C Drive ...

[Dr Adequate]

It keeps on filling up. But with what? And where is it? And how? And how do I get rid of it?

Any suggestions gratefully received.

[AvarianParakeet]

I could use a little more information. If you are downloading a bunch of stuff than your hard drive is going to fill up. I'm guessing that's not the problem. It would help if I knew just how big your C Drive is, that would at least give an idea of scale.

If you just don't know where it all went, then I've been there before. Try to use http://www.download.com/TreeSize-Free/3000-2248_4-10139400.html?tag=mncol&cdlPid=10875260

I haven't tried the free version, but the trial for the professional was pretty good. It scans all your drives and analyzes just how much space the individual items in each one take up. Any big offenders should stick out like sore thumbs.

Your browser's temp folder might also be filling up fast. Go to My Computer->Control Panel->Performance and Maintenance->Free up Space. Then let it look at the drive. It will come back with a report on easy ways to free up space by compressing files and cleaning out the temp folder.

Hope that these help.

[CrikeyBobs]

I'm guessing the above is for Vista. If you're running XP you can run the command cleanmgr.exe. It removes temp files and the cache for Internet Explorer among other things. It will also compress files that have not been accessed recently (optional).

If you use a browser other than IE then you will need to clear the cache from within the browser itself (CTRL+SHIFT+DELETE in Firefox).

[RayG]

If you have downloaded lots of photos from your digital camera, they can quickly fill smaller drives.

RayG

[Rat]

Unless you're downloading or installing stuff all willy-nilly, then it usually is indeed temp folders and the web cache to blame. I seem to recall somewhat hazily that you're using a fairly old machine with a fairly archaic OS, unless you've updated since then. I would say the best solution is to splash out on a new hard drive, either to replace your current one, or to act as a second drive. Hard drives are remarkably cheap these days, and the pain of scrabbling around a smaller drive, trying to find things that you can safely delete, just isn't worth it.

Also, if you let Windows manage virtual memory, then the page file will keep changing in size. At least in older versions of Windows (I don't know if it's still true, but I still do it), it's best to just set the minimum and maximum page file sizes the same, so at least you know what you've got.

[Tsukasa Buddha]

Well, it is like a series of tubes...

[articulett]

Your C drive is usually your main drive. If you click on the icon that says my computer (or the picture of the computer) you will see all your drives. If you right click on the C drive it will give you a pull down menu-- click on "properties"-- then you will have the opportunity to clean up your drive (click disk clean up)-- you can compress it too by clicking a button. (Tell us how much used space it says you have and how much free space.)

If you are running windows you can run an online full service scan here: http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm?mkt=en-us

(you have to click the bar on the top to allow pop ups)This tunes up the computer, cleans it up, and checks it for viruses and puts everything in order in one step while you are posting here... no fuss no muss. Try it. In fact do this first... it's the best quick solution for now if it works. You can try the other stuff later.

(Also make sure you have the most recent updates by clicking on the program that says windows updates.)

You can also do a search for files over 30,000 KB and delete anything that's old or duplicated or that you don't need or use.

You can store big files on storage drives or even thumb drives rather than on your main hard drive (the C drive). Think of your C drive as your "office"-- you want all the important stuff and the stuff you use a lot there. You don't need to keep the movies you've seen or the music you don't want to listen to in the near future or the podcasts you've already heard. Or you can get an external hard drive that plugs in via USB and drag everything over there to keep your C drive "roomy" for the programs you use every day (mail, office, media players, etc.) What OS are you running-- I presume it's windows... is it XP?

Here's a free file cleaner you can run too: http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/
Spybot also cleans your computer and gets rid of spyware to keep things running smoothly: http://www.safer-networking.org/index2.html

[ThatSoundAgain]

On Mac, I use an application called GrandPerspective, that genereates a so called "tree map". Really neat visualisation of disk usage, you can instantly see where the most space is going.

