Why Does My C Drive Keep Filling Up?

[dmccarty]

Glennmac,

Remember, to repeat this mantra when your computer has you pulling out your hair or worse.

"Computers are Fun Computers are Fun Computers are Fun...." /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

You have gotten some real good advice so far but I'll add my two cents and reinforce some things.

If you have an NT system start up the Task Manager by right clicking on the task bar. Once the Task Manager is up, goto the process panel and see if there are any processes that are using large amounts of CPU time. The only exception should be the "System Idle Process" which might have 99% of the CPU. If there is some other process with lots of CPU that might be your problem.

Empty you recycle bin. But if you have a gig of space left that really should not matter.

Get the latest updates for your virus protection software. The updates for viruser are very frequent so if you have not updated in more than a few months you are behind.

Partitions are LOGICAL hard drives. Instead of putting in a second PHYSICAL drive, you can split your single drive into two or more LOGICAL drives. WHY would one wish to do this? What should be done but does not seem to happen that much anymore, is you have your first partition, C:, setup to run ONLY the operating system. You put your applications and data on any partition BUT C:. I used to have a system with the OS on C:, applications on D: or E: and data on F:. The reason for doing all of this is it makes backup's real easy. If all your data is on a certain partition or directory that is all you HAVE to backup. By keeping your applications and data away from the OS partition you can in theory reinstall the OS, even if you have to format the C: drive because of some Real Bad Thing, without bothering your applications and data. Especially your data.

The problem with this approach is that with Windows so much junk is stored in the registry and desktop ABOUT you applications if you loose the OS you have to do at least some minimal work to get things back in order if not a reinstall of the applications. But at least you would still have your data. In DOS, OS/2 and to a certain extent UNIX systems, the OS is/can be kept on different partitions than the applications/data so you can recover a system with a bad OS somewhat easy. I just recovered a Sun system that melted down, shall we say got Eclipsed, /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif and the applications and data was still ok for the most part. The reason I could have a chance of doing this was that the applications/data was kept away from the OS partition.

Get an updated virus check on the system.
Make sure you have the latest updates for the OS AND applications especially if you are running in Microsoft applications for mail.

Good Luck...
Dan McCarty

 

[Rch]

glennmac, http://www.expertcity.com/ is a site where you advertise your problem, computer geeks bid on trying to fix it and you pay via the site with a credit card. I've never used it but it got high marks in a New York Times review 8-9 months ago. If you use it,give us follow-up.
You'll have to cut ond paste; I tried to correct a typo ( last 'bracket' was an = sign) but apparently the edit program wont handle that. I'll try anew here http://www.expertcity.com/
Later.... I guess the links ARE working-- I probably need an expert !

RCH<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Rch on 08/02/01 09:41 AM (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[glennmac]

Thanks for the tips. I worsened the whole situation last night. In my frustration to find some some way to free space, I deleted a 135 mb file in my Windows folder called savdsk2.bin. Everything was ok while online, but now I cant start up Windows at all. Get a message that says something like there is not enough contiguous space to create some kind of disk. Gave my IBM to my sytems people and now am on an old Winbook that doesnt have my ISP on it. So I'll probably be offline for several days afte I leave work today.

 

[TerryinMD]

Some of the previous posts have given you ideas as what to do. First clean out your temporary file space (either Netscape or Internet Explorer). Don't be selective, just delete the junk. You will be surprised at the amount of space you get back. Clean up your Email mailboxes. Again delete what you don't need or archieve to a floppy. Clean out your Trash bin. Remove any applications you do not use. Once you have done all of this, perform a Disk Defragmentation. Windows 95 and up have this utility under the Accessories/System folders (I believe - I just cruise the folder till I find the utility). This will do two things. Move all of your files around to clean up any holes (unused space) and you also will gain a little better performace as the system will not have to work as hard to find the files (positioning the heads on the hard drive). Then, go and buy a larger disk drive. They are so inexpensive now. Well, I guess that depends on how old your system is.... A consideration. I hope that this helps. Good luck, Terry.

 

[gws]

My bet is you never have used your D drive for much of anything. Most anything you installed is going to want to be on C: drive unless you specificly forced it someplace else. Uninstall and re-install some big apps on the D drive.


Gary.

 

[RJohnson]

glennmac,
If you are using Windows and Internet Explorer there are a few things you can look at to increase disk space
1) Make sure that you delete the files you thought you had already deleted by cleaning out your recycle bin.
2) Go into control panel and use the add/remove program icon, look at the windows setup tab and unckeck any utilities that you don't use,Things such as Windows messaging, Microsoft Network, multilanguage support, Microsoft Fax, Accessibility Options. Then click apply. Of course if you are using some of these functions do not remove them. While you are there you might double click on accessories and unclick all of the things you don't need or use. Things such as games, screen savers, desktop wallpaper, character map, etc.
3) In your Internet Explorer Properties go into settings for your temporary internet files and verify how much disk space is being reserved for temporty internet files.
4) Also check your printer location and make sure that you only have the printer drivers for the actual printer you are using.
Hope this helps.

Randy

 

[tanuke01]

It soundslike you have a virus. If you are not running antivirus software you should be. I don't anything else would file up the drive that fast.

DPR

 

[scruffy]

Glenn can't have a virus, he's an attorney, the virus is for the Docs. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[looch]

"Paul, why did my hard drive fail?"

This was question asked of me today at work. I was so freaked out by this abomination that I grabbed the camera and snapped a few souvenirs.

 

[Alan L.]

Thats looks like the inside of my sister's PC. Looks like it was used in a dairy.

Alan L., TX