 Lost hard drive space |
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Welcome to Bleeping Computer, a free community where people like yourself come together to discuss and learn how to use their computers. Using the site is easy and fun. As a guest, you can browse and view the various discussions in the forums, but can not create a new topic or reply to an existing one unless you are logged in. Other benefits of registering an account are subscribing to topics and forums, creating a blog, and having no ads shown anywhere on the site.| Important Announcement: The winners of the BC Million Post contest have been announced. You can read who the winners are at this post. - BleepingComputer Management |
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 Oct 2 2005, 10:12 PM
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Member  Group: Members Posts: 19 Joined: 2-October 05 Member No.: 35,895  |
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Oct 3 2005, 12:38 AM
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 Bleepin' cat's meow Group: BC Advisor Posts: 8,524 Joined: 11-January 05 From: Baton Rouge, La. Member No.: 9,323 |
Hi sunrise, Welcome to BC.
What OS are you using and what make and model of computer? There are BIOS and OS partition limitations. There is software to eliminate some of it. --------------------  "2007 & 2008 Windows Shell/User Award" |
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Oct 3 2005, 10:14 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 19 Joined: 2-October 05 Member No.: 35,895 |
Thanks for the reply, hope this is enough info. The drive is partitioned, but shows up as a 70gig partition that is healthy.
Operating System Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 (build 2600) Processor Main 2.20 gigahertz AMD Athlon XP 512 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. Explorer4 Rev 1.xx Bus Clock: 200 megahertz BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 3.01 02/10/2004 Drives Memory Modules c,d 80.01 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity 12.18 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space ST380013A [Hard drive] (80.03 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 5JVDNT6F, rev 8.01, SMART Status: Healthy 448 Megabytes Installed Memory Slot 'DIMM0' has 512 MB (serial number SerNum0) Slot 'DIMM1' is Empty Local Drive Volumes c: (NTFS on drive 0) 75.22 GB 11.36 GB free e: (FAT32 on drive 0) 4.78 GB 823 MB free |
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Oct 3 2005, 10:24 AM
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Bleepin' cat's meow Group: BC Advisor Posts: 8,524 Joined: 11-January 05 From: Baton Rouge, La. Member No.: 9,323 |
You have a modern computer and the issues I described should not effect your computer. Have you checked to see if you have a hidden partition?
-------------------- "2007 & 2008 Windows Shell/User Award" |
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Oct 3 2005, 10:30 AM
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 Visually handicapped, hence the avatar :0) Group: Moderator Posts: 14,526 Joined: 2-October 05 From: Southeastern CT, USA Member No.: 35,824 |
Perform a search (Start...Search) for All Files and Folders. Under "What size is it?", select Other and enter 999,999 in the kB box. Then, under "More Advanced Options", ensure that the first 3 boxes are checked (Search system folders, Search hidden files and folders, and Search subfolders) - then click on Search.
Let us know what the largest files are (you can sort the list by clicking on the size column of the search results). This will let us know if it's System Restore Data or Temporary Internet Files that are taking up the space (and it may give a clue as to any other programs that have very large files). -------------------- - John
**If you need a more detailed explanation, please ask for it. I have the Knack. ** |
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Oct 3 2005, 10:33 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 19 Joined: 2-October 05 Member No.: 35,895 |
Can't see anything but the full 70, + the recovery partition.
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Oct 3 2005, 10:49 AM
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Visually handicapped, hence the avatar :0) Group: Moderator Posts: 14,526 Joined: 2-October 05 From: Southeastern CT, USA Member No.: 35,824 |
Well, that sure shoots the heck outta my theory!
 Have you looked at the drive in Disk Manager? (Start...Run...type in "diskmgmt.msc" (without the quotes) and press Enter) Are there any other drive listed that could be taking up this space? Have you tried running chkdsk from the Command Prompt (Start...Run...type in "cmd" (without the quotes) and then press Enter - then type in "chkdsk" (without the quotes) and press Enter again)? It'll perform several tests on your disks. What does it say? Has there been any changes to the system since the last time you can recall that the disk size was correct? -------------------- - John
**If you need a more detailed explanation, please ask for it. I have the Knack. ** |
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Oct 3 2005, 11:14 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 19 Joined: 2-October 05 Member No.: 35,895 |
QUOTE(usasma @ Oct 3 2005, 10:49 AM) Well, that sure shoots the heck outta my theory! Have you looked at the drive in Disk Manager? (Start...Run...type in "diskmgmt.msc" (without the quotes) and press Enter) Are there any other drive listed that could be taking up this space? Have you tried running chkdsk from the Command Prompt (Start...Run...type in "cmd" (without the quotes) and then press Enter - then type in "chkdsk" (without the quotes) and press Enter again)? It'll perform several tests on your disks. What does it say? Has there been any changes to the system since the last time you can recall that the disk size was correct? "chkdsk" - Errors found. chkdsk cannot continue in read-only mode. The only large file in the search that seems odd to me is an errors log for Microsoft Antispyware which is a 4gig text doc. |
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Oct 3 2005, 11:26 AM
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#9
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Visually handicapped, hence the avatar :0) Group: Moderator Posts: 14,526 Joined: 2-October 05 From: Southeastern CT, USA Member No.: 35,824 |
A 4 gB text file? Sounds bogus to me, I've been running the MSAntiSpware beta since it came out and don't have any files that large on my entire system! - go to http://housecall.trendmicro.com and run the free, complete online test (about 15 minutes on a cable/dsl connection) to see what it finds.
