Comments for Where's my disk space going?

Comment from Connie on 2011-11-30

2011-11-30T17:11:45Z

@trevor123
Running a computer that is so full is certainly difficult. It
may be that reformatting and re-installing would be the best
choice. Here is an article about that:
I don't have an installation CD for Windows XP, what if I need one?

Another good choice might be to switch to Ubuntu. It is a
powerful, and free, operating system which doesn't use as much
resources as Windows and can bring life back to an old
computer.
Should I convert to Linux?

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Comment from trevor123 on 2011-11-30

2011-11-30T10:14:05Z

hello i inherited my brothers old laptop and it was completely full. after backing everything up i wanted off of it and deleting everything i know wouldn't harm the computer its still pretty full. i did all of the regular things to free up space so i found this site and downloaded treesize. i think it must have had a virus at one time although i just got avast and ran it, it didn't pick anything up. under treesize it says i have 62 gig in the installer tab under windows. i know that cant be right, but i dont have the disk a reboot and there are no restore points. what can i do to get rid of all that? the computer runs fine besides being so full. windows xp service pack 2, hp pavilion zv5000. any help would be appreciated.

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Comment from Tony on 2011-04-23

2011-04-24T02:07:36Z

Interesting point on the difference between Memory and Disk Space. First time I tried to get my problem resolved, I was sold more Memory. The "low on disk space" warning promptly popped back up again a few minutes later.

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Comment from Joey on 2010-11-10

2010-11-10T22:36:08Z

In my experience, one other thing that should be considered (which a lot of people don't know) is that by saving lots of items to your desktop, it also saves it on the primary drive which could be in this case the low spaced drive. Also, doing a disk cleanup will more than often free up lots of space.

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Comment from David Hutchins on 2010-11-03

2010-11-03T13:55:49Z

If the user has one physical hard disk partitioned into two (C: and D:) and C: is short on space, perhaps he could take some space from D: and give it to C:. Repartitioning can be risky, if you don't know what you are doing. There aren't a lot of "on the fly" disk partitioning programs, but I have used the EASEUS partition manager very successfully. The home edition is free. Always backup, of course, before trying to re-partition. If space is tight on D: as well, perhaps he could add a 2nd physical hard drive (internal or external), move the data from D: to the new drive and then repartition to give C: the full physical disk. (Verify that the data got to the new hard drive first, of course). The first and easiest possible fix is to move his 5 gig of photos from C: to D:, as another person had commented. If that doesn't help enough, then look at other options.

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Comment from David Boyd on 2010-11-03

2010-11-03T10:19:44Z

As far as the specific question asked. Apparantly the user saves all this data on drive D (at least that's what I get out of what he writes). My question would be: why save 5 GB's worth of pictures (presumably from his camera) on C? Isn't that "data". Wouldn't it be smart to save that on D? That would free up a significant amount of space on C. Most descent camera software allows the user to specify where downloaded pics are stored, so that's just a setting somewhere...
David

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Comment from Ron on 2010-11-02

2010-11-02T22:26:15Z

Use the built in disk cleaner: http://techblissonline.com/run-windows-vista-disk-cleanup-tool-and-clean-all-junk-files/

There are also a lot of freeware tools that will help you free up space. CCleaner is at the top of my list. Followed by CCenhancer, an addon for CCleaner. I also use Free Windows Cleanup tool, Wisk Disk Cleaner.

There are also several free batch files that clean XP and Vista. You can download one from here: http://techblissonline.com/clean-cookiestemp-and-useless-files-with-windows-vista-system-junk-cleaner-batch-script/ . I like to customize it a little, ie comment out the cookies line (I prefer to be selective about which cookies I delete and keep) and I prefer not to constantly delete windows prefetch files. Every 6 months or so, maybe, but not weekly or monthly. I also like to pause the bat run and modify the cmd window before resuming running to expand the cmd window to fit across the full width of the screen (prevent wrapping to make reading easier) and increasing "height buffers" to over 1000 to keep all lines for review. I also have commented out the final "CLS" (Clear Screen) command so I can review what has been deleted.

