that machine, deleting them and compacting the folder will yeild back space.

4) There are a variety of temp files and bak files that XP creates when running or installing software, find and delete them.

5) Run your anti-virus and anti-spamware programs to see if you have any number of trojans or bots that could be hogging your hard drive.

6) Run chkdsk.

[Cormac 0]

Have you ever defragged your hard drive?

[Relic 0]

Originally Posted By: Cormac

Have you ever defragged your hard drive?

Add in; Start/Programs/Accessories/Sytem Tools/Disk Cleanup ?

Also, go to "My Computer", right click your HDD, click "properties", and does it actually show you have a 60GB HDD with only 1GB left?

[cartooncreator9 0]

Thanks for all the responses. I have done pretty much everything that you said beforehand, except call Dell. I plan on calling them tomorrow. I have checked my hard drive and I do only have 1GB out of 60GB left. I've tried defragmenting, but I don't have enough space to do a complete run through. I've done disk clean-up, checked all hidden files, and compacted the files I could. I appreciate your repsonses.

[satrow 0]

Download Crapcleaner from http://www.ccleaner.com/download/builds.aspx, choose the bottom one, it's smallest. Install and run it. It's likely to find several hundreds of Mb of trash to delete on first run on standard settings.

 

To free more space, temporarily at least, disable Hibernation - Control Panel > Power Options? or via the Display settings (I'm on Vista and can't remember the exact details).

 

I wonder whether it is a corrupt Swapfile that is causing this? Can you check the size of your Virtual Memory/Page File - call up Task Manager (rt-click an empty area of the taskbar) and click on the Performance tab. The size of this can be changed by using Windows key + Pause Break > Advanced tab > Performance Settings > Advanced > Virtual Memory Change - it should be 1.5x your installed memory by default - I usually set it for a minimum of 1024Mb, more for certain workstations and gaming machines.

 

Run a disk check, Windows may be misreporting the size of the free space (unlikely with XP or 2k). You can do this from the properties of your hard drive > Tools tab > Error checking Check now.