Computer hard-drive storage issue

Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8D IF-ED

07/06/2011 05:45:55 PM · #1

For the past two weeks I have been watching my hard-drive storage dwindle away, and I'm not uploading any photos, video, music or programs....every day it has been less and less....I have checked for a virus with several programs and nothing shows up....I used the hard-drive clean up program that came with the computer ( HP) and it did free up a little space--but, that was gone in several days. What is eating up my hard-drive? I am running 64 bit Vista.

hihosilver

Nikon D200

07/06/2011 05:57:56 PM · #2

Are you the only person who uses this computer? You may wish to do a file search for all files within a date range of the last two weeks to 30 days.

Yo_Spiff

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

07/06/2011 06:33:09 PM · #3

Have you run an anti virus scan and spyware checkers?

keyz

Nikon D700

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G

07/06/2011 06:44:10 PM · #4

There are some tool to analyse disk usage. On Linux I use Baobab which make some pretty pie charts on disk usage. You can find some equivalent to this program in this place : //alternativeto.net/software/baobab/?platform=windows but I don't know which one you could use. Just try the first one ;)

Windirstat seems to be the tool you need for analysing your disk : //windirstat.info/

Message edited by author 2011-07-06 18:57:24.

PenelopeK

Sony Alpha a7 II

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

07/06/2011 07:03:19 PM · #5

Something I found using up quite a lot of space and that is added to every day are the "system restore" files. I now use Piriform CCleaner tools to erase many of these (but never the most recent one, and not the one created just before I made a major update, at least for a while so I can go back if I encounter problems.

May be worth checking out...

MargaretNet

Sony DSC-RX100 VII

07/06/2011 07:14:23 PM · #6

Maybe it has become a part of spam cloud? Did you check for spyware?

07/06/2011 07:18:01 PM · #7

What kind of space are we talking about here... what's the total capacity of the drive, and what is the remaining capacity? Do you have just one drive for the OS and you data, or are the drives separate? If separate, which one is experiencing the problem?

07/06/2011 08:11:20 PM · #8

There was 921 gb on the hard-drive, and now 1.36 gb left. I've run various virus programs including spy-bot and malware...they find nothing. I did have a trojan on my computer about 2 months ago, and it did hide all my files, etc....took care of that problem...found all files, etc...and, it has been clean since. No new programs on it...I have not loaded up any photos, videos, music, etc..in the past few weeks....I don't know how much of the 921 gb I had actually used for photos, etc....may have been a lot...I was under the impression I still must of had lots of memory yet ( very few raw files)....I am sure video ate up a lot of my hard-drive....looked at the space left on the drive about 2 weeks ago, and was shocked to see it so low...then kept looking every day and was losing about 50 to 30 gb per day without uploading anything...until I am now at 1.36 gb! Everything was on one drive C....Oh, and I have already removed the system restore points because I read that having many of those can eat up storage too...did not seem to help much.

Tamron AF 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di II for Canon

07/06/2011 08:28:59 PM · #9

Originally posted by dagaleaa:

30 to 50 GB/*day* ??!! Yikes! Sounds like you do need to analyze what's taking up the space. I'd agree with looking for newly-created files. You can do that just by opening an explorer window to the root folder on the drive and either hitting CTRL-F in WinXP to bring up the search pane, or in Win7 (and Vista?) just click in the search box at upper left of the window, click on "Date Modified" and select a date range.

jamesgoss

Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi

07/06/2011 08:38:05 PM · #10

I use Disk Inventory X on my Mac, It really does a good job at visualizing where all your space is.
There are windows alternatives: //alternativeto.net/software/disk-inventory-x/?platform=windows

I haven't used them before, but I think I'd try one of these two first:

//windirstat.info/
//www.diskspacefan.com/

edit::

LOL at

Keyz for doing the same thing I did ... and having the same resulting program suggestion.

Message edited by author 2011-07-06 20:39:23.

PGerst

Canon EOS-20D

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

07/06/2011 09:32:42 PM · #11

Have you run windows drive clean utility at all?

Mike

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD Canon Mount

07/06/2011 09:41:44 PM · #12

Originally posted by PennyClick:

what OS?

on windows 7, actually it may have been Vista, i had an issue. basically windows system restore was taking up huge amounts of space. i had to dig into the system to tell it to to only use what i want it to or else it took free reign over the free space on the C drive, we are talking 10-20 gb lost.