Revo Uninstaller also has disk cleaner module.

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Comment from Ron on 2010-11-02

2010-11-02T21:39:17Z

As well as the treesize tool you mentioned there are various tools that are more graphical for people inclined that way. This page has links to 5 free tools:http://www.technize.com/5-free-tools-to-list-hard-drive-contents-graphically/

Another misconception. Checkdsk does not free up space, true ... BUT if it finds problems it may create .CHK files from fragments. Browse those fragments to see if there is any content you want to save, then delete them all to FREE UP SPACE, yay!

This person is in serious trouble, a 30+ gb drive with only 500mb free is way to packed. Windows starts to get "nervous" when free space gets below 20%, it 6gb on this drive, and really starts to have problems when free space goes below 10%.

Why does MS not include folder sizes. It is a speed thing. The MS file system is not designed to store folder sizes, so it has to be recalculated every time. For folders that have many files and subfolders it can take a while, which makes people feel that "Explorer is slow"

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Comment from whs on 2010-11-02

2010-11-02T19:28:30Z

The most comon cause of vanishing disk space are restore points (shadows). In Vista, those will take up to 15% of the volume space and in Win7 it is variable. To check this, run the following command in cmd:

VSSADMIN LIST SHADOWSTORAGE

The ALLOCATED number is the amount of space currently taken and the MAXIMUM number is the amount it will ultimately take.

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Comment from Matt on 2010-11-02

2010-11-02T17:05:02Z

Spacemonger gives a holistic, visual representation of file usage on your disk. A single glance tells you where the disk hogs are.

The free version may not be currently maintained, but it still works. And it is still available.

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Comment from mascarnhas on 2010-07-08

2010-07-08T18:10:42Z

I've used Report and although its great, I've had better luck with WheresTheFreeSpace. It is Modeled after a PC application that is very popular called wheresthefreespace (but its for Mac).

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Comment from mascarnhas on 2010-06-20

2010-06-20T19:55:51Z

I've used Report and although its great, I've had better luck with WheresTheFreeSpace. It is Modeled after a PC application that is very popular called Treesize (but its for Mac).

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Comment from Colleen Norris on 2010-05-26

2010-05-27T03:46:06Z

I have a check box on both c and d drives, should they be checked to index the drives. If not where should I index. My recovery drive is almost full.

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Comment from Mark Keohane on 2010-04-22

2010-04-22T11:30:25Z

Spacemonger: Brilliant! EXACTLY what i needed. Go to Spacemonger home page; choose Download page; select Free software tab; scroll down to bottom for v.1.4. D/l in an instant, run in seconds and presto, brilliant, instantly meaningful picture of your disk. What a great tool. Thanks for the advice.

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Comment from Mac-Limey on 2009-11-18

2009-11-18T11:18:43Z

Hi this may help, I have just recovered 8 gb. of space just by removing older System Restore points.I had 15 restore points which I delated.[beware-you must create a good up to date point prior to cleaning out procedure]

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Comment from suz on 2009-09-28

2009-09-28T16:38:21Z

in reference to:

"thank you, thank you, thank you!
i've had a good nosey around most of the site, and your information is always fantastic.
i'm nothing short of useless with computers. i can just about manage to switch the things on, and watch as it capitulates infront of my very eyes... oh the joy!
i'm currently working on speeding things up, and this tool (along with the task manager on steriods (too true, btw)) has worked a treat. very easy to use, clear, precise. couldnt ask for much more! i've managed to find year-old obsolete software that was hogging up all my disk space!

again, thank you. great work :D

Posted by: Matt at December 7, 2008 11:50 PM"

could you please state which tool you are refering to? I too am trying to speed things up & am not computer smart. Also,I don't understand your comment "task mgr. on steroids".

