disk space error?

[R.Dagger]

hey everybody,

my computer has been acting up as of late, and i'm not too knowledgable with computers. a few weeks ago it spontaneously deleted the drivers for the modem. we rang the manufacturer and the internet company and were advised by dell to reinstall windows. so we did that, then a few days ago the internet company technicians led us to see about the missing drivers. so we reinstalled those and it worked fine, but now windows is odd since we reinstalled it. in total, i have around 32Gb of files that i saved on various ipods. the hard-drive is only 80Gb. now the hard-drive seems to be 146Gb, and i only have 98Mb of free space left.

what's going on? it seems i can see every single file that was on the computer before reinstalling windows when i go through c:program files-owner- ect, but i can't delete or move them.

where is all the space going? i don't even have enough disk space to reinstall my printer.

any ideas?

thanks

[-pops-]

This doesn't look good. Do you have any data on the machine that at all valuable to you? If so back it up to another drive/disc.

Then check the drive for errors. To do this, RIGHT click on My Computer on the desktop and click Manage. Click Disc Management and on the box that appears to the right, RIGHT click on the name of the problem drive (most likely "C"). Click on Properties tab in the box that comes up and then on Error Checking, Check Now and then follow the instructions.

This will check for errors on the drive and, if instructed to do so, it will attempt to repair them.

Come back when you have done this and let us know the result. It could be you have some malware infection as well which we will try to sort out later.

Please tell us what anti-virus/other anti-malware you have installed.

[jason.b.c]

a few weeks ago it spontaneously deleted the drivers for the modem. we rang the manufacturer and the internet company and were advised by dell to reinstall windows. so we did that

They seriously told you to reinstall windows.?? That was the only advise they could give..!?

And i noticed you said that you did that, You mean they didn't instruct you to just reinstall the missing drivers.?? There on the windows install disk..!

the hard-drive is only 80Gb. now the hard-drive seems to be 146Gb, and i only have 98Mb of free space left.

Wait, Say that again..

Your computer only has an 80 gb hard drive but it's showing you that it has a 146 gb drive.?? Is that right.?

what's going on? it seems i can see every single file that was on the computer before reinstalling windows when i go through c:program files-owner- ect, but i can't delete or move them.

Ok, So your saying that you did a totally clean/fresh install of windows, or, You just used some kind of restore disk that came with your computer when you purchased it..???

What i think it is ( and i'm going out on a limb here ) I think you've got windows installed twice ( 2 times ) on the same hard drive, And thats where all you're space has gone... And that would explain why your seeing all that stuff that you had on there before. " because it is still there " in a fake ( broken ) windows..

Now i'll ask, Do you have any, any kind of option in the beginning to Choose wich operating system to boot.?? Right after you press the power button..?

This is strange..