A similar Windows program would be Sequoiaview (http://w3.win.tue.nl/nl/onderzoek/onderzoek_informatica/visualization/sequoiaview//), but I haven't tried it.

I second the recommendation of getting an extra drive (external or internal) for data. Also, don't compress your system drive, that'll give you a noticeable performance hit.

[Mongrel]

I'm with the others, storage is so damned cheap at the moment that barring some huge accumulation of kruft on the drive then get a second drive, keep an eye out at the Scan "Today Only (http://scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx)", the best bang for your buck is the 500-750Gb range.

If you have any qualms about fitting it then I'm sure a 4-pack wafted at the Rat will solve that ;)

In the interim open up your control panel > Add\Remove programs and run down the list, if you haven't used it in six months it's normally safe to uninstall :)

[AvarianParakeet]

I guess I'll also point out that external hard drives are particularly cheap. You can get about 350 gigs for a few hundred bucks. This would even work on an older machine with limited upgrade options, since you'd just need a USB port and a little patience.

[Oliver]

It keeps on filling up. But with what? And where is it? And how? And how do I get rid of it?

Any suggestions gratefully received.


Search for a "temp"-folder within "Documents and Settings". Open that
folder and try to delete as much crap* as possible*².

* It's all crap
*² Some files are protected against deletion because they're in use.

[Dr Adequate]

Ah, I found fifty-something megabytes of t$m files in WINNT > Temp.

That's a start. Now maybe I'll be able to run FileTree ... which wouldn't install on the grounds that there wasn't enough disc space.

Thanks for your comments so far.

For the record, I am running an archaic version of Windows and have two six gigabyte drives ... and, yes, occasionally I chisel things in stone.

[Stout]

Before you go out and spend money on an external hard drive, you may want to look at simply buying yourself a whole new computer. I just got one a couple of months ago and I only paid about 400 dollars for a new tower ( ie no monitor, etc ) I've got a 120 gig hd that'll probably take me the rest of my life to fill up, 512 MB RAM which is noticeably faster than mo old one which only had half that, and as a bonus, I got my old hard drive cloned as part of the deal so for all intents and purposes, it's still the same as my old machine.

CCleaaner rocks....but I did have a problem with Spybot SD identifying and deleting the portion of my antivirus software that's responsible for automatic updates. I've since replaced that software with Avast ( free, and recommended by my computer guys ) but I remain wary of it just because of that.

Note...I've noticed that after I run CCleaner, that Lavasoft's AdAware doesn't pick up anything. Anyone else notice this ?

[soylent]

For the record, I am running an archaic version of Windows and have two six gigabyte drives

Not to be mean, but I've thrown away bigger(functioning) drives than that because they were too slow, noisy and small to be of any use; and I'm hardly what you'd call a rich guy.

[Wudang]

Well, since he's UK for a new PC at a good price
http://www.ebuyer.com/search?sort=pricelow&store=5&cat=190&limit=10&page=1
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/range.html?t=pc&c=home&r=ICO

I've used the former extensively and the latter occasionally.

[Rob Lister]

I've got a 120 gig hd that'll probably take me the rest of my life to fill up,...

Yea, I remember thinking that when I got my first 40meg HD.

[Rat]

I would agree that buying a new machine for a couple of hundred would do you a world of good, but don't know if that's an option. If not, since my storage needs are ever growing (see below), I always have some of my old disks knocking about, at least some of which must be PATA, so I can drop one round to you if you like. If you're happy to pay 1 beer, I'd even ghost over your old system, rather than your having to have a third hard drive.

http://www.rattusmaximus.co.uk/forumpics/disks.jpg

[Yalius]

I found this program a while back that does a great job of visually showing you what's taking up space where on a drive. It's called "Scanner" and available here.

http://www.steffengerlach.de/freeware/ (http://www.steffengerlach.de/freeware/)

[alfaniner]

Ah, I found fifty-something megabytes of t$m files in WINNT > Temp.


