computer help needed

[Centraflow]

Hi All

I hope someone can help me out with a problem I have. I have a HD of 150Gb and adding up all programs and files etc etc I should be only using just under half of that disc, but it is showing that I am nearly using all the 150Gb of the HD.

This has happened since Microsoft has stopped supporting XP. it seems as though hidden is 75Gb on my HD, how can that be??

The more I delete to gain space the faster it seems to use it up, within a couple of days it is bad again, now only have 240Mb of free space

Help, I can't delete any more or it won't work

regards

Mike

[giantkiller]

Your paging system is probably the culprit.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314482

Dealt with this as an administrator on the D.O.D. DFAS Elan in building 444 on Lowry AFB. Many a pc just stopped. This initial XP image was not coordinated with the installs of the Elan. And the memory was only 1meg. The Gov. upped to 4 meg. We downsized the paging allocation then the machines screamed.

[muDped]

Windows has too many vulnerabilities and "back doors" not to mention
unusual "quirks" which very often result in loss of disk drive space.

Are you using a firewall and scanning software protection against
viruses, bots and other assorted malware?  Your situation does sound
suspicious and it may be the result of an "infection."

Or, it's possible that your drive simply needs defragmentation and
routine "cleanup" to eliminate lost sectors.  With Windows it is a
necessity to perform routine defrags and cleanups.

Is your drive partitioned into two or more smaller drives?

Have you considered using one of the many distros of Linux for
surfing the web?  I use several flavors of Puppy Linux as it is small
(100 MB to 200 MB typically) and it isn't necessary to be "installed"
as Windows is.  I still have XP installed but never use it...

GiantKiller makes a very good point above.

[Centraflow]

Thanks GK and Dumped, I'm looking into it

regards

Mike

PS. I increased my RAM about 3 months ago as windows was always increasing the virtual RAM, so GK might be right

[giantkiller]

One gains alot of headaches with +3k users around the planet.

[Paul-R]

If you are using broadband, especially "always on", you can be vulnerable to others using your drive for their storage. There could be some heavy duty nasty stuff stored in that 75Gb.

It might pay to download onto DVDs as much as you actually want, checking the files you are keeping as you go,l clear the rest, and keep a very close eye on how much storage is being used. (It might pay to use a utility that permanently deletes the "empty" space so that the "undelete" command yields nothing).

Linux is a good idea. http://www.distrowatch.com is a comparative reference site with a "top ten" somewhere.

[Centraflow]

If you are using broadband, especially "always on", you can be vulnerable to others using your drive for their storage. There could be some heavy duty nasty stuff stored in that 75Gb.

It might pay to download onto DVDs as much as you actually want, checking the files you are keeping as you go,l clear the rest, and keep a very close eye on how much storage is being used. (It might pay to use a utility that permanently deletes the "empty" space so that the "undelete" command yields nothing).

Linux is a good idea. http://www.distrowatch.com is a comparative reference site with a "top ten" somewhere.

thanks Paul-R

regards

Mike

[e2matrix]

If I could have hands on with your computer I'd probably have it fixed in minutes and would know the problem.   I have been doing this professionally since way back but doing remote help is always a bit more difficult.   I've got to ask some questions with no insult intended but many problems are traced the SUE (known in tech circles as stupid user error).  Now I know you are a very smart guy but I fixed many computers for thousands of doctors, lawyers, educators etc all smart people but not always smart about computers.   So here are a few things.   First how did you add up file usage?   Do you know how much overhead is involved in file storage, directories, FAT tables etc?   It can be quite a bit but I think that's not the problem - just mentioning.   Do you have a recycle bin showing and you have emptied the recycle bin?   Do you have a good antivirus and firewall?   I suggest Avira AV and Zonealarm but there are many good ones out there.   Next get Total Commander (shareware but very worth the purchase if you don't want the nags - best file handler of all time) and make sure you have options set to show hidden files.  Look for unrecognized files or folders.   You might also want to get as someone suggested a version of Puppy Linux, install to a USB flash drive, boot it up and then look at you main drive as some things may even be hidden from view of Total Commander even with 'show hidden files' checked.   Of course if this is just a low hard drive space problem then I would look into getting a 2 Terrabyte (2000 Gigabyte) HD which can be purchased easily for under $100.   I saw a 4 TB drive recently for $129.   If you still have XP you may wan't to stick to 2TB or under as anything larger needs special drivers and may still be a problem.   You also want XP SP3.   Windows 7 upgrade would probably be worth it too once you get the space problem sorted out. 
    Actually I'm terrible at doing remote guessing as I call it in diagnosing problems but hopefully that will give you some things to look at.   BTW defragmenting will relate to speed but not really relevant to free space.   Unless you have serious crashes a lot or a failing HD lost clusters rarely take up much space like you describe. 
This could also be an actual physical hardware problem with the hard drive itself.   Although rare to fail in this way it can happen.   GK mentioned paging file.   You can look at the size of it with Total commander as it will be in your root directory.  Or look at the settings in the computer properties advanced settings - dig around in performance area and you should find it.   I have a 0 byte page file since I've got many gigabytes of RAM.   Older computers may have several gigabytes in size for a page file - maybe 4 to 8 or so but if it's much larger than you need to probably change it's size or limits.   There is an option to allow windows to completely handle the size or you can set limits.   For XP there would not likely be much reason for it to be over a few GB.   

