Solved I keep losing hard drive space

[Dalek22]

Hello, I keep losing hard drive space over time, now yes. I've ran CCleaner, I've uninstalled Games that I dont usually play, I had around 40-30GB, it went down so I uninstalled more things and it always goes down no matter what I do. I've defragged my hard drive and only received around 2GB.

I ran AVG TuneUp, I got from 5GB to 32GB, and now over the month I somehow have 2GB left? Even though I have installed nothing huge at all.

I've tried scanning for viruses with Malware Bytes, nothing found.

Now, I am guessing it's something to do with the virtual memory or whatever but I honestly don't know what to do there. If someone could give me a step by step guide on what I should set it to or whatever then that would be great. Because I dont want to mess up my performance.

As for shadow copies, I've tried stopping it. Only got a few GB back. I tried getting rid of my restore points. Got some room back, but it always goes back down, it doesn't have a huge impact on room anyway

My Specs:

Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit
3.5GB Of Ram, (32-bit) (If I had 64-bit I would have 8GB)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz 4 CPUs
ATI Radeon 6950

Now, I know I should had posted on a Vista forum but Windows 7 is basically Vista 2.0 so... Yeah.

 

[Ztruker]

Install TreeSize Free.

Open Control Panel, Folder Options.
Click on the View tab.
Select or unselect the following as shown:



Run TreeSize Free and it will show you where all the space is being used.

 

[dreamer]

You can download Windrstat and install it.Try to scan your OS drive.This program gives a visual representation of disk usage statistics.WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics

 

[Britton30]

This may work in vista, never have used it.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/819-hibernate-enable-disable.html#post5568
Out sister site: Vista Forums

 

[Dalek22]

I've used it time and time again and I still lose room even if I keep removing things, here's a screenshot:

 

[Dalek22]

This may work in vista, never have used it.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/819-hibernate-enable-disable.html#post5568
Out sister site: Vista Forums

I would have one of those files so its definitely not that. Nor' does my computer ever go on standby but thanks anyway. The power option is high performance in the monitor turns off after 20 minutes.

 

[DavidE]

It looks like you have almost 300GB used for the C:\Program Files folder.
On a Win 7 PC i have ~3GB used for this folder.
Run WinDirStat for the C:\Program Files folder and see what is using so much space.

 

[Dalek22]

Yes, like I've said. I've done that and have uninstalled what I dont want. But over time my space will just go back down even though I dont install anything big. My Hard drive is 465GB and it should have at least around 50GB because it doesn't all add up looking at WinDirStat.

 

[Sir George]

Yes, like I've said. I've done that and have uninstalled what I dont want. But over time my space will just go back down even though I dont install anything big. My Hard drive is 465GB and it should have at least around 50GB because it doesn't all add up looking at WinDirStat.

I am sure you know this, but what is inside the Program Files folder when you expand it? Do you have an additional backup program that runs at a scheduled time?

HTH

 

[dreamer]

^^

+1

Expand and run Windrstat on your program files folder within C drive & post the screenshot here.

 

[Dalek22]

Now I know what you people are going to say on how I should uninstall stuff on Steam, but I have done that time and time again, I've restored over 30GB and again, I lose it even though I dont install anything big.

 

[Ztruker]

276GB for Steam, sounds like that is where the space is going? Must be one or more of the Steam games that is eating up the space.

 

[Dalek22]

276GB for Steam, sounds like that is where the space is going? Must be one or more of the Steam games that is eating up the space.

The thing is though, I don't install anything at all that would eat up 30GB+ now there may be some big 200mb updates or something like that but huge updates dont happen THAT often...

 

[Sir George]

276GB for Steam, sounds like that is where the space is going? Must be one or more of the Steam games that is eating up the space.

Sounds like a very reasonable explanation, as well as logical.

 

[Britton30]

How many games in Steam are updating?
You may have some other things updating a lot too, but you've not followed the request to post a screen shot of windirstat. :huh:

 

[Sir George]

How many games in Steam are updating?
You may have some other things updating a lot too, but you've not followed the request to post a screen shot of windirstat. :huh:

I believe post #11 has a Windirstat image. I don't use that particular program and prefer Folder Size so I am not sure which program he used. However, he didn't post an expanded File Folder Directory.

 

[Dalek22]

The folders aren't exactly huge below it but ok, here you go.

So look, it cant be Steam taking it up completely because its not like it has 30GB updates on games, it has to be windows doing something.

 

[DavidE]

Now that we know the Steam folder is what is using the space we need to see what is using so much space in the Steam folder.

Click the little "+" sign to the left of the Steam folder to expand the folder.
Post back a screen print with that expanded.

Right now we're trying to drill-down to find what is using so much space in the Steam folder...

if you see one folder in there using most of the space, click that "+" to expand...and post the image.

 

[Dalek22]

 

[DavidE]

I think you're just trying to store more data than your HD is capable of.
That means you need to get a bigger HD or another HD for Steam Games.
You could remove 3 games and recover over 50GB of space for a quick fix.

Looking back to post #5 it shows two 465 GB HD's.
D is labeled "Games and Tools".
C is labeled "Hard Drive C".

Where are you installing Steam Games to, "C:" or "D:" ?

How many HD's and what size do you have in this PC?
Can you post a maximized screen print of Disk Management?