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Comment from Bob on 2009-08-26

2009-08-26T14:36:37Z

I have noticed some programs squirrel away files within the 'documents and settings' directory tree. One program I used to use archived files within the 'application data' folder under my log-in - a place which regularly goes unnoticed because it's not part of 'My Documents' or the original program's directory. After deleting over 2Gb of backed-up files, I kept an eye on it...

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Comment from jim gassner on 2009-07-07

2009-07-07T17:08:27Z

If you use system restore delete all restore points except the latest one. This released 6 per-cent on my 20 gig C: partition.

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Comment from Kushagra Udai on 2009-02-20

2009-02-21T05:40:20Z

I really recommend WinDirStat for this kind of work - its a port of KDirStat for KDE. Anyone who's used it will fall head over heels for the program - its fantastic.

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Comment from Matt on 2008-12-07

2008-12-08T07:50:08Z

thank you, thank you, thank you!
i've had a good nosey around most of the site, and your information is always fantastic.
i'm nothing short of useless with computers. i can just about manage to switch the things on, and watch as it capitulates infront of my very eyes... oh the joy!
i'm currently working on speeding things up, and this tool (along with the task manager on steriods (too true, btw)) has worked a treat. very easy to use, clear, precise. couldnt ask for much more! i've managed to find year-old obsolete software that was hogging up all my disk space!

again, thank you. great work :D

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Comment from Zap Coffey-Brittain on 2008-11-02

2008-11-02T10:36:36Z

I too recommend the free version of TreeSize by Jam Software, particularly for its Windows Explorer column function.

Open a folder, select View, Details, then right-click an existing column & tick the TreeSize column option which displays the sizes of any contained files or subfolders. (Why Microsoft never thought to display sizes next to subfolders I've never known.)

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Comment from Allan on 2008-10-30

2008-10-30T18:46:40Z

The link to SpaceMonger v1.4 DOES work, but it might not be obvious how to actually get it.

First, click on the SpaceMonger v1.4 link.
About 1/3 of the way down the page, there is another link that says "Download spcmn140.zip - Version 1.4.0 - Win95/98/NT/2K/XP". Click on that.

This brings up a page titled "Download", but at first all you see are buttons to download either version 2.1 or version 2.1.1.

But now click on the "Free Software" tab. This brings up a much larger list, but at the top of the list all you see is SpaceMonger PHP Scanner: version 1.5, 1.4, and so on.

Scroll almost all the way down to the bottom of the page. Aha! At last there is a button to download spcmn140.zip.

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Comment from bABETTE on 2008-10-28

2008-10-28T20:15:25Z

The link for SpaceMonger 1.4 no longer downloads the old free version...only the new one. Is there somewhere else I can get it?

The link still goes to the old space monger for me. Page is titled "Old SpaceMonger Version 1.4.0" - while they encourage you to get the newer version, the old one is still right there.

- Leo
29-Oct-2008

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Comment from Roberts Smithem on 2008-10-28

2008-10-28T16:45:37Z

Try going into your email program, and from one of the drop-down menus, select 'compress folders'.
If this works, then go into 'options' in your email program, and look for a place where you can set a size to 'compress folders when it will save ___ kb on your hard drive'.

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Comment from David Sorge on 2008-08-27

2008-08-27T09:10:42Z

Space Monger is no longer free, but you can try it for 30 days. At this time the web site says $24.95 to buy.

The old version of Space Monger, as discussed and linked to in the article, remains free.

-Leo

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Comment from Skyforum on 2008-08-21

2008-08-22T06:35:31Z

Man, I have been working on this for weeks. I have been to just about every tech site on the net and I couldn't find an answer. Where the heck was all my space going on my C partition on my Windows 2003? At one point, I was down to less than 30 megabytes! I deleted all the KB files, I searched and removed all the IIS files etc etc and the space just kept disappearing.....

