My hard disk keeps filling up. I know I can do things like delete temporary files, the Internet Explorer cache and the like, but it seems like there's something else taking more space than it should. Is there a way to find out? Absolutely. In fact, slowly losing disk space is one of those things that's not only annoying, but can often be a sign of a problem such as a virus or spyware. Fortunately there are free tools available to help figure it out. Since you've already done the usual things to free up disk space, we'll start with a couple of things many people don't try. In a command prompt, run: chkdsk /f That will probably tell you that the drive can't be locked, and would you like to run it on next reboot, to which you would answer "yes". Reboot the machine - as part of the reboot, it will now run a thorough scan of the hard disk and correct any logical errors that may have been introduced. Quite often these types of errors can be introduced when a program, or your computer, crashes. "Using (diruse) we can find out where, on your hard
disk, the most space is being used."
Now, I'll warn you that if the disk is really corrupt, whatever the cause, the result may be some lost data as well. I'd definitely recommend backing up or copying off anything that you'd consider critical. But my motivation in mentioning chkdsk here, is that it's also possible that the process will free up a bunch of disk space. Now, as to identifying where all the disk space is being used, go download the diruse tool from Microsoft. Using this tool we can find out where, on your hard disk, the most space is being used. After installing the program in the default location, in a command prompt, run: cd "\Program Files\Resource Kit" diruse /s \ | sort This will take a little while to run, and then all of a sudden a list of things will come flying by the screen. When it finally stops, the end of the list will show you the directories that are taking up the most space. For example on my machine it ends like this: 876171666 7065 \i386 959769713 14 \Program Files\Microsoft Streets and Trips\Data Size (b) Files Directory 1063624662 1127 \Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET\Msdn\1033 2684179043 13 \ 30070896690 135246 SUB-TOTAL: \ 30070896690 135246 TOTAL: \ Ignore the size, total and sub-total lines. The biggest directory on my machine is the root directory (just "\"), which contains the system swap file, and the next biggest is the "Msdn\1033" directory within my Visual Studio installation, which contains the on-line product documentation. Your list will, of course be much different. Once you see which directories are the largest in terms of used space, perhaps that'll give some clues as to what you might be able to do to recover it. Related: Ask Leo! - Why is my machine slowing down? Ask Leo! - I can't format my hard drive - it keep telling me "volume is in use by another process" -- why?
Article 9698 | Posted January 16, 2006 |
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I just want to say a great big THANK YOU for this very valuable information!!! You've just saved my sanity! Your instructions and information on diruse helped solve my problem. Thanks, again!
Posted by: Tish at May 21, 2007 11:50 AMDude thanks for the tips. I hope adsense is treating you well.
Posted by: douglas campers at May 31, 2007 7:12 PMI've been losing approx. .5GB of free space per week(I have 80GB hard drive). I've tried all the normal stuff,can't stop the loss or find out where it's going. I read your article and downloaded DIRUSE,but cant open or run it. It appears to be for windows 2000. I have xp. Any ideas? I'm just about ready to give up and reformat.
Posted by: Todd at October 18, 2007 2:34 PM-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
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Try this article:
http://ask-leo.com/wheres_my_disk_space_going.html
Leo
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Posted by: Leo A. Notenboom at October 18, 2007 9:59 PM+Pao/RskI4WIM1KfYVDSA8s=
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Why,when I check the capacity of my hard disk, I see free capacity is 10.4GB and used capacity is 30.5GB.But,when I check all files and folders in the same hard disk, their capacity is only 13.6GB.I think it is not a virtual memory because it is too large difference.Please help me the reason and how to repair.My laptop is T61 Thinkpad.
Posted by: Hoa at December 25, 2007 9:13 PMPls send me email.Thank a lot.
Diruse - useful - But what then...?
Posted by: Lou Gascon at January 13, 2008 5:12 AMI originally checked my usage on C:\ with Easy Cleaner Space Usage and got a print out showing \winxp using 33% of 16.6 GB (\system volume information uses 10% & \program files 13%)...
Why should WinXp need and use such a wadge of my hard drive and what (If anything) can I do to reduce it...?
Thanx in advance Leo
Lou
im losing memory on my hard drive ive got 80 gig ive done the usual stuff i dont have much on my computer and yet i have 50gig left and it gets less each week how do i stop deleated folders bieng saved on my hard drive thanks.
Posted by: justin at January 24, 2008 3:54 AMThis process worked for me. I used to have 88.3 gb remaining on my HDD out of 140. Now I have 109gb remaining. Run disk clean up. Go to more options on the second tab. Go to the second part where it says remove restore points and shadow copies, press up clean up. This removes all of the restore points until the most recent one.
Posted by: micheal at February 3, 2008 12:18 PMYou dont know what your talking about it didnt work it only works for microsoft xp proffesional and windows 2003. You should explain that to people.
Posted by: Thheeez at April 25, 2008 4:59 PMI am running XP Prof, SP2, why is IE7 taking up so much memory? My system slows down or just completely stops in the middle of loading IE, I'll check what processes are taking up so much memory and it's IE, why so much? I do check for Spyware and download updates but it seems IE7 is using a lot of memory.
Posted by: jinxed at July 8, 2008 5:14 PM