Losing Hard Drive space

bru · Jul 23, 2011

I have read numerous posts about the topic but I can not figure out where my hard drive space is going.

I lose 1-2GB a day. I have used TreeSize to look at usage and it leaves me with roughly 27GB unaccounted for.

And what is confusing is when I lose the space it does not show up on C:\(OS). Yesterday I had 539GB free of 686GB (146GB used) and TreeSize showed C:\(OS) size as 120.7GB. So that leaves 26GB missing.

Today I have 537Gb free oof 686GB (148GB used) yet the size of C:\(OS) basically remained the same at 120.8GB. So now 28GB missing.

I can post whatever screen shots you need to help me solve this. I am pretty sure it is not restore points as I have the amount set pretty low and if it was wouldn't that show up on C:\(OS) anyway?

karlsnooks · Jul 23, 2011

bru,
Could be due to a program which doesn't restore pointer correctly.

A check for this is to use ResMon and check the memory usage occasionally.

Another approach is to run one and only one program. Turn off your computer and then turn it back on and see if there is any change.

Here's what i do:
Download, install and run MalwareBytes to rule out the possibilty of a malware cause.

Download, install and run CCleaner. For both of those there are links in my sig.

Looking forward to the results.

bru · Jul 24, 2011

Thanks for the reply.

I run CCleaner everyday. I don't have everything checked but certainly clean out temp files,cookies and log files among other things. Even whenI clean I still lose 1-2GB. I run MBAM every other day or so. It has always come up completely clean in Quick and Full scans.

Could you elaborate a bit on your statement Could be due to a program which doesn't restore pointer correctly?

Also where in ResMon should I be looking? I don't see anything for hard drive usage.

karlsnooks · Jul 24, 2011

resmon.exe

I'm referring to what is, amongst software types, referred to as a memory leak. That is, memory is allocated to the program but the program does not return the memory.

I also recommend running CleanMgr.exe

bru · Jul 24, 2011

karlsnooks said:
resmon.exe

I'm referring to what is, amongst software types, referred to as a memory leak. That is, memory is allocated to the program but the program does not return the memory.

I also recommend running CleanMgr.exe

So if there is a memory leak from a program it won't show up in C:\(OS) anywhere?

I run System Monitor but not sure what I should be looking for. In the tool the tab "memory" refers to physical memory. Are there clues there? Or are you talking about somewhere else in ResMon?

Does CleanMgr.exe = Disk Cleanup? I run that too. After using CCleaner it barely finds anything.

GeneO · Jul 24, 2011

Do you have system restore enabled for the drive? Go to My computer -> properties -> System Protection Is it on for the C drive? If so select the drive on the menu and click configure. That will tell you how much it is using. Then click cancel. Does it agree with what you are missing?

I'd advise you to keep it enabled. System restore can restore your system to a previous stae, files and all, if you have trouble (bad program install, etc.). You can set a limit of how much disk space it uses, so you may want to set the limit lower if that is a problem. However, if you set it lower, you may loose restore points, so only do so if you know you have a stable system. Here is a tutorial on how to change the limit:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/335-system-protection-change-disk-space-usage.html?filter[2]=Performance%20Maintenance

A memory leak would not cause you to loose hard drive space grow over time, unless it is a resident program that ends up making the pagefile.sys grow from a large leak. I think this is unlikely, but you could easily see if this is happening by monitoring the size of pagefile.sys. Also, you would get the space back if the leaking program ended or you rebooted your system.

Bill2 · Jul 24, 2011

Loss of hard disk space is mostly either due to temp files accumulation or system restore points or the hibernation file. Run through each of the steps in this tut.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/129976-hard-disk-space-free-up-recover.html

dreamer · Jul 24, 2011

This isn't my thread but thanks to Bill2 i freed my hard drive of almost 9 GB.

Bare Foot Kid · Jul 24, 2011

Hello.

Here are a couple useful tutorials linked below that may help.

Disk Cleanup : Extended

How to Speed Up / Optimize the Performance of Windows 7

bru · Jul 24, 2011

I use CCleaner and Disk Cleaner so I am pretty sure I am cleaning temp files, log files, etc. pretty thoroughly. I am trying to figure out if I really have GB unaccounted for or if I am confusing things.

I was given this equation:

C partition + System Volume Information + Free space = Disk capacity

It was implied that Sys Volume Information in the above would include System Restore space. I do have almost 30GB of space being used by Sys Restore but I thought that would be included in C: as I'm pretty sure it resides in a folder on C:.

In another recent post http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/176852-24-gb-space-loss.html the users' WinDirStat shot showed the volume info, labeled as unknown, in C:. But it appears TreeSize does not.

Maybe my "missing" space is my System Restore usage but I am still unclear.

GeneO · Jul 24, 2011

Where are you getting the numbers in your formula from?

Wicca · Jul 24, 2011

could be your hard drive is starting to fail that happen to a friend it lost up to 50 gb and then it stopped working all together had to get new hard drive

bru · Jul 24, 2011

537GB free of 686GB. So that's 149GB used somewhere.

Looking at properties for the drive shows the entire drive using the 149GB (or 148GB some rounding going on).

TreeSize says C:\(OS) is 120.8GB. So that's my question where is the ~28GB? Computer shows it all accounted for on C:\(OS) but TreeSize does not.

Is it restore points? Are restore points included in the Computer's properties but not in TreeSize? That could explain it but as mentioned I have 30GB and I'm "missing" 28GB.

I'm not necessarily trying to reclaim lost space just trying to understand where it is and most importantly why I seem to be losing 1-2GB a day. And the 1-2GB a day is not going to C:\(OS) as that number (currently 120.8GB) doesn't increase by 1-2GB a day.

Wicca · Jul 24, 2011

back up your data seems like it is failing incase maybe i am wrong but when hard drive's start to fail they losing gb's

bru · Jul 24, 2011

It's a six month old drive on a stock HP desktop. I suppose it is possible it is failing but my last hard drive never failed after 6 years. Data is backed up. If it is going to fail it better do it before the warranty is up.

I'm sure there is an explanation for this but throwing all these numbers around and using different programs to analyze disk usage is really confusing me.

Britton30 · Jul 24, 2011

System Volume Information isn't included since it is not accessible. Did you disable Hibernation? Using it sometimes cause file corruptions.

Type cmd in Start Search, right click cmd, Run as Admin, then type in powercfg -h off. Reboot and check your used space. This turns hibernation off and deletes the hiberfil.sys file.

bru · Jul 24, 2011

Britton30 said:
System Volume Information isn't included since it is not accessible. Did you disable Hibernation? Using it sometimes cause file corruptions.

Type cmd in Start Search, right click cmd, Run as Admin, then type in powercfg -h off. Reboot and check your used space. This turns hibernation off and deletes the hiberfil.sys file.

hiberfile.sys while large is also not increasing. I can delete it but that's really not what I am after.

You are saying that Sys Volume Info isn't included in TreeSize.

Is Sys Volume Info strictly restore points? Is it also true that Computer does include it and that is the difference between the 120.8GB and 149GB that I see? Would almost work except for the slight difference in numbers as explained above.

Joan Archer · Jul 24, 2011

Sorry for butting in but wanted to clear something up. You said in an earlier post that you were using 30 GB for System Restore, can I ask just how far back does that take you because you really only need to keep at the most about 2 weeks of restore points.

If you use System Restore to try going back too far it can cause more problems than you are trying to solve.

bru · Jul 24, 2011

Joan Archer said:
Sorry for butting in but wanted to clear something up. You said in an earlier post that you were using 30 GB for System Restore, can I ask just how far back does that take you because you really only need to keep at the most about 2 weeks of restore points.

No problem. I'm open to all suggestions/comments. The 30GB gives me restore points going back one month. I can reduce the usage (currently at 5%) to only have two weeks worth but figured with the hard drive size it was no big deal. I think the default was this amount or even higher. On my XP machine it had restore points going back months.

I'm still trying to understand if it is the restore points that are my "missing" space.

Basically it comes down to this:

Computer properties tells me 149GB is being used. Does this include restore points?

TreeSize shows 121GB on C:\(OS). Does this exclude restore points? If yes to both I am close to accounting for the space but still a bit off, unfortunately it's the wrong way

.

seavixen32 · Jul 24, 2011

These Microsoft FAQ's may be of help to you.

System Restore: frequently asked questions

Losing Hard Drive space

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