General Discussions

7GB of Hard Drive space missing – ssquared

SSquared

Member

Posts: 654
From: Pacific Northwest
Registered: 03-22-2005
Help! In the last two days I've seen around 7 GB of my hard drive space just disappear. From 72 GB down to 65 GB. This is a brand new laptop (got it this week). I did most installs prior to this big dip.

The only thing I could think of was Google Desktop archving files and such, so I removed it as I don't use it anyway. I was hoping I would get my space reclaimed, but that did not help.

Anyone know some supersecret directory Google uses for indexing and archiving the files? I suspect the information did not get removed.

I suppose it COULD also be System Restore.

Anyone have any clues? It gets me upset that I lose 7 GB of hard drive space in the blink of an eye and I didn't even install anything. I started worrying I was going to be losing 2GB a day for no reason.

Briant

Member

Posts: 742
From: Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada
Registered: 01-20-2001
Depends on what version of Windows you are using (XP? Vista?), but on my XP laptop, Google Desktop's archive folder is:

C:\Documents and Settings\briant\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Desktop

Of course, replace "briant" with your user name.

As for System Restore, that's one thing that can definitely eat up hard drive space in a hurry, especially if you're installing/uninstalling stuff often. To clear all prior restores (maybe not a good idea), right-click "My Computer", then pick "Properties", then the "System Restore" tab, then check the "Turn Off System Restore on all drives" check box and click "Apply". That will nuke all the past restore points. Uncheck it to turn it back on. The "Settings" button will let you specify the max drive space it will use when it's turned on. I recommend keeping it on, and going in and nuking it (turn off then on again) every once in a while.

I also use AssessTree (freeware from http://optionalreaction.com/software/assesstree ) which will read your whole hard drive and tell you how big each folder and subfolder is, so you can find/clean up big space-wasting files and folders.

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Brian

"OOP programmers have a lot of class"

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spade89

Member

Posts: 561
From: houston,tx
Registered: 11-28-2006
maybe page file or hibernate file....

or something resized your disk or made a new partition or mounted a new partition on an existing ntfs folder...

have you checked it with the disk manager??

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John 14:6

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

SSquared

Member

Posts: 654
From: Pacific Northwest
Registered: 03-22-2005
It's on Vista. I looked for the similar directory on Vista and the GoogleDesktop directory was 0 bytes.

The hibernate thing may be part of it. I had found a 2GB hibernate file but I figured it was there from the beginning. But what you wrote triggered in me that my computer went into hibernate for the very first time last night. Perhaps the hibernate file was created at that point.

Part of me is thinking of wiping things clean and starting over. Although that is NOT my style at all. In fact, I have never reinstalled Windows on any of my machines, so I probably won't go that route and just live with it.

Oddly, the Vista version of System Restore does not appear to let you change the disk usage. I was hoping to see how much space was allocated, which may give me some indication of things. Maybe I will uncheck/recheck and see what happens.

Thanks for all the good hints and advice. It really helped me.

spade89

Member

Posts: 561
From: houston,tx
Registered: 11-28-2006
hey i think this might really really help you out:

http://www.jgoodies.com/downloads/index.html

download jdiskreport it's a really handy java desktop application ,and some people say java is all for networkk stuff oly...

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John 14:6

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

PFC

Member

Posts: 29
From: Canada
Registered: 10-16-2007
does it say that your hard drive if 7 gb smaller than it actually is or does it say that 7gb of space is used of more than there should be?

if you right click on your c drive and go to settings you should be able to tell...

if it says that its using 7gb of more than it should then just go through your c drive looking for an insanely big folder...look into subfolders until you find out where the big files are

if your hard drive looks 7gb(total) smaller than it is, it is most likely due to back up information hidden on the hard drive (some systems even back up the entire widows os for reinstall without cd)

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Heart of a Warrior

SSquared

Member

Posts: 654
From: Pacific Northwest
Registered: 03-22-2005
Excellent question PFC. No. I already know the HD appears smaller than it actually is (I got 120GB but says it's 110). I actually saw my total space available drop by 7 GB in a matter of a day or two without really installing anything. It's just upsetting to see a 120 GB down to around 65GB in less than a week. I don't even have music or photos on there. I've installed Visual Studio Standard which is the largest install.

I had thought about getting the 160 GB drive, but it was $75 more and I did fine for years with an 80GB drive. So I don't necessarily need a large HD. My pictures (the bulk of my space) I offload to 2nd drives, anyway.

I do wonder if if the hibernate that happened the other day caused that 2 GB file to get written.

Thanks for the pointers to those helpful programs. I'll probably take a look at them. They do search hidden folders/files right?

MastaLlama

Member

Posts: 671
From: Houston, TX USA
Registered: 08-10-2005
Perhaps it's 7gbs worth of David Lancaster art? hee hee

Check and see if your automatic updates did anything big recently too.