Strange hard drive problem: Missing 4GBs

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DarthKirby001

n00b
Joined
Aug 15, 2004
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My HD is a 20GB drive (yes, I know, it's small). Yesterday I was clearing out some room so I could install the WoW open beta file. I cleared enough room to give me about 4GB of free space. But today, I was downloading some pr0n (just kidding....or am I?) when I got a pop-up that said I was low on hard drive space. I checked the C drive, and it read having about 120MB of free space. So now, I seem to be missing 4GB of space, and I can't seem to find it. Everything in my C:\ folders are only using about 14GB.

I just can't see how so much space could dissapear so quickly. The trash bin is empty, and I've cleared out my temp internet files and such. Anyone know what the problem could be?
 
Try running Scandisk. Sometimes a disk can go funny and report incorrect size. Then reboot. If that doesn't do it, maybe look at your swapfile size, as well as do a search for any temp files (.tmp) that may be causing you to lose room. I once had a 200MB temp file in my root directory from a Sandra file system test.
 
Well Scandisk didn't seem to do much, and hybernation was already off.Would turning system restore off be a good idea? It sounds important :p
 
I personally have never run System Restore, because it doesn't seem to help at all. It's also recommended in a lot of anti-virus guides, because some viruses hide there, and continue to infect the system. I was outsourced to the US Postal Service and this was something we encountered during some virus removals.
 
How long have you been running windows since your last re-format? I generally re-format every 6 months. Windows seems to crap out on me around then.
 
FallenBuddhist said:
How long have you been running windows since your last re-format? I generally re-format every 6 months. Windows seems to crap out on me around then.
Click to expand...

It's a pretty new computer, just built it a couple months ago.
 
Are you talking about the space used for the file system? Like the HDD is 20GB but it's only registering as 16GB?
 
Major_A said:
Are you talking about the space used for the file system? Like the HDD is 20GB but it's only registering as 16GB?
Click to expand...

No, it's showing a total of 19GB (as to be expected). The problem is that I somehow went from having 4GB of free space left to less than 1GB of free space left, and I can't figure out why.
 
Just finished clearing cookies, and the virus scanners came up with nothing.

I kinda had hoped it was a virus causing it...at least then I'd know what the problem was :p
 
Also, to avoid this problem again, if you notice numbers not adding up, instead of checking the space on the drive itself, highlight all directories and files in the root of the drive, right-click them and view their properties. It will go through every file and folder one by one and add up the true amount of space they take up, without reservations for Windows system files.
 
dammit...it did the same thing again. Was starting the WoW beta torrent with Azureus, but when it started it gave me an error so I shut it down and tried with BitTornado (which happened to work).

However, my computer things I already downloaded the file the first time...so it took away 2.5GB of free space. And this time deleting teh sytem restore points isnt' working :(
 
Sounds like you have Azerus set to pre-allocate space for downloading torrents.

If you aren't using the same destination directory for downloading with BitTornado, then that space that Azerus claimed for the WoW open beta will still be claimed.

Delete the directory/files that Azerus allocated for the WoW open beta, and you should have your space back.
 
Was the pop up from windows or was it one of those random "if you click on me I will install some trojans and spyware on your PC" internet pop ups?
 
also, download a program called EasyCleaner. It will show you space usage (plus allow you a centralized place to clear history, recent files, unnecessary files, unnecessary registry values, etc.)
 
Lower your system restore to like 2%, and clean out your internet temp folders. Or get a larger HD man, they are cheap.
 
TLS2000 said:
Sounds like you have Azerus set to pre-allocate space for downloading torrents.

If you aren't using the same destination directory for downloading with BitTornado, then that space that Azerus claimed for the WoW open beta will still be claimed.

Delete the directory/files that Azerus allocated for the WoW open beta, and you should have your space back.
Click to expand...

That did the trick. Went into the Azureus downloads folder, and sure enough there was a 2.5GB folder for warcraft :)
 
i also have a 20gb OS drive. i disabled the system restore due to the space that shit takes up on my drive.
i recovered about 5 gb of space.. good ehh? :p
 
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