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Laptop hard drive available space fluxuates (Resolved)


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#1
dstcoyote22

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Hi, 

 

I am having a problem keeping my laptop's available space as high as I want it so I can install an old version of Adobe Photoshop. It was handed down to me from a family member, and I was more than happy to keep it alive even though it's an old Dell Inspiron 6400 that runs Windows Vista. The capacity is only about 66 GB, and I understand that a lot of important software for the operating system takes up a good chunk of it. I've tried uninstalling old apps that I don't use, keep running disc clean up to get all the temp junk off, and kept virtually all media (pictures, music, etc.) on a 1TB external drive, but it just doesn't seem to want to stay consistent. A few days ago, i had it up to 10% free space, and then today I noticed it went down to 0% free, and only a few hundred megabytes of space available even though I had not installed anything that was no bigger than 10-50 mb in size. I got it back to about 3GB free, and then later it went down to 2GB... so I'm suspecting there's something I can't see directly that clogging it up. I don't see any visible signs of malware, but I could be being fooled. 

 

Any help or advice is appreciated. 


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#2
Dashing star

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Hello dstcoyote22,

 

Did you use disk defragmentation?

 

To defragment your hard disk

  • Open Disk Defragmenter by clicking the 4f6cbd09-148c-4dd8-b1f2-48f232a2fd33_818  Start button. In the search box, type Disk Defragmenter, and then, in the list of results, click Disk Defragmenter.
  • Under Current status, select the disk you want to defragment.
  • To determine if the disk needs to be defragmented or not, click Analyze disk. 18abb370-ac1e-4b6b-b663-e028a75bf05b_48.  If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
  • Once Windows is finished analyzing the disk, you can check the percentage of fragmentation on the disk in the Last Run column. If the number is above 10%, you should defragment the disk.
  • Click Defragment disk.  18abb370-ac1e-4b6b-b663-e028a75bf05b_48. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Disk Defragmenter might take from several minutes to a few hours to finish, depending on the size and degree of fragmentation of your hard disk. You can still use your computer during the defragmentation process.

 

Notes

If the disk is already in exclusive use by another program or is formatted using a file system other than NTFS file system, FAT, or FAT32, it can't be defragmented.

Network locations can't be defragmented.

If a disk that you're expecting to see under Current status is not showing up there, it might be because it contains an error. Try to repair the disk first, then return to Disk Defragmenter to try again. See Check a drive for errors for more information.


Edited by Dashing star, 27 July 2015 - 11:26 PM.

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#3
phillpower2

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dstcoyote22,

 

Please note that in order to avoid data corruption and/or mechanical HDD failure for data only HDDs you must always have a minimum of 10% of the HDDs overall storage capacity available as free space and between 20 and 25% of a HDDs overall storage capacity available as free space if the OS is on it, the free space allows for information to be copied to and from the drive efficiently and it reduces the risk of the OS being overwritten/becoming corrupted by a simple task such as installing a Windows or a third party software update.

Not having the above can render a computer inoperable if the HDD concerned has the OS on it due to the MBR (Master Boot Record) becoming damaged/corrupt, please see information @ http://pcsupport.abo...sterbootrec.htm


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#4
dstcoyote22

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Good evening, I read both replies. Sorry it took me a bit to get back to you guys. I do try to defragment the disk as much as I can, sometimes it will tell me "disk does not need to be defragmented." 

 

I ended up downloading and running CCleaner, and it cleaned out everything I needed. It looked like a lot of it was cookies and temporary data that didn't need to be there. HDD is back up to 10%, and computer runs fairly well for an old laptop. 


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#5
Dashing star

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Glad to hear your problem solved!  :D

 

Regards


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#6
phillpower2

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How often a HDD needs to be defragged depends on the use that it has, for the average user, only defrag every few months and keep in mind that defragging a HDD subjects it to needless stress.

 

Regarding the amount of storage space, a reminder;

 

Please note that in order to avoid data corruption and/or mechanical HDD failure for data only HDDs you must always have a minimum of 10% of the HDDs overall storage capacity available as free space and between 20 and 25% of a HDDs overall storage capacity available as free space if the OS is on it, the free space allows for information to be copied to and from the drive efficiently and it reduces the risk of the OS being overwritten/becoming corrupted by a simple task such as installing a Windows or a third party software update.

 


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