Hi,
My machine has a 136GB HDD. I've had the machine a while and it's full. I was down to a few hundred MB of available space and the machine was running like cr*p as you'd expect. I found 2 ISO images that I didn't need anymore. Each image was more than 2.5GB. I deleted the first 2 and saw my available space jump to 6GB. A while later I noticed that it was down to 3.5GB of available space. Luckily I found a duplicate of one of the other ISO images that also could be deleted and after that I had nearly 7GB of available space…for all of about 10 minutes. The next time I looked, I was down to 2.5GB of available space. It's at 2.65GB now and I have no idea where the other 5+ GB went.
I have rebooted several time since the deletions (yes, I emptied the Recycle Bin).
I ran an Avast Full Scan and Boot Scan and it found nothing. I ran Malwarebytes Antimalware and it too found nothing.
Anyone have any ideas where my much needed free space is and how I can get it back?
Thanks!
Buck
Dell Laptop
Windows Vista
2GB RAM
136GB HDD
Have you checked on how large your System restore storage is?
Default is about 12% which is a fair chunk of 136GB. Reduce the slider until it is showing about 1%.
Control panel / System / system restore / settings / set slider / OK / apply / OK / re-boot
It won't hurt but there's really no need to change your System Restore settings. System Restore will automatically reduce its footprint when space becomes limited, to the point of disabling itself if necessary. Reducing the allotted space limits your restore options.
There are many good disk cleaners, my favorite being CCleaner, that will purge your system of temporary files and other clutter. But at this point, it makes no sense to download yet another program that will take up more space. So I recommend you run Windows own cleanup utility, Disk Cleanup. Note it has the option to purge your system of all but the most recent System Restore Point, if that is still a concern.
Then I recommend you go through your Control Panel, Programs and Features applet and uninstall any programs you installed but don't use. If unsure of a program, LEAVE IT until you research it to make sure it is not needed.
If you have a bunch of photos, songs, or videos, I recommend you move them to another disk, burn them to a CD/DVD or simply delete those you don't need to keep. You might try something like TreeSize or WinDirStat to map out your drive and see where the space is being used. But I caution again, do not delete anything unless sure it is not needed by your system - Google it first. The largest program, TreeSize, still only takes up about 3Mb of space.
Finally, these are just temporary measures. As soon as you start using the computer again, it will start filling up with temporary files again. So you should consider buying a larger or second drive to put your installed programs and data files on.
Thanks for the suggestions. Just before getting back here to read your comments I checked windows explorer again (after dozens of prior checks and at least half a dozen reboots) and now I have 8.5GB free! No idea why. I hadn't yet done anything to "clean up" since I was waiting for a reply here to see if anyone had any good ideas where my space went.
I still don't know where 6GB of space went yesterday or why/how it showed back up again today.
I'm going to run the disk cleanup utility for the heck of it but I have my 8GB and I'm happy.
