windows 7 still eating disk space

[darmok47]

for Win7User512:
reformat????
that's an original idea!!!! EXCELLENT!!! PROBLEM SOLVED!!!!

sorry for the irony but.... LOL we can say SOLVED to all problems on this forum!!! The final solution!!!

i have no time for reinstall all programs i have, and the system is fine!
I was just thinking now that maybe the cause of this eating can be the fact that in the last days my pc reset himself i think for hardware issues, and maybe there are files of logs and error report that win7 create for that, but in this case i dont know how locate and how to cancel these hypothetical files
Someone know the answer?

 

[Lomai]

Hi darmok47

What win7user512 suggested is probably the best solution given your existing issues.
It could be that your installation is corrupted - something gone rogue etc. or at worst, your PC is a bot
Unless of course you prefer to leave things as they are.
Whatever the outcome, you are going to have to find the time to reinstall some time soon.

Hope this helps in your decision

Regards

 

[gesaugen]

Justo say, I have same problem on my Win 7 64bit.
I have also turned off everything that could eat space by itself and my pagefile is on other hard drive, on its partition (I have three HDDs: on first are system partition and two for work. On second is backup partition and pagefile partition. On third is ubuntu linux)

My system partition is only 20GB large and it is good because win7 and all main programs and applications take max 15GB. So 5GB is just to sit there untouched...
but it isn't the case: I keep loosing space by itself and I cant see where it is going!
I used all kind of space explorers, and just for example "TreeSize" app says I'm using 15,331 MB but in explorer it says I have only 2GB free, so 3GB are mystically "gone"
I've noticed that when PC is not doing anythig, it looses about 2MB every 3-4sec

Just as intresting thing:
I'm using flashget download manager installed on system partition and when it is downloading files on other partitions, i also loose space on system partition. It looses space with ratio 1:1 so if I download files that goes more that 5GB, system partition will be filled to the max...
But the intresting thing is that when I exit from flashget, space just appears!
So I've installed it onto another partition and now I dont have problems with it...

As I've come to conclusion, problem has something to do with windows protection of "program files" folder on system partition, where it looks like that win doesn't allow programs to write anything into the "program files" by themself, but allows them to write into the system partition like unregistered data that will be lost once program doesn't need it...

I've decided to try this theory by reinstalling all the applications onto the other partition, and let the system partition be only and only for windows...

 

[swarfega]

Is the WD15EADS-00S2B0 the 1.5tb hard drive?

 

[darmok47]

@swarfega: yes, is the 1.5 TB harddisk. why?

 

[Lomai]

Hi darmok47

Have a look at this thread

Hope things work out

 

[winsupertweaker]

Download CCLeaner and be sure to run it in Default Mode. This will delete index.dat files and tons of temp files in your system. I am not keen on Registry Cleaners unless the user is an Advanced User. You need to know what to choose to ignore and what to allow the registry cleaner to repair. If you are knowlegeable in this area, then take advantage of CCLeaner's Registry Repair feature as well. (make a system restore point before you install CCLeaner as well. I bet you have great results. Please report back. You can cownload CCleaner from www.cnet.com under Downloads/Windows

 

[Stephaneb]

Hi there,

I run Win 7 Pro on a Thinkpad T510i (received a few weeks ago) with a 300 Go. Deducing the 15 Go of the recovery partition, I still have around 285 Go for my OS and files. My files and programs take about 150 Go. However, the Win Explorer "tells" me that only 20 Go are available on my disk. So I lost about 100 Go somewhere (over the rainbow?)...

I tried cleaning files, useless softwares, spywares..but nothing changes ! I read something about indexing options (that could consume a lot of space if indexing is activated for all your files) but I don't know if changing these parameters will allow me to recover the "lost space"...

Does anybody have some news concerning this problem. I think that this is not a virus problem but clearly a Win 7 problem (I found lots of testimonials of similar problems...).

Thank you in advance.

Stephane from Belgium

 

[karlsnooks]

StepanieB,

Welcome to SevenForums.

Post a copy of the output of Disk Management.

You can use the built-in Snipping Tool to take the snapshot of Disk Managment output. Be sure to maximize the display of Disk Managment before "snipping".

Also you can help us to help you by filling out your System Specs.

Now here is sequence/references you may need.

WIN key | type DISKMGMT.MSC | ENTER key to run Disk Management

WIN key | type SNIP | ENTER key to run the Snipping Tool

WIN is the key with the wavy flag on it.

Attaching a pic to your post:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-how-post-screenshot-seven-forums.html

________________________________________

HOW TO FILL OUT YOUR SYSTEM SPECS

In the line at the top of www.SevenForums.com you will see UserCP.
That is an abbreviation for User Control Panel.
Click on UserCP.
In the left-hand column, under Your Profile you will see Edit System Spec.
Click on Edit System Spec
You can copy and paste from the output of Speccy, Speccy - System Information - Free Download to fill out much of the info. Be sure to use the Other Info section of your System Specs for such info as your optical drive, your wireless adapter, your speakers, etc.

________________________________________

 

[Stephaneb]

Here are some screenshots (in French)







I have some doubts about the "System volume" directory but i cannot access it !

Any idea that would allow me avoiding a "format c:" ?

Thx in advance

 

[karlsnooks]

Now with WinDirStat I suggest you further examine \Users

That's where the problem is.

Have you possibly filled up your disk with videos, pics, music?

Your system areas are in order.

 

[Stephaneb]

No,

Users file is ok:
30 Go Music, 10 Go Pictures, 20 Go downloads, 45 Go documents and mails

The problem is that the sums announced by WinDirStat or SizeTree (140 to 150 Go of files + 30 Go free = 170 to 180 Go) are farly below the capacity of the partition (280 Go) !

The weird thing is that it doesn't appear in WinDirStat or SizeTree...



Thank you for your help. I hope this will be solved (I'm even not sure that format/re-install will solve the problem...I have this laptop for only 1 month !).

 

[karlsnooks]

StephaneB,
You have an inordinately large c:\Users directory.

I have a 120 Gigabyte drive and here is a snapshot of WirDirStat output.



Have you run MalwareBytes yet. If you don't find actual data files taking up the > 100 Gigabytes on your C, then I strongly recommend running MalwareBytes.

After downloading MalwareBytes, then turn off your anti-virus, anti-malware software until after malwarebytes is finished.

Malwarebytes

 

[Stephaneb]

Hi all,

thanks for your answer but I know each MB of the 105Gb ! lots of music, lots of heavy working documents (matlab files, data files...etc), lots of references (papers, reports...), lots of pictures...

The problem is that the sum of the sizes of the different files shown by WinDirStat or SizeTree (approx. 180 Go including 30Go free space) is farely below the actual size of my partition (280 Go). The 100 Go that I've lost are hidden somewhere and did not appear in WinDirStaT/SizeTree. They appear only when I compare the size of the disk (announced in Win Explorer) and the size of the files (shown by WinDirStat/SizeTree).

My question is not a question about the size of a file (it would be pretty easy to identify the source of the problem) but about the "ghost" Go's: Where are they ?

Stephane.

P.S. All my personal files are on partition C: since I did not take the time to partition my disk when I received the laptop !

 

[karlsnooks]

Did you have an opportunity to run MalwareBytes?

 

[Stephaneb]

Sorry, I forgot this question. But yes, I ran it and I ran also SuperAntispyware. Nothing was found.

S.

 

[karlsnooks]

Well I've run out of ideas.

My only suggestion now is to save all data dear to your heart and do a clean install.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/91339-ssd-hdd-optimize-windows-reinstallation.html

 

[Stephaneb]

I'm doing a backup and will re-install Win7 (hoping it won't happen again in one month...).

Btw, thank you for your help.

If anybody else find a solution, I'm interested (at least to prevent future problems...).

Stephane.

 

[karlsnooks]

Sounds like a good plan.

Because you may be infected by a very evil piece of malware, for the reinstall I recommend the appproach given in following link and be sure to use the Clean All command mentioned there are being sure to follow the format sequence suggested there.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/91339-ssd-hdd-optimize-windows-reinstallation.html

 

[gesaugen]

just to say, I have found the solution!

it is KB979223 fix and can be found here

it works for me