50 whole megabytes!!? Wow! :D

Seriously though, in case you didn't know -- beware of anyone that tells you to use a "format" command with your C drive. YOU WILL ERASE EVERYTHING.

[Akhenaten]

If you just don't know where it all went, then I've been there before. Try to use http://www.download.com/TreeSize-Free/3000-2248_4-10139400.html?tag=mncol&cdlPid=10875260

I haven't tried the free version, but the trial for the professional was pretty good. It scans all your drives and analyzes just how much space the individual items in each one take up. Any big offenders should stick out like sore thumbs.


They do indeed. What a nifty little tool. Thank you for the tip.


Cheers,

Dave

[GodMark2]

"T$M" files are generated by AVG anti-virus software. They are supposed to be deleted automatically, but some (especially older) versions can leave them around.

Upgrading the AVG software may help here.

[Psi Baba]

For the record, I am running an archaic version of Windows and have two six gigabyte drives ... and, yes, occasionally I chisel things in stone.
You're not still using the original Juno Free Email are you? :D

Of course I'm joking, but back when Juno was new, I heard of people who used Juno having their hard drives fill up and not knowing why. While poking around in the Juno folders, I noticed that the ads it downloaded just accumulated in a subfolder--they never got purged; it just stored more and more ad graphic files without limit, and without notifying the user. That folder could easily and quickly get quite large, especially if you used the service a lot.

[Soapy Sam]

Buy an external USB drive.
Move every data file over to it.
Reformat your old drives.
Reinstall the OS.
And Bingo! You only need to spend a week online downloading security patches, updating drivers and finding everything you lost and you're in business.

Or do what everyone else does. Buy a new pc and periodically feel guilty about not cleaning up the old one.

[Rat]

Buy an external USB drive.
Move every data file over to it.
Reformat your old drives.
Reinstall the OS.
And Bingo! You only need to spend a week online downloading security patches, updating drivers and finding everything you lost and you're in business.

Or do what everyone else does. Buy a new pc and periodically feel guilty about not cleaning up the old one.

But this means that my PC always has a folder called "old pc", containing the contents of my previous pc, which in turn contains a folder containing the contents of the pc before that. And so on. It's like Russian dolls of PC history.

[Arthur ASCII]

But this means that my PC always has a folder called "old pc", containing the contents of my previous pc, which in turn contains a folder containing the contents of the pc before that. And so on. It's like Russian dolls of PC history.

I'm not alone in doing that then :)

What I find strange is that I've never had reason to dip into any of them for the documents/files I thought at the time I couldn't live without.

[Oliver]

Yea, I remember thinking that when I got my first 40meg HD.


My thought as well - when I bought my first 20 Megabyte Amiga-HD...

[OneDollarWilliam]

You're not still using the original Juno Free Email are you? :D

Of course I'm joking, but back when Juno was new, I heard of people who used Juno having their hard drives fill up and not knowing why. While poking around in the Juno folders, I noticed that the ads it downloaded just accumulated in a subfolder--they never got purged; it just stored more and more ad graphic files without limit, and without notifying the user. That folder could easily and quickly get quite large, especially if you used the service a lot.

This is pretty off topic, but there was one really neat thing about Juno when it was new: the password character limit was in the 60s. My password (when I was 13) was ImperialClassStarDestroyer1138. Those were the days.

As for the real topic at hand I'm going to have to join the replacement camp. You could even find a 2/3 year old machine at a pawn shop that would likely double your available hard drive space, as well as a host of other improvements.

I'm not alone in doing that then :)

What I find strange is that I've never had reason to dip into any of them for the documents/files I thought at the time I couldn't live without.

I found an old hard drive a few weeks ago wherein I had backed up my early graphic design work. I thought those would be very important going forward so when I had to reformat my system I was sure to back them up. The HD in question has remained boