Free Disk Space Disappearing
June 1, 2012 6:51 PM Subscribe
How do I eradicate an infection that eats my free disk space?
On my Windows Vista machine AND, it now appears, on my Windows 7 machine (Dell Inspirons), something is causing an unexplainable and irrecoverable loss of space on my hard drive. I've tried many antivirus scans from different brands, and even Dell and Microsoft support techs have told me the best thing is to reinstall clean. I'm ready to try that for the older beast (Vista -- Inspiron 1525), but to see that I've probably passed the infection on to my newer guy is just too much. That at least seems to be a slower loss... Any help? All I do is some safe browsing, Word, Adobe, and Windows Media Player. All is backed up, but might I have infected my WD Passport drives by having them hooked up to an infected computer while connected to the Internet? And -- is one safe being connected thru a router? And -- is one safer being connected in the larger sense though having no browser open? What else could be done short of the reinstall? Thanks.
On my Windows Vista machine AND, it now appears, on my Windows 7 machine (Dell Inspirons), something is causing an unexplainable and irrecoverable loss of space on my hard drive. I've tried many antivirus scans from different brands, and even Dell and Microsoft support techs have told me the best thing is to reinstall clean. I'm ready to try that for the older beast (Vista -- Inspiron 1525), but to see that I've probably passed the infection on to my newer guy is just too much. That at least seems to be a slower loss... Any help? All I do is some safe browsing, Word, Adobe, and Windows Media Player. All is backed up, but might I have infected my WD Passport drives by having them hooked up to an infected computer while connected to the Internet? And -- is one safe being connected thru a router? And -- is one safer being connected in the larger sense though having no browser open? What else could be done short of the reinstall? Thanks.
Best answer: Are you sure it's not the volume shadow copy thing doing windows backup? That can eat an awful lot of hard drive space if you let it. It's called "System Protection" in Windows 7 and can easily eat up dozens of GB (depending on the size of your hard drive).
You say that the loss is "unexplainable and irrecoverable loss" but in my experience there's no such thing, so it should just be a question of finding the app or the program that's using the same.
There's nice piece of freeware called WinDirStat which gives you a visible layout of where all your hard drive space is going... try it and see if it helps... I'm not sure that it will show the Windows Shadow copies but it should show pretty much everything else.
http://windirstat.info/
posted by tiamat at 7:06 PM on June 1, 2012 [4 favorites]
You say that the loss is "unexplainable and irrecoverable loss" but in my experience there's no such thing, so it should just be a question of finding the app or the program that's using the same.
There's nice piece of freeware called WinDirStat which gives you a visible layout of where all your hard drive space is going... try it and see if it helps... I'm not sure that it will show the Windows Shadow copies but it should show pretty much everything else.
http://windirstat.info/
posted by tiamat at 7:06 PM on June 1, 2012 [4 favorites]
By way of eliminating a few often-overlooked possibilities, have you emptied the trash? When I eventually remember to do that, I'm kind of amazed at what's accumulated.
posted by dws at 7:14 PM on June 1, 2012
posted by dws at 7:14 PM on June 1, 2012
Response by poster: Yep, I run Disk Cleanup too, many times. Some people report even more loss upon doing so.
posted by noelpratt2nd at 7:25 PM on June 1, 2012
posted by noelpratt2nd at 7:25 PM on June 1, 2012
Theres been reports of viruses being transferred through Sansa Sandisk devices: http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?submitted=true&q=virus
Not its to say its specific to Sansa, but viruses can be transferred through USB drives in general, autorun programs/installers etc.
posted by edman at 7:38 PM on June 1, 2012
Not its to say its specific to Sansa, but viruses can be transferred through USB drives in general, autorun programs/installers etc.
posted by edman at 7:38 PM on June 1, 2012
You must check your System Protection settings.
Click Start
Right-click Computer
Click Properties on the popup
Click System Protection on the left side
The System Properties window should appear and you should be on the System Protection tab
Click the Configure button
Now check Disk Space Usage. Check the "Current Usage" and "Max Usage". 10GB or even 5GB should be enough for Max Usage. It might be set way too high. Try setting it at 5GB or as close as you can get, then close it all and reboot, then check your free space. On that window you also see "Delete all restore points" - don't do that yet, that will delete everything already stored and is something to think about doing, but only if you know you do not need any restore point already stored.
This is something you must check first. It may not be the problem, but if it is the problem nothing else would work to solve the apparent problem.
Ah, Windows.
posted by caclwmr4 at 7:49 PM on June 1, 2012
Click Start
Right-click Computer
Click Properties on the popup
Click System Protection on the left side
The System Properties window should appear and you should be on the System Protection tab
Click the Configure button
Now check Disk Space Usage. Check the "Current Usage" and "Max Usage". 10GB or even 5GB should be enough for Max Usage. It might be set way too high. Try setting it at 5GB or as close as you can get, then close it all and reboot, then check your free space. On that window you also see "Delete all restore points" - don't do that yet, that will delete everything already stored and is something to think about doing, but only if you know you do not need any restore point already stored.
This is something you must check first. It may not be the problem, but if it is the problem nothing else would work to solve the apparent problem.
Ah, Windows.
posted by caclwmr4 at 7:49 PM on June 1, 2012
Response by poster: I just was there and the usage was at bottom (0%). I think I noticed this loss beginning about a month ago after ripping many CDs. Then it started going down by little bits. It has gone from 44GB to 31 in just over a week. I just got advice on how to scan a Sansa Clip and did; it passed by Microsoft Security Essentials standards.
posted by noelpratt2nd at 8:04 PM on June 1, 2012
posted by noelpratt2nd at 8:04 PM on June 1, 2012
Response by poster: Hey, I just gained some for the first time in about 5 days! Must've zigged or zagged somewhere in System Protection...I'm up on the newer Inspiron from 70.2 to 74.7. I'll take it. Now I can eat.
posted by noelpratt2nd at 8:08 PM on June 1, 2012
posted by noelpratt2nd at 8:08 PM on June 1, 2012
Have you run something like WinDirStat? I once had a work computer that was running some vendor-specific ecommerce software and a bug in that program was causing it to create an out of control logfile that ended up running to 70GB ( of text!) before I figured out what was going on. Perhaps it is a bug in some otherwise harmless software, rather than a virus.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:35 PM on June 1, 2012
posted by Rock Steady at 8:35 PM on June 1, 2012
Response by poster: I just downloaded and ran WinDirStat. Users is the main offender (besdies OS), and it's like 90%, followed by Windows at 3% and less down the line, nothing more standing out at all. I know most of my space is music files, but that should be a fixed thing, and now I've stopped ripping anyway. This is a 640GB machine of which there is now 74.9% left free.
I'll continue to investigate, but thanks much for all the answers here. I had to create this Question b/c the previous topic on this was closed out.
Sansa geniuses on their own forums still say probably nothing to worry about with those devices, plus you can format them internally. My WD Passports I'll test for space loss tomorrow. I figure if this is a virus that replicates itself by eating free space, that'll be the tendency on any device it infects.
posted by noelpratt2nd at 9:07 PM on June 1, 2012
I'll continue to investigate, but thanks much for all the answers here. I had to create this Question b/c the previous topic on this was closed out.
Sansa geniuses on their own forums still say probably nothing to worry about with those devices, plus you can format them internally. My WD Passports I'll test for space loss tomorrow. I figure if this is a virus that replicates itself by eating free space, that'll be the tendency on any device it infects.
posted by noelpratt2nd at 9:07 PM on June 1, 2012
Response by poster: Tomorrow also to try more last-gasp tinkering with the old Inspiron...before deciding to slide the reinstall in.
posted by noelpratt2nd at 9:09 PM on June 1, 2012
posted by noelpratt2nd at 9:09 PM on June 1, 2012
Response by poster: Wow: on the old Vista I finally learned how to simply uncheck System Restore, and space went from 32.1 to 51.8GB!
posted by noelpratt2nd at 9:40 PM on June 1, 2012
posted by noelpratt2nd at 9:40 PM on June 1, 2012
Response by poster: With the computer doing nothing, System Restore disabled, disconnected from Internet, all that can be done done, the old Dell is still choosing to lose space it never gives back. Even the new Dell still goes down for unseen reasons. I've regained some space, but tell me this: Is it normal for a (let's assume) healthy computer to just sit there and lose free space never to be seen again? The result would be nada left, right? No solution online seems to tell the answer to this; the best I can get is some vague dictum about some fluctuation being normal, but we're talking about actual loss, at least to the naked eye...
posted by noelpratt2nd at 3:50 PM on June 3, 2012
posted by noelpratt2nd at 3:50 PM on June 3, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by noelpratt2nd at 7:04 PM on June 1, 2012