What kind of anti-virus, anti-spyware and internet protection are you using? Afterwards (presuming that everything comes up clean), run chkdsk again, but this time type in "chkdsk /f" (without the quotes) and tell it to scan your system when you reboot - then reboot and see what comes up. -------------------- - John
**If you need a more detailed explanation, please ask for it. I have the Knack. ** |
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Oct 3 2005, 11:36 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 19 Joined: 2-October 05 Member No.: 35,895 |
QUOTE(usasma @ Oct 3 2005, 11:26 AM) A 4 gB text file? Sounds bogus to me, I've been running the MSAntiSpware beta since it came out and don't have any files that large on my entire system! - go to http://housecall.trendmicro.com and run the free, complete online test (about 15 minutes on a cable/dsl connection) to see what it finds. What kind of anti-virus, anti-spyware and internet protection are you using? Afterwards (presuming that everything comes up clean), run chkdsk again, but this time type in "chkdsk /f" (without the quotes) and tell it to scan your system when you reboot - then reboot and see what comes up. Yep, sounds weird to me also, can't even open it, to big for notepad, and word pad, and MSword won't open it. running Housecall now will get back to you on that. Running Norton system works 2005, AVG free, MSAntiSpware beta, and Adaware |
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Oct 3 2005, 11:41 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 19 Joined: 2-October 05 Member No.: 35,895 |
Checked one of my other computers for MSAntiSpware beta error text doc, it's there, but is only 254 kb. Why would this file be so big, and can I delete it?
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Oct 3 2005, 12:38 PM
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#12
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Visually handicapped, hence the avatar :0) Group: Moderator Posts: 14,526 Joined: 2-October 05 From: Southeastern CT, USA Member No.: 35,824 |
A 4 gB text file is huge beyond reason - that's why I suggested the online scan. I'd get rid of the thing, and then empty your Recycle Bin to be sure it's gone (don't be surprised if it comes back tho' - the bad guys are tricky!). I started to study the anti-spyware trade a while back - but never finished - so I'm not really proficient at it. I'd suggest posting your HiJackThis log in the HiJackThis forum to have it analyzed by an expert.
Are you running the anti-virus component of Norton System Works and AVG at the same time? If so, this could be problem and could have let something bad slip through. Also, in earlier versions of Norton (I dunno about yours) there's a hole that can let viruses through. By default Norton would only scan the first 3 layers of a compressed file - once the virus writers discovered this, they started burying their files deeper than 3 layers to prevent detection. I only found this out by getting infected and finding out, by accident, in a routine scan of my system using HiJackThis (the baddie had spawned onto my system, was lurking in several places, and had even invaded an anti-spyware program that I was using). I'd advise you to install a software firewall to prevent connections to and from your system without your permission. They're a bit tricky at first, but after you get used to them they'll protect your system quite well The tricky part is knowing what to Allow, what to Deny, and when to apply the Allow/Deny - Always or Each Time. But, a simple rule of thumb is to Deny permission when in doubt - you can always change it later. And, if you Deny and find that something doesn't work - you can always change it later. I use the Sygate Personal Firewall (available for free here: http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm ) I don't like to recommend the Zone Alarm free firewall because of problems that I've had in the past. I've got several friends who use the Kerio free firewall and are happy with it also. This post has been edited by usasma: Oct 3 2005, 12:39 PM -------------------- - John
**If you need a more detailed explanation, please ask for it. I have the Knack. ** |
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Oct 3 2005, 12:43 PM
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#13
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Visually handicapped, hence the avatar :0) Group: Moderator Posts: 14,526 Joined: 2-October 05 From: Southeastern CT, USA Member No.: 35,824 |
Whoops! Confused your post with another one - here's the link for the HiJackThis forums: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/forum22.html
Please read all the stuff at the top, and the pinned topics at the top before submitting your log (I'm new here, so I don't know all the rules yet). There's something in there that's eating up your system's resources - and, IMO, HiJackThis is the best tool for fixing it! -------------------- - John
**If you need a more detailed explanation, please ask for it. I have the Knack. ** |
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Oct 3 2005, 12:46 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 19 Joined: 2-October 05 Member No.: 35,895 |
Thank's for the advice, I'll check into the firewall. Yes I'm running Norton, and AVG together, I'll stop one of them, didn't know it could be a problem.
Housecall scan was clean. Thanks again for the help, gotta go to work now, if you think of anything else, let me know. |
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Oct 3 2005, 12:52 PM
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#15
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Visually handicapped, hence the avatar :0) Group: Moderator Posts: 14,526 Joined: 2-October 05 From: Southeastern CT, USA Member No.: 35,824 |
Well, if that don't beat all! I was sure (with the 4gB file) that there'd be spyware there! Hmmmm????
Well, since you're clean of spyware and the chkdsk indicated errors - let's try the chckdsk /f. - Start...Run...type in "cmd.exe" without the quotes - press Enter - In the black window that shows up, type in "chkdsk /f" (without the quotes) and press Enter - The system should say that it can't be done now because the volume is in use. Then it'll ask you if you want to schedule it for the next time the system restarts - Press "y" and then Enter. - Then, reboot your system. When the chkdsk /f is finished running, check your disk properties again and see if this fixed it. -------------------- - John
**If you need a more detailed explanation, please ask for it. I have the Knack. ** |
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