hard drive space problem

[jmjoseph]

Hello

I am having a severe problem with hard drive space. I used control panel to uninstall many programs (Macromedia, office, VB.net, other programs) and the programs uninstall, however it does not free up any hard drive space on my computer. I have freed up 6 GB of programs so far and the C:\ drive still says I have only 400 MB left. If I view the properties of c:\windows it says I have 12.2 GB of data in the folder, however if I open the folder and select all (yes I checked the view all system and hidden folders button) and go to properties it says I have only 2.2 GB of data in the folder and about 2000 less files. So there is 10 GB somehow missing??? I dont know how this can be, I also do not know where these 200 extra files are.

I tried anything and I cant figure it out I was wondering if someone else has had this problem. I did a system check and cleanup and everythign seems to be fine.

Thanks

[nanna]

i'm going to ask what is probably a silly question, but did you empty your recycling bin? it might still have those files waiting to be "permenantly deleted"

[jmjoseph]

My recycling bin is empty. I probably should of mentioned that before.

Thanks for the response

[-pops-]

I assume you have WXP. What size is the drive under discussion? Is it the only drive in the machine? Desktop or laptop? Have you tried a cleanup utility such as CCleaner click here (better than the Windows Disk Cleanup) to remove some of the excess files?

I work on the principle that a hard drive, especially "C", is at its capacity when it's half full. Windows is very untidy in its operations and spreads files all over the place. It also needs plenty of space to do this and a drive as full as yours is not going to operate properly or efficiently.

If you find that you cannot free up more space, have you thought about adding another drive?

[jmjoseph]

Well I have a partitioned hard drive for my desktop that runs Win XP Pro, overall it is 200 GB, however my system drive (program files, windows files) is 40 GB.

Now I heard that hard drives that are almost full do not work up to their optimum capatcity but I am sure that if you delete 1/4 of the GB capacity of a drive it shoudl actually delete 1/4 of the capacity, no matter if the drive is full or almost empty. The programs are no longer on my computer but it seems like the files must have been transfered to the windows folder in some hidden file that I cannot see.

I ran CCLeaner and it removed 0 kb of data.

The probelm is I am not trying to free up space, I am just curious why 5% of my drive seems to be filled with unknown garbage. I have never encountered this before.

Thanks.

[jason.b.c]

Defragment..

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-D...ragmenter.shtml

, I am just curious why 5% of my drive seems to be filled with unknown garbage. I have never encountered this before.

Thanks.

Now i have to ask a stupid question , Do you have a restore partition in that hard drive..??

[jmjoseph]

Hello again,

I cannot defragment my drive....well I should be able to because I uninstalled GB's worth of programs but it says I only have a few hundred MB's of free space.

I do have a restore partition but I am curious as to why this is happeing. I can go back to a few backups if I want to but I am curious as to why my computer is doign this.

Thanks.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Question: is the partition FAT32 or NTFS? Either way I would run CHKDSK to see if this clears up anything. If FAT, you may see a number of lost fragments on the root of your C: drive.

There is also an interesting little tool, Disk Space Plus, that can show you where your disk is used. You can use the demo version 12 times for free.

A last question: the programs you uninstalled, are these folders still under Program Files, and are they empty?

[Belatucadrus]

Some freeware that will be of use :-

WinDirStat provides a clear graphical representation of what's hogging drivespace.

G-lock temp cleaner G-Lock Temp Cleaner (GTC) searches your drives potentially unwanted files so you can deal with them all with just one click.

CCleaner Another option, it's a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It also removes unused files from your system

[jason.b.c]

Question: is the partition FAT32 or NTFS? Either way I would run CHKDSK to see if this clears up anything. If FAT, you may see a number of lost fragments on the root of your C: drive.

There is also an interesting little tool, Disk Space Plus, that can show you where your disk is used. You can use the demo version 12 times for free.

A last question: the programs you uninstalled, are these folders still under Program Files, and are they empty?

Here's another cool one, and it's freeware..Overdisk.

Try it, It's awesome..

[jmjoseph]

Hello people,

Thanks for all the recommendations. I used a few of the programs and got rid of even more space. However I found my problem. Using the overdisk program (thanks jason b.c), I found out that there is a folder called installer in my system folder that contains about 16 GB's of data.

Now I was wondering if anyone knows if I should delete these files or do some files in this folder have a special purpose?

Thanks

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

This folder contains vital information on installed applications for (a) uninstalling them, or (B) upgrading them.