Solved OS (C:) space left changing almost every restart.

[MalReynolds]

Hello people of the forum, I have joined to seek advice on an issue that is currently just annoying, but may develop into something worse.

I am currently have a 456 gigabyte hard-drive. The problem I have is that almost every restart of my laptop the value changes from one value (currently 52.3 GB free as I type) to a completely different one (around 237 GB free). It is always either one value or the other, with both increasing or decreasing the exact same amount depending on what i've installed or uninstalled. I was wondering if there was a way to find out which was the correct value, how to solve the problem or to know if this may cause problems if I do have a large amount of space left but my laptop will not recognise it and refuse to let me install programs.

Any help is appreciated, with the research I have already done on the topic (mostly browsing the little forum posts there are) and the following solutions from the pages below have been tried with no success :

Hard disk space keeps changing randomly - Microsoft Community
Hard Drive space keeps fluctuating - Windows Vista
My harddrive space keeps changing? - Yahoo! Answers

All help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Layback Bear]

What method are you using to see your hard drive free space?

What else do you have plugged into the laptop?

 

[MalReynolds]

Thanks so much for replying, I was losing faith haha.

To see my hard drive space I am using Start->Computer then looking at my hard disk drives (of which there is one).

The only thing I have plugged into my laptop is the powery-wirey thing that goes in the back to charge it. I have the battery taken out of the laptop because it's plugged in, but the value still changes wether the battery is in or not.

 

[DocBrown]

Hey Welcome MalReynolds


Lets see a screen snip of your Disk Management of your HD.

rb: Start :ar: Computer Management :ar: Disk Management
Maximize to full screen
Take a Snip of it with the Snipping Tool, Save snip, then upload the snip here in your post.


:ar: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

 

[Layback Bear]

After doing what Doc has suggested try this.
Start/Computer and right click on your drive and go to properties. It should give you you used and free space.

 

[MalReynolds]

I have taken two snips, one when the computer thinks it has 58.6GB left and (after a restart) another when it thinks it has 214GB left

 

[MalReynolds]

both again (by accident) with the thing Layback Bear asked for

 

[Indianatone]

Welcome to Seven Forums MalReynolds. I see a Steam icon on the task bar. Does the hard drive space go down after gaming? Large multi map multi player game? Just thinking outside the box here.

 

[MalReynolds]

Just messed about in Primal Carnage for 5 mins, no change in the hard drive space.

 

[Layback Bear]

Take a look ant # 7 & 8 here

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11728-optimize-windows-7-a.html

Make sure no steaming or torrants are running when you check free space of hard drive.

Please fill in your specs completely.
What anti virus are you using?

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/180324-system-info-see-your-system-specs.html

 

[MalReynolds]

I've tried deleting those "save points" that you can load up if your computer runs into a problem
I've deleted programs (of which there are few)

Its a bit late here and im too tired to fill my specs, I'll do it tommorow.

As for Anti-Virus I use McAfee Security Centre. If thats not the full title ill get that done tommorow as well.

I'll also take a look at 7 and 8 like you suggested.

 

[Layback Bear]

Local Time: 03:26 PM

McAfee can be causing that problem.
McAfee in my opinion is one of the worse things one can do to a computer.

Give this a try.
Remove McAfee using their online tool.
Then install this and see what happens.

Microsoft Security Essentials - Microsoft Windows

 

[MalReynolds]

I don't know what time the "local time" thing says for me, but it's wrong.

I don't mean to be rude but there is no way I am removing McAfee anytime soon, and I am sure it's not the problem. There are some things I have to do then I'll have a sit down and get you my specs and stuff.

 

[gigagiggles]

Try to avoid "mission creep" and stay focused on what is happening to the OS when it reports the two different free space values.

Firstly, determine which of the two is approximately correct. Take an inventory of what is on the hard drive. Pay particular attention to "Users". Whenever the values flip, does the value for "Users" also flip/change significantly? If portable programs are used, their folders sizes might be looked at.

Secondly, by process of elimination, determine if third-party programs (aside from McAfee) is causing the flip-flop. Which programs are running with which value?

Thirdly, if all roads lead to the OS, then a SFC (SystemFileCheck) or a malware scan may be appropriate.

 

[Britton30]

I don't know what time the "local time" thing says for me, but it's wrong.

I don't mean to be rude but there is no way I am removing McAfee anytime soon, and I am sure it's not the problem. There are some things I have to do then I'll have a sit down and get you my specs and stuff.

It is a fact that McAfee is involved in many threads here with crashes, hangs, and BSODs. It would be a good idea to at least try something else, even as a science experiment.

 

[MalReynolds]

@Britton30 I will try getting rid of McAfee when everything else has been tried and I have my reasons for doing so.

@gigagiggles I am almost 100% sure that my hard drive has 214GB left. I have looked at all the programs I have installed and many other things that could take up space and there is no way that it's only leaving me with 54GB.

How would I go about finding the value of "Users" and what are portable programs?

I'm sorry if it seems like im being difficult to work with

 

[tommyg562000]

I don't know what time the "local time" thing says for me, but it's wrong.

I don't mean to be rude but there is no way I am removing McAfee anytime soon, and I am sure it's not the problem. There are some things I have to do then I'll have a sit down and get you my specs and stuff.

How can this statement be true when you have come here seeking help for a problem you can't fix? If you know exactly what isn't the problem then surely you know what the problem is and can fix it yourself...

 

[MalReynolds]

I know some things that aren't the problem, not everything that isn't the problem. It's like a list of possible problems and a few have been scored out, but because one is scored off doesn't mean they all are.


Edit :
I have updated my specs as best I can

 

[Sir George]

@Britton30 I will try getting rid of McAfee when everything else has been tried and I have my reasons for doing so.

@gigagiggles I am almost 100% sure that my hard drive has 214GB left. I have looked at all the programs I have installed and many other things that could take up space and there is no way that it's only leaving me with 54GB.

How would I go about finding the value of "Users" and what are portable programs?

I'm sorry if it seems like im being difficult to work with

To easily find the space consumed by "Users" I use the free utility "Folder Size". It may, also, provide some assistance in determining the discrepancy concerning your disk usage. It can be downloaded from the following site;

Folder Size - Freeware file size analysis. Check the directory sizes, folder sizes and file sizes on your computer with this freeware tree size analysis tool.

The suggestion to remove McAfee from your computer is something you should seriously consider. There are free alternatives which are superior. If you want to stubbornly keep the program on your system, you may spend quite a bit of time troubleshooting, which could be unnecessary. Of course, it's your computer and you can do what you want.

 

[gigagiggles]

"How would I go about finding the value of "Users" and what are portable programs?"

Portable programs are not integrated into the operating system. They run from within their own folders, normally from a USB stick, but some users like the lack of integration and not leaving footprints.

When you open the C:\ drive, a dozen or so folders will show, including Windows, Users, Program Files, Program Files (x86), et al. Right-clicking a folder will bring up a context menu that includes Properties. Properties will denote the amount of hard drive space that folder takes up.

"Users" contains folders pertinent to installed programs and folders pertinent to individual users. such as "My Documents". Seeing that over 200GB is already used, most are probably media files within this file structure.

I only have one program that uses "My Documents", and I don't use Libraries. The one time I did use Libraries, I was spooked by it. With that said, Libraries may be implicated in the extra 150GB.