    Post any added info you can provide and any other ?'s and I'll try to help further if it's still unsolved. 

[Centraflow]

Thanks, I will get back to you, bit tied up at the moment.

One thing, I have 1Gb of RAM and vert: of 750Mb

Just removed some more files and emptied my waste bin, can you believe it I started with 440Mb free space and now shows 345Mb, it's gone in reverse. Also removed Spyware backup files.

I have Avast and spyhunter running.

regards

Mike

[Centraflow]

Before christmas I was running at abot 60Gb used, I now have less files than then, it is as though there is a mirror image been made, this has all started since windows notified me that there is no more support for XP, have they done something to make me buy another system? a very strong maybe I think

regards

Mike

[e2matrix]

Before christmas I was running at abot 60Gb used, I now have less files than then, it is as though there is a mirror image been made, this has all started since windows notified me that there is no more support for XP, have they done something to make me buy another system? a very strong maybe I think

regards

Mike

MS may be bad but I don't think they are doing that or it would be all over the net.   Just had a thought about system restore.   Do you have that turned on?   I've seen it get carried away with how many system restores it saves and they can take up considerable space.   I think it's in accessories under system tools.   It creates a hidden folder which you can see with Total commander (small program total of only about 6 Megabytes installed).   That hidden folder will have subfolders some of which can be big.  Do you have a good firewall?   Windows does not have a good firewall program built in.   Without a firewall you are almost certain to be wide open to many problems including having your computer used as storage by someone else.   Is your hard disk set up with FAT32 or NTFS?   Open computer, right click on your hard drive and select properties.  It will show the type of file system.  Have you run chkdsk or scandisk?   results?   I also suggest you get a small program called Diskcheckup by Passmark.   It's free.   It will tell you a lot of info about your hard disk including SMART info that may tell you if the disk is failing.  I am mostly shooting in the dark here so sorry for some of the questions but the more info I have the better I can diagnose.  BTW system restore settings (regarding space use) are under computer properties, system protection, system restore settings (I've been using Windows 7 so long now I am not positive that is right for XP but it should be close).   I still have XP I can boot up if needed (along with about 40 other OS's).  

[Centraflow]

NTFS

[Centraflow]

After running twice chkdsk, I now have 103Gb of free space

thanks for all your help, quite 

regards

Mike

[e2matrix]

Ahh that's good.   Glad to hear that cleared up some space.   One question you may want to ask now is why it got like that.   Under normal conditions that shouldn't happen.   Something is causing a problem with the file system.   Did chkdsk show what kind of problems it was fixing?   Typically chkdsk can fix problems from hard drives going bad such as weak spots in the file system indexing but it will only happen again if it is a hardware failure.   I would also run a complete scan of your hard drive with your antivirus.   Best thing is to download a free AV .iso like from Avira Rescue (free) and boot from that CD then scan the whole system in case it's a root infection it will find it easier.   

One other easy thing to try and I'd strongly suggest is to open your DOS or command prompt and type : sfc /scannow   (followed by Enter of course)   That will check all of Windows XP operating system files to see if any are corrupt and will fix them (you'll need your windows install CD) if there is any corruption.   The fact that deleting files in the past seemed to be adding to your space problem makes me suspicious something is corrupt with Windows files OR a virus.  Running SFC and a good AV boot disk should fix both situations.   

[Centraflow]

Thanks again e2matrix, your the guy of my weekend

best regards

Mike

[Paul-R]

open your DOS or command prompt and type : sfc /scannow 

Is this the "scandisk" utility?

It would pay to run defrag while you are at it.

[e2matrix]

Glad that fixed things Mike 

Paul-R,  no sfc /scannow tells windows to check all the system OS Files for corruption, correct versions and so on.  If anything is wrong it will fix them.   

[Peterae]

Thats interesting to know thanks e2matrix

[Paul-R]

Glad that fixed things Mike 

Paul-R,  no sfc /scannow tells windows to check all the system OS Files for corruption, correct versions and so on.  If anything is wrong it will fix them.   

That is good, but it doesn't appear to check for bad sectors, and then package then up as duff. If such a utility can be found, then it would be good to run it.

[wattsup]

At the dos command prompt try "chkdsk". Just to see what it reports.

Then try "chkdsk /f". To fix them.

The command prompt is usually in Start - Programs - Accessories.

Also, if you want a great registry clean up and software removal program for WINXP try this program called Regcleaner.

http://purco.qc.ca/ftp/Software/regcleaner/

Once installed, go into Option - Registry Cleanup - OLE Cleanup and click on Extra Powerful.
Then go to Tools - Registry Cleanup and click on "Do them all".

In the Start Up List which lists programs that will start when windows starts, remove anything that does not seem familiar.

wattsup

[Paul-R]

At the dos command prompt try "chkdsk". Just to see what it reports.

Do all these newish windows versions even have a dos prompt?

[giantkiller]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/156571

[Mookie]

Here is a cool little free program that will tell you more about your computer than you will ever care to know.

http://download.cnet.com/Belarc-Advisor/3000-2094_4-10007277.html