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Where's my disk space going?

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Summary: It's not uncommon to run out of disk space. A free utility can help tell where's your disk space is going so you can determine what steps to take.

Under your previous question "How can I tell what's taking up so much disk space?" I ran chkdsk /f and this ran but didn't free up any space? Then I downloaded diruse and this wouldn't run? I wondered if you could please help me further? Our disc drive is split into a C and a D drive which both have between 30 and 40 gig on each, we only ever save on the D drive, however the C drive is up to about 31.9 Gig with 540 meg left available! Apart from about 5 gig of photo's I can't understand what is taking up all the memory? The memory seems to continually go down and is now getting to a critical level. I have run spyware and adware checks and deleted all critical errors, but still not been able to free up any memory. I can't even defrag as I need 20% free to run this option.

I wanted to revisit the "what's taking disk space" issue so I could recommend a tool that might be better for most people than the command line tool diruse I recommended in that previous article.

However this question also gives me an opportunity to clear up some misconceptions and some terms that don't mean what you think they mean.

CHKDSK doesn't free up disk space; at least not intentionally. CHKDSK checks for errors on the disk and attempts to repair them. Sometimes that repair can result in more free space becoming available, but it's not the point. On a disk that has no errors running CHKDSK will not result in more free space becoming available.

Defragging is the same. I've had people ask why defragging the machine didn't free up space. That's not what defragging is about. Defragging simply rearranges the information on your hard disk for more efficient access. It doesn't create any free space.

Disk space is not memory. I keep hearing people confuse these terms and it's important - particularly when asking for help - that the terms you use accurately reflect what it is you're talking about. To over-simplify a little:

  • Memory is the RAM (for Random Access Memory) where your programs and data reside when they are in use. When you turn your computer off your memory is erased. To free up memory you might just run fewer programs at the same time.

  • Disk space is your hard drive where data is stored permanently or until you or a program explicitly erases it. To free up disk space you delete files.

"Somehow no matter how much we have, disk space never seems enough."

Another good difference to note is size. My machine, for example, has 2 gigabytes of memory, but 70 gigabytes of disk space. Disk space on a machine is almost always much greater than its memory.

Somehow no matter how much we have, disk space never seems enough. As we collect pictures and programs, and programs themselves collect data, more and more disk space is consumed unless files are deleted.

But what files are taking up all that space?

Space Monger (version 1.x) is a free tool that will graphically show you what's taking up all the space on your machine. (A paid version of Space Monger is available with additional features, but for what we're doing the free version will suffice.) For example, here's a display of one of my hard disks:

Space Monger display of hard disk usage

The concept is simple: the bigger the box, the larger the file or files that the box represents. For example, the largest file on this hard drive appears to be an episode of Dr. Who that I recorded (this is a Windows Media PC). It's contained within a folder named "Recorded TV" which contains, among other things, another episode, also fairly large. By looking at this display I can quickly see that there's a lot of disk space taken up there, and if I want to free up over 7 gigabytes of disk space I need only delete those two files.

Now, as to what's eating up the disk space on your machine, there's no way for me to know. However using a tool such as Space Monger you should be able to relatively quickly see what's taking up all that space and take appropriate action.

Related:

Article 11897 | Posted October 8, 2007

Recent Comments
16 Comments

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

Posted by: Philip Tyson at October 13, 2007 4:23 PM

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

Posted by: JohnE at October 15, 2007 12:34 AM

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.

Posted by: Michael Adams at October 27, 2007 2:43 PM

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

Posted by: DeeJ at June 11, 2008 8:51 AM

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"

Posted by: Skyforum at August 21, 2008 11:35 PM

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

Posted by: David Sorge at August 27, 2008 2:10 AM

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'.

Posted by: Roberts Smithem at October 28, 2008 9:45 AM

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

Posted by: bABETTE at October 28, 2008 1:15 PM

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.

Posted by: Allan at October 30, 2008 11:46 AM

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.)

Posted by: Zap Coffey-Brittain at November 2, 2008 2:36 AM

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