[Fritzo]

This has been going on for a while now, but due to a large hard disk i've been ignoring it. Recently a message popped up saying I was low on disk space. I cleared out my recycle bin, and set off in a basic search to find the HDD hog.

When I installed windows XP, it took up less than 2 gigs on my HD. Now the folder contains over 11 gigs of data. What happened?

I decided i'd take a look and see which folder was hogging the space. They were all quite small. I selected everything in the windows directory and hit properties. Whadyaknow? Only 2 gigs of data there. But when I right click the Windows folder, it's still querying 11 gigs.

So where is that extra stuff? What's eating my space? And most importantly, where's my Ubuntu discs?

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try this...SpaceMonger

An oldie, but a goodie. Basically, this program tells you where all of your harddrive space is going. There are a lot of visual disk space managers, most of which use circular graphs to get an idea across. The free ones always seem so limited too limited. SpaceMonger belongs to a different category--visual disk managers that use treemaps. Rather than circular pies, treemaps use boxes to represent directories and files. Unlike most other visual disk managers, SpaceMonger also shows individual files in addition to directories so you gain a more complete insight into your harddrive usage. It also has limited run and open capabilities.

http://www.werkema.c...pacemonger.html

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[happyrock]

try this...SpaceMonger

An oldie, but a goodie. Basically, this program tells you where all of your harddrive space is going. There are a lot of visual disk space managers, most of which use circular graphs to get an idea across. The free ones always seem so limited too limited. SpaceMonger belongs to a different category--visual disk managers that use treemaps. Rather than circular pies, treemaps use boxes to represent directories and files. Unlike most other visual disk managers, SpaceMonger also shows individual files in addition to directories so you gain a more complete insight into your harddrive usage. It also has limited run and open capabilities.

http://www.werkema.c...pacemonger.html

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[code-machines]

I know you probably know what your doing.
But have you set your folder options to view hidden files and folders just incase one of those is the incredible folder!?

[wannabe1]

When was the last time you cleared the system restore files?

[happyrock]

By default Windows XP indexes files on your hard drive and stores them in memory to speed up its' built-in search. But if you rarely use Windows search, turn off indexing to free up memory and CPU horsepower for the files and applications you actually do use. ...
To turn off indexing....

1. Open up "My Computer."
2. Right-click on your hard drive (usually "C:") and choose "Properties."
3. Uncheck the box at the bottom that reads "Allow Indexing Service to…"
4. Click OK, and files will be removed from memory. This removal may take a few minutes to complete.

To disable the indexing service:

1. In the "Start" menu, choose "Run."
2. Type "services.msc" and press Enter.
3. Scroll-down to "Indexing Service" and double-click it.
4. If the service status is "Running", then stop it by pressing the "Stop" button.
5. To make sure this service doesn't run again, under "Startup Type:", choose "Disabled."

Windows search will still work if you perform these steps, but it will work a shade slower

also get ccleaner slim....the standard versions have a toolbar and a few tools that are best left alone...

http://www.ccleaner....oad/builds.aspx

the standard setting are fine...run the cleaner and tell us how much "junk" it removes...

[Fritzo]

Thank you all for the suggestions so far!

I got ccleaner, and got rid of 108 megabytes that way. I also ran SpaceMonger and found that the 8 gigs are filled with nothing. it's simply a large blank spot on the display, where other parts of the graph are a mosaic of file names denoting what occupies that space.

As for the system restore files, i don't know how to get rid of those. However there are a lot of hidden folders in the Windows directory with names like this: "$NtUninstallKB917344$" The contents are small according to windows Explorer, but might that have something to do with this?

Again, I appreciate your help so far, and I hope I can get this solved and get my 8 gigs back

EDIT: Looks like I needed to learn how to work SpaceMonger There's a folder in the Windows folder called "Installer," and that's hogging all my space. I can't find the folder in explorer, but I can still delete the stuff. Is this safe to do?

Second EDIT: I found the folder, it was a hidden system folder. Looks to be filled with relics from everything i've ever installed on my computer ever. It's crazy. Should i nuke everything? or save some stuff?

Edited by Fritzo, 11 December 2006 - 03:29 PM.

[wannabe1]

I'd want to know what's being deleted before answering that one... and the files with the "funky" names are updates, uninstallers, and service pack files.

If you machine is running ok, you can eliminate the old restore files by truning the system restore feature off then back on.

Click Start, point to All Programs, then to Accessories, then to System Tools, and click on System Restore. In the left pane of the System Restore window, click the link for "System Restore Settings". In the Properties window, tick the box next to "Turn off system restore on all drives" and "Apply" the change.

Reboot, open System Restore again, and remove the check from the checkbox. "Apply" the change.

[Fritzo]

Okay, the system restore reset bought me about 800 megs. I still have to figure out what to do with those "installer" files.

The folder is filled with install programs, all of which install something (haven't been brave enough to run one of them yet).

The folders in the "Installer" folder are named things like "{D0A05794-48C2-4424-A15A-9F20FCFDD374}" and contain random .ico files. For example, one contains all the Icons that Micrsoft Office uses. Another contains an Icon for Dawn of War, which I installed, played a little, then uninstalled months ago. most of them contain a file called "1033.MST" which is about 4kb. I don't know what this is, and I don't like it. I'm probably gonna nuke it and see what happens. Worst comes to worst I can just format the drive and reinstall windows (windows 2000 this time around, it never gave me these weird problems)

[happyrock]

those $NtUninstallKB917344$ files are the uninstallers for widows updates...they are safe to remove if your computer is running OK...you just won't be able to uninstall the updates is all...if you installed SP2 plus all the patches that would amount to about 750 Mbs