XP Disc cleanup & vanishing HD space.

Discussion in 'Software' started by Lord Deckard, Apr 10, 2007.

  1. Lord Deckard

    Lord Deckard Byte Poster

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    Just decided to have a little clear out on the old hard drive using the disc cleanup utility and I think my PC had a brain fart.
    I had over 30gigs of free space before I ran the utility and when I came back to see how it was getting on, the computer had rebooted and I only had 54mb of disc space left!
    I've run disc error checking to see if anything had been lost in the reboot, also run CCleaner as well, but with no success in getting my space back.

    Anyone got any suggestions as to what might have happened?

    Lord Deckard.
     
    Certifications: A+, MCDST
    WIP: N+ and CCNA
  2. zimbo
    Honorary Member

    zimbo Petabyte Poster

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    Defragmentation next up mate! :biggrin
     
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  3. wizard

    wizard Petabyte Poster

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    My XP install does this all the time, when I reboot it's back to normal. I've given up ages ago trying to work out XP's quirks.
     
    Certifications: SIA DS Licence
    WIP: A+ 2009
  4. Lord Deckard

    Lord Deckard Byte Poster

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    2 reboots and a defrag later, still the same! Running clean up again but I've told it to compress old files this time. Got 6gigs back already and looks like it's going to be running all night at this rate!
     
    Certifications: A+, MCDST
    WIP: N+ and CCNA
  5. simongrahamuk
    Honorary Member

    simongrahamuk Hmmmmmmm?

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    How is your pagefile managed?
     
  6. Cockles

    Cockles Megabyte Poster

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    G'day everyone

    I had a similar thing happen recently, but then discovered alongside doing things like that, I (clearly without thinking) had run diagnostic programmes on things like PowerDVD, which generate these huge log files of a good couple of gig each. May be worth seeing if anything like that has materialised in your root folders
     
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  7. r.h.lee

    r.h.lee Gigabyte Poster

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    Lord Deckard,

    Try checking your "Recycle Bin" to see if some of the "cleaned files" are still sitting in there. AFTER MAKING SURE YOU DO NOT NEED THE FILES IN THE RECYCLE BIN then empty the recycle bin. Reason being, any file/folder you delete has the option to be "restored" from the Recycle Bin back where it came from. As a result, the "deleted file" is actually still on the hard drive ready for the restore process until you empty the recycle bin.

    I hope this helps.
     
    Certifications: MCSE, MCP+I, MCP, CCNA, A+
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  8. Lord Deckard

    Lord Deckard Byte Poster

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    Strangely enough, I fixed it last night and it was indeed exactly the same problem that Cockles had. PowerDVD had generated a *25gig* logfile last night!! Even more bizarre as I haven't used PowerDVD in months....
     
    Certifications: A+, MCDST
    WIP: N+ and CCNA
  9. Cockles

    Cockles Megabyte Poster

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    25 gig!!! Bloody hellfire.

    I must admit, it totally threw me for a bit. So far as I know, they are safe to delete as they are just that, a log file. Why the hell they need to be that big though is totally beyond me. :eek:
     
    Certifications: None
    WIP: Trying to find my car keys
  10. Raffaz

    Raffaz Kebab Lover Gold Member

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    WOW! Thats some size log file:) Im pleased ive never used powerDVD:)
     
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  11. Wassup

    Wassup Byte Poster

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    just one for the future

    download and install SequoiaView - http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

    you can then see what is using up your harddrive
    (hint : look for the big rectangles :D )

    you can even add colour to different filetypes to make it look pretty
    :)
     

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