Need urgent help - losing space on my hard drive!

I have a huge problem and I have absolutely no idea what to do.

I am losing space at my hard drive all the time. It all happens in a very rapid pace. About four days ago I searched through all my maps and deleted old, unnecessary files. I finally got down to using 400gig total 465. Now it’s at 422/465.

I used Advanced Systemcare yesterday defragging my hard drive, getting rid of junk etc. but that did not give me more space – it gave me less space- since it jumped from 408/465 to 4015/465.

What is happening and why

:(

My bet is on dying HDD..

Maybe so, but I bought this computer brand new 2012. So it's not an old pc. But then, what else might be the cause?

What's your file format?

what's your file format?

ntfs ..

I used Advanced Systemcare yesterday defragging my hard drive, getting rid of junk etc. but that did not give me more space – it gave me less space- since it jumped from 408/465 to 4015/465.

Not 100% sure but that sounds like it may have created a System Restore Point which would take up disk space.

And try to do a search for all files that were created or changed in the last 4 days, that should at least give you an idea what is filling up your HD.

Thanks for reminding me about DF btw, those games are awesome :D

Not 100% sure but that sounds like it may have created a System Restore Point which would take up disk space.

And try to do a search for all files that were created or changed in the last 4 days, that should at least give you an idea what is filling up your HD.

Thanks for reminding me about DF btw, those games are awesome :D

Sorry, but how do I do this?

Try this https://windirstat.info/ to see which files might be taking up space.

Have you checked your system restore points? I had a similar issue recently, i found out Windows 7 had set the system restore point to use 50% of the space. Which turned out to be 150gig.

Sorry, but how do I do this?

I'm at work right now so I can't give you a step-by-step but I'd be willing to help you out once I'm home. If you feel like taking a stab at it yourself, this thead on Seven forums will show you how to manage the System Restore Points: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/336-system-protection-restore-points-delete.html.

You don't have to delete them if they're not taking up more space than you'd want them to. There's also the possibility it's already been turned off so don't be surprised if that's the case :)

As for searching most recent files, just fire up Windows Explorer, open the C:\ root and in the search box, add a search filter for 'Date modified' or whatever that may be in Swedish. That should show you all files that have recently been modified.

If you're not comfortable doing this by yourself, I'll check back in when I get home.

Try this https://windirstat.info/ to see which files might be taking up space.

+1 for windirstat. Useful for pointing the wagging blame finger at users of your shared dedi server who leave MASSIVE PBOs on the desktop. You know who you are. :)

OP, did you make any progress trackin it down?

OP, did you make any progress trackin it down?

Well, windirstat seems to be a good way to track down big files. But big files is not the issue in the first place.

The issue is that my hard drive space increase when I am doing absolutely nothing. I may spend a whole day studying, writing in word, and then the disc space may increase 6+gig.

Since I created this topic, another 2 gig have been lost - and I have not saved anything except two word documents.

Maybe it has something to do with windows restore points? Because I have lost almost 40 gig the last two weeks by doing nothing. And I have stopped to use Advanced Systemcare because it only makes more space be wasted.

List of processes running?

Alright. If it is, it should be an easy fix.

Open a Windows Explorer and paste this: Control Panel\System and Security\System in the address bar then hit Enter.

Next click on System protection. You'll see a new window appear that also gives you a System restore option. Don't click that but below the drive list there's a Configure button to configure the settings for the currently selected drive.

The Configure window will tell you how much disk space is allocated and how much is currently being used by the restore points.

Does this happen when you work offline?

Some years ago a friend asked me to look a his PC where space had vanished on his HDD. I looked at what was connected first of all (netstat -a) & saw, among normal/expected connections, 2 IPs that looked like an end-user in SE and another in CA. Ran some utilities that looked at partitions & the logical partions had been tampered with - presumably something was being stored on hidden space. Disconnected from the web & the used partition wizard to change the size & move all the partitions one buy one (he didn't have an external drive to back everything onto). Then restored the registry from a backup, was fine thereafter (though I did recommend a full data backup, a nuke and a full reinstall).

MiniTool Partition Wizard is an excellent program for working with disks and partitions - that may tell you if there's a problem.

Check if your web browser clears chache files after downloading from mega.co.nz or other hosting sites using similar download procedure.

Alright. If it is, it should be an easy fix.

Open a Windows Explorer and paste this: Control Panel\System and Security\System in the address bar then hit Enter.

Next click on System protection. You'll see a new window appear that also gives you a System restore option. Don't click that but below the drive list there's a Configure button to configure the settings for the currently selected drive.

The Configure window will tell you how much disk space is allocated and how much is currently being used by the restore points.

I can't see how much space is used for restore point, but I guess the default position of the slider shows that it is set at zero.

That setting appears to be fine then, maybe you don't see any numbers because it's set to 0. But what does the text next to the warning triangle say?

I think I have found the cause of the problem. Partly.

I have not updated my computer for two weeks = I have not lost any memory at all.

This morning my computer installed an automatic windows update = I have lost 20 gig of hard drive space.

What the heck? :huh:

20 gig of hard drive space

If it's Windows Updates doing it, check the total size of this folder: C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download

And apparently that's 'normal' on Windows 8? http://www.eightforums.com/windows-updates-activation/50050-windows-8-updates-taking-up-too-much-disk-space.html Not that I agree :P The thread does show how to get rid of the downloaded updates that Windows keeps for uninstallation so I hope that will remedy some of your disk space pains.

The problem persist, and btw, I am using windows 7.

My hard drive had 424 out of 465 this morning. When I was about to shut down my PC an hour later, I noticed that it was at 343 out of 465. ...

My PC have been on for about 10 minutes now. I suddenly lost 2 gig.

The problem persist, and btw, I am using windows 7.

My hard drive had 424 out of 465 this morning. When I was about to shut down my PC an hour later, I noticed that it was at 343 out of 465. ...

My PC have been on for about 10 minutes now. I suddenly lost 2 gig.

Does this only happen when you are online, or does it still happen when you work offline (i.e. disconnected from the Internet)?

Such a huge amount in an hour? Thats interesting.

Try opening task manager->'Performance' tab->'Resource Monitor'->'Disk'

And Check which process is writing to your disk that much. Sort by Write(B/sec) or Total(B/sec), whatever is doing it should be on top by far as long as your PC is idle.

Are you sure it isn't your P: drive (Arma 3 tools drive) doing it?

2GBs can come from some page files easily.