PenelopeK

Sony Alpha a7 II

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

07/06/2011 10:01:56 PM · #13

Originally posted by mike_311:

Originally posted by PennyClick:
Something I found using up quite a lot of space and that is added to every day are the "system restore" files. I now use Piriform CCleaner tools to erase many of these (but never the most recent one, and not the one created just before I made a major update, at least for a while so I can go back if I encounter problems.

May be worth checking out...

what OS?

on windows 7, actually it may have been Vista, i had an issue. basically windows system restore was taking up huge amounts of space. i had to dig into the system to tell it to to only use what i want it to or else it took free reign over the free space on the C drive, we are talking 10-20 gb lost.

If you were asking me what my OS is (not the OP's), it's Vista (SP 2).

Here is the link to CCleaner CCleaner for anyone who is interested, and yes, the default for how much space is allocated for the restore system files is sometimes set as a % of the total hard drive, and can end up being a lot of gb.

Message edited by author 2011-07-06 22:03:25.

adigitalromance

Nikon D750

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

07/06/2011 10:38:39 PM · #14

When was the last time you rebooted?

Go to start->run and type "%temp% without quotes. Delete everything in this folder.

Then I'd run the //windirstat.info/ and just see what's taking up the space. That will give you a place to start.

07/07/2011 08:00:37 PM · #15

Oh my gosh!! I ran all the programs everyone suggested....found what was taking up the space. I unloaded a lot of files and folders of photos and videos to an external hard-drive today and I did free up 250 gb. I was so proud of myself and felt like I had a handle on the situation....3 hours ago I had 250 gb of storage on my 1 tb hard-drive...now three hours later I am suddenly down to 184gb!! I am so disgusted and I don't know what is happening.

Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD Canon Mount

07/07/2011 08:09:48 PM · #16

Originally posted by dagaleaa:

That is just too strange. Obviously something is writing huge amounts of data out there. That's over 6MB per second, every second, for three hours. Something's not right. Re-run one of the suggested tools to see where the extra space is being eaten.

ETA: Really silly question, but the thing isn't set to automatically be capturing video to disk, say from a TV tuner, is it??

Message edited by author 2011-07-07 20:11:10.

Mike

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

07/07/2011 08:11:18 PM · #17

Originally posted by dagaleaa:

//www.howtogeek.com/howto/5482/make-system-restore-use-less-space-in-windows-7/

Message edited by author 2011-07-07 20:11:49.

adigitalromance

Nikon D750

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

07/07/2011 08:16:21 PM · #18

You said you found what was taking up the space...what was it?

If you can find out what kind of data is being created, that might help determine where it is coming from.

Was windirstat full of a particular file type? Did you recognize those files?

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

07/07/2011 08:20:26 PM · #19

Yes, I ran the windirstat program and it showed my photos and videos made up the largest part of my hardrive, and that is basically what I took off today and put on an external hard-drive.

PGerst

Canon EOS-20D

07/07/2011 08:39:31 PM · #20

Do one thing, if not already mentioned below.

Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del, click on Processes.
Then, click on CPU and sort so that the processes are listed from high to low. If there is something actively writing to your drive, it should have high CPU usage.

Now, it may very well be that at the moment nothing is running with high usage.

Click View, Select Column, then make sure the following items are checked:
CPU Time
I/O Write Bytes

Sort by each. You'll be able to figure out the process writing a lot of data. Now, don't jump to any conclusions right away. This accounts for every I/O write operation, including network data. So, you basically want to compare CPU time and IO to help get an idea. Post a screen shot here of the highest sorted operations...

07/07/2011 08:46:39 PM · #21

How do I get a screen shot? I will do what you suggest.

07/07/2011 09:09:59 PM · #22

Originally posted by dagaleaa:

How do I get a screen shot? I will do what you suggest.

To capture the active application window, hold down ALT and press PrtScn (usually to the right of the function keys). Then paste it into your photo editing program.

Message edited by author 2011-07-07 21:10:23.

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

07/07/2011 09:24:13 PM · #23

screen shot:

PGerst

Canon EOS-20D

07/07/2011 09:37:36 PM · #24

Can you post the image to your profile and link it? The resolution is too low to see.
Remember, 3 shots:
1) Sort by CPU (you have memory sorted below)
2) CPU Time
3) IO Write Bytes

Message edited by author 2011-07-07 21:38:56.