bamboo Posted December 18, 2007 Report Share Posted December 18, 2007 I installed my computer on Wednesday and haven't installed anything major. Maybe two gigs of maybe music and that's about it. My hard drive started out at 455 gigs on Wednesday and today it's at 397 gigs. I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas as to how my memory has been leaking. One thing that I can say is that I was installing Corel paint shop and the installation randomly stopped and tryed to reinstall it several times. After every failed attempt, one of my gigs vanished. Any tips? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted December 18, 2007 Report Share Posted December 18, 2007 Welcome to the Windows Forum.Use a tool like Explorer XP to see exactly where your disk space is used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irene Posted December 18, 2007 Report Share Posted December 18, 2007 I find the following FREE program very straightforward and easy to use....WinDirStat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bamboo Posted December 18, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2007 Thanks.On another note, I just checked my computer today and saw that I am now down to 387 gigs. weird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irene Posted December 18, 2007 Report Share Posted December 18, 2007 Did you use either of the links provided to check your disk space usage? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bamboo Posted December 18, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2007 I used Windows Explorer and I just installed the program you recommended. Windows Explorer was useful, but didn't tell me much. the amount of memory missing doesn't add up to the files I have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted December 18, 2007 Report Share Posted December 18, 2007 1. Re. the files/folders you can see - the amount of which differ in size from your "lost" H/D spaceIn Folder Options/ViewHave you enabled Show Hidden Files and foldersHave you unticked Hide Protected Operating System Files ?2. How big is your Paging/Swap file ? (pagefile.sys)3. Do you have Hibernation turned on ? - if so this will have created a hiberfil.sys file the same size as your installed RAM4. System Restore files will have grown in size as you unstalled new software - you can limit the maximum amount SR takes (up to 12% of your total C: drive as default) by the slider in System Restore/Settings.5. Install CCleaner - see http://www.ccleaner.com/ to get rid of loads of unneeded temporary files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bamboo Posted December 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 I'm about to use system restore before I installed anything but the basic files.After that, I'll probably download CCleaner.Thanks everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted December 19, 2007 Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 Why System Restore - there is nothing wrong with your Windows!Can't you just look with ExplorerXP where your "missing" disk space is used? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bamboo Posted December 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 Honestly, I'm not sure as to why I restored my Windows. You're completely right.Obviously, there is something I have to be overlooking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted December 19, 2007 Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 When you open 'My Computer', what does the 'Total Size' for your drive state?Also, do you have your HD partitioned? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bamboo Posted December 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 I came in this morning and I am now down to 388, when just last night after I cleaned out some stuff I was at 394."388 GB free of 455 GB.""66.9 GB used."Hmm. No, I don't think so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted December 19, 2007 Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 Do you have any updated Anti-Virus and Trojan scanners installed ?If so - have you run scans with them ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bamboo Posted December 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 Norrton Anti-Virus Protection.I've run it twice and have not detected anything but a tracking filter that I quickly dispatched. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted December 19, 2007 Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 Just to be sure - install this freeware anti-trojan scanner - update it and do a scanhttp://download5.emsisoft.com/a2FreeSetup.exe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bamboo Posted December 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 okay, thanks will do.It's now down to 386. It is rather annoying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bamboo Posted December 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2007 I'm looking at the "Unknown" on WinDir Stat and the bloody thing is huge. It takes up about 55 gigs. I'm wondering what it is.This has got to be it, I just odn't know how to access it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted December 20, 2007 Report Share Posted December 20, 2007 What is 'WinDir Stat'; can you upload a screenshot of ExplorerXP? It's very hard to imagine what's going on in your system when we can't see anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bamboo Posted December 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2007 WinDirStat was mentioned earlier on in this thread by another user.For whatever reason my Prt Scr button isn't respdoning, quite odd. I'll post a picture as soon as I can, but if you want to download WinDir to try out, there is an option to show to show Unknown files. When I clicked on this, a huge blob of info appeared which has close to 57 gigs underneath its belt.This probably isn't enough info, but I'll get back as soon as I can with more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted December 20, 2007 Report Share Posted December 20, 2007 Sorry about 'WinDirStat'; that was Irene's post, and I didn't realize it.Ok, you have showing something "unknown" - could it be your page file (pagefile.sys)? Do you see anything corresponding to that size with ExplorerXP? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bamboo Posted December 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2007 In the program Irene recommended, you can enable a treemap which graphs the memory usage. The color corresponding to the "unknown" is yellow which implies that it is a Cabinet File.I've got about 3 GB of system files. My page file is 3.29 GB.No single object is that large in Windows Explorer. It's rather taxing since I'm not sure where to look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted December 20, 2007 Report Share Posted December 20, 2007 Do you show 'Hidden Files and Folders' in Windows Explorer?But anyway, Windows Explorer does not show you where large portions of your disk or partition are used; ExplorerXP does.P.S. Could it be that your system is taking many Restore Points? They can be getting very large. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bamboo Posted December 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2007 Yessuh, I'm pretty sure I have it set up as such.I'll have to browse through ExplorerXP.I'm not quite sure, if so, how would I calibrate how much disk space is used for that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted December 20, 2007 Report Share Posted December 20, 2007 Your restore points will by default be stored in 'C:\System Volume Information'; ExplorerXP will show you how big it is.If you don't see your missing 55GB in there, they will show somewhere.P.S. the location I gave for restore points is for Windows XP; I don't know about Vista. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bamboo Posted December 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2007 I'm using Vista and it's quite a hassle. I'm looking at my system volume info in Explorer and it's empty. Do you have any idea as to why a new computer would be consuming so much memory for no real reason? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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