I finally gave up trying to find someone else that could tell me what to do and went looking for myself.

The answer is so SIMPLE that only a tow truck driver could figure it out!!!! I am sure you will agree it would be very useful here.

Go to search / advanced options / select "files larger than 1 meg" leave all the other boxes blank and hit the start button.

Sort by size and there they were. WOOHOO! I had two, very old and no longer in use databases that had exceeded 6 gigs in size! They were backing up like clockwork every night even though they were no longer in use!

If you want to know where your space has gone too, go look at the files that are burning it up. Simple, to the point, to heck with all these other complicated fixes. Once you see what they are, you can easily solve the problem.

Big Bill aka "Skyforum"

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Comment from DeeJ on 2008-06-11

2008-06-11T15:51:58Z

I like your "tip jar" (very clever). However, I cannot tip because I have not yet found an answer to my question.

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Comment from Michael Adams on 2007-10-27

2007-10-27T21:43:04Z

I have seen more than once (today for example) in running the JKDefrag utility actually reclaim free space on a gunked up server. I suspect its rebuilding stale directory tables that allocate space no longer in use.

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Comment from JohnE on 2007-10-15

2007-10-15T07:34:16Z

One thing that can steadily consume disk space is cached Internet pages - easily cleared via the tools menu of your browser.

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Comment from Philip Tyson on 2007-10-13

2007-10-13T23:23:09Z

I HIGHLY recommend Treesize.
http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml
It simply does not get any easier than this program. There is a free version and a paid version. I use the free version. It also integrates a right click context menu entry while in explorer that allows you to easily view the disk space used for a selected folder. I have tried SpaceMonger and found its' interface to be far too confusing.

Philip

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Comment from Chris on 2007-10-13

2007-10-13T17:22:13Z

It's called "System Restore" on both Windows XP and on Vista. You can access the options to modify or disable it by right clicking "My Computer" and hitting properties or scrolling over to "System" in Control Panel.

for Vista: "System protection" should be on the list on the left (this opens the "System Protection" tab where System Restore resides).

XP: "System Restore" is also located as a tab.

I do recommend that you leave it enabled IF you dont have another backup solution (I recommend you get one), but it might be useful to you to lower the disk space reserved for System Restore properties.

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Comment from Lynn on 2007-10-13

2007-10-13T15:33:44Z

How about changing the amount of disk space the Recycle Bin uses? It's default is 10% of your hard drive space. I change mine to about 2% because I rarely delete anything that I want to retrive.
On a small drive the extra space really helps.

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Comment from David H on 2007-10-12

2007-10-13T03:16:03Z

Gowest,

Vista's default is actually 15% and can be changed by using VSSADMIN command from a command line.
http://www.davescomputertips.com/Newsletters/20070801.php#4

I bet the original question was an XP installation. I would also bet there are quite a few MS Update files in the c:\windows folder he could delete.

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Comment from gowest on 2007-10-10

2007-10-11T00:50:05Z

Hi guys,
Each time you install a new software oor uninstall or make changes to the computer, WINDOWS save all the modifications, so if something wrong happens later, you can be able to restore your system.
This option is called "SYSTEM RESTORE" (at least on VISTA).
And as default it can occupyed 10% of the HD. The only way to make this not happen is to delete these files stored by WINDOWS or just to deactivate the "SYSTEM RESTORE" .
If you want more informations just ask.

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Comment from Ken B on 2007-10-09

2007-10-09T15:18:09Z

Wow. Over 19GB in the C:\BACKUPS folder I created 2-1/2 years ago and forgot all about, over 16GB of stuff I downloaded from MSDN and didn't put on DVDs yet, and 49GB for all the .iso files on my system.

I guess it's time for a little cleanup.

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Comment from Chris Buechler on 2007-10-08

2007-10-09T02:20:13Z

JDiskReport is a similar free tool that I've had great luck with over the years, on machines ranging from PC's to enterprise file servers.
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/

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