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disk filling up

Discussion in 'Windows XP' started by shawdaifu, 2007/03/05.

  1. 2007/03/05
    shawdaifu

    shawdaifu Inactive Thread Starter

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    Purchase Dell Inspiron 3 yrs ago with 80 gig hard disk which I thought I would never fill up. Have not installed any new apps for 1.5 yrs and most of my work involves work processing and some graphics. About 50 gig of the disk was filled with graphics and text files.
    I will be installing a new 300 gig, use as master. In the interim, I cleaned out about 3 gigs on the old HD, just to have a little room. In the past week, the disk has become full again. Can this be due to some sort of virus or worm? I have Norton which is automatically updated, but for some reason, it missed a few weeks and I got a warning that the files were out of date for about 3 weeks. No notice of infection, however.
    I'm trying to avoid a fresh install on the new disk because of the time involved, but am afraid that if I transfer the present OS to the new disk, I may also transfer something bad.
    Any thoughts appreciated. OS= XPPro.
     
    shawdaifu,
    #1
  2. 2007/03/05
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Cleanup the following ....

    Empty Temporary Internet Files - set IE to do this automatically on closure

    Go Start > Run > type in %temp% > OK. All files displayed are safe to delete although a few may be in use by Windows and cannot be deleted

    Empty the Windows\Temp folder - same rider re. files in use.

    I doubt you have a virus or malware, but assume you have checked .....

    You might like to read this ....

    Keep your Computer free from Viruses, Trojans, Spyware and other Malware
    How do you propose to do this? You cannot simply copy it across and will need to use disk imaging software like Acronis to make a disk image. After 3 years use a clean install would almost certainly be beneficial.

    If you are using Photoshop for your graphics and it has crashed there will be one or more temp files probably in the Gb range.
     
    PeteC,
    #2


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  4. 2007/03/05
    surferdude2

    surferdude2 Inactive

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    Reduce the size of your Temporary internet Files cache.

    Reduce the amount of file space dedicated to System Restore.

    Reduce the size of your paging file.

    All of those things can be done to allow you to get by until you get that larger HD.
     
    surferdude2,
    #3
  5. 2007/03/05
    charlesvar

    charlesvar Inactive Alumni

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    Hello shawdaifu,

    I would recomend leaving the OS on the current drive and transfering the user data to the new HD.

    More efficient all around: that's where the data will grow and if the data is accessed on a HD other than the OS, faster.

    Data that you can leave or put on the OS drive should be backups and/or the least accessed.

    You should also think about partitioning the current drive - one for the OS (relatively small) and the far larger for everything else. The advantage is if something happens to the OS needing reopair or re install, data is undisturbed.

    Regards - Charles
     
    charlesvar,
    #4
  6. 2007/03/05
    Dytrog

    Dytrog Inactive

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    Does that funtion work better than ATF cleaner ?
     
    Dytrog,
    #5
  7. 2007/03/06
    shawdaifu

    shawdaifu Inactive Thread Starter

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    disk filling up--follow up

    Thank you for all comments about partioning, imaging, etc. I'm pretty sure that I can proceed now without any major mishaps.
    The BIG mystery in all of this was how and why my original HD was filling so fast. I was not generating the files and that was why I wondered if some outside source could be doing that, hence the virus/worm question.
    Since my "My Documents" folder was so big (55 Gig), I just moved it over to the new drive, which I figured would give me a lot of wiggle room. As I watching watching the transfer, I saw all these .wav files, all untitled. I recently installed a recorder which I used to narrate some Power point presentations--the packaged version gives you only about a minute. What I did not know was that this recorder started automatically on start up. That did not show up on my "Start Menu ". I did notice that the little icon winked at me at times when I had not turned on the application and I had to shut it off, but I did not catch on to the fact that the recording was so constant. Anyway, I have been recording a lot of cyberspace, unknowingly. When I eliminated those files, I dumped 50 Gigs from my system! I also found the screen which controls the recorder start up and it now starts only on my command.
    So now I have 50 gigs of free space on the orig HD, virtually all of my new 300 gig add on and I'm ready to rock!
    Thanks to all!
     
    shawdaifu,
    #6
  8. 2007/03/06
    charlesvar

    charlesvar Inactive Alumni

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    Hi shawdaifu,

    To help in keeping track of folder sizes:
    http://markd.mvps.org/

    Regards - Charles
     
    charlesvar,
    #7

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