Solved eating storage space...

[Louis09]

Hi! I bought a new laptop and I seem to notice that every time I use it, the storage space decreases by 5 gigs or more depending on the length of use. I use ccleaner but the storage space is still decreasing even though I haven't installed or downloaded any resource hog. There's also no virus since it's newly bought and I scanned it.

Your help/answers will be greatly appreciated.

BTW, I'm using Windows 7 Starter; I used the WinDirStat and found out that .dll/application extension use most of my storage space.

 

[Brink]

Hello Louis, and welcome to Seven Forums.

This may be able to help with this. I would check OPTION 10 first in your case to see if that may the issue though.

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

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Louis09]

thanks Shawn

but system protection is turned off. Every time I refresh my WinDirStat, more disk space is used by .dll. I wonder if it ok to delete these files or is there another way to lessen the creation of these?

 

[Brink]

I wouldn't recommend deleting these files since you do not know what they are for yet. Could you post a screenshot of WinDirStat with it showing the files that are using up your HDD space?


If you have a OEM (store bought) computer, then it may have it's own backup program installed that may be creating backups and eating your hard drive space.

 

[whs]

I would also check what is going on in the shadowstorage (where the system places the restore points). That you do not see with WinDirStat.

Open an elevated Command prompt (run as admin) and paste this command:

vssadmin list shadowstorage

The Allocated number is what the system has currnely eaten. The Maximum number is what it will ultimately use.

 

[MacGyvr]

thanks Shawn

but system protection is turned off. Every time I refresh my WinDirStat, more disk space is used by .dll. I wonder if it ok to delete these files or is there another way to lessen the creation of these?

BAD idea....you need to turn System Protection back on. Your first line of defense when you have a problem is to use System Restore to go back before the problem happened. Turning that off is never a good idea and the drive space saved isn't worth it.

 

[Louis09]

Thanks everyone for your help!

here's the screenshot:

 

[unifex]

Looks like you are bothered by the 4.9 Gb occupied by dll files. Did you try to identify which files are that actually? Do you have multiple versions of the same dll? Do you have any bloatware (e.g. Internet Optimizer, Media Gateway, etc.) on your new laptop? How about automatic updates for any of the installed programs?

The first thing I would do, I would find out which files in which folders are eating up my hard drive and try to uninstall the programs that brought those files to my machine in the first place.

 

[Louis09]

thanks unifex!

It turns out that the system keeps on backing up, hence the .dll

I guess I should disable this auto backup but I don't know how...

 

[Brink]

Louis,

If you have Windows setup to do backups automatically, then this will show you how to turn it off so you can just do it manually instead.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/618-backup-files-schedule-turn-off.html


If it's another program creating backups, then you will need to check with that program's settings to turn it off or uninstall the program if you do not need it.

 

[whs]

Thanks everyone for your help!

here's the screenshot:

View attachment 124703
View attachment 124704

These WinDirStat snips are not very telling. You need to highlight C before you click OK. Then you get a detailed list of what is on C.

PS: I would not mess around with the .dlls. Take the detailed scan and see what the size of your winsxs folder is. Note: The winsxs folder is just a container, but it gives you an idea of how much the system has accumulated over time.

 

[Louis09]

Thanks for your help everyone, I'll check your suggestions one by one.

 

[Brink]

You're welcome. Please let us know how it went.

 

[Louis09]

I learned new things about Windows 7 from your suggestions ^^ although it didn't solve the problem because the laptop itself had a serious problem so I returned it to where I bought it and exchanged it for another brand. Fortunately, the brand I chose was much better.

Again, thanks for your help.

 

[Brink]

That's great news Louis. I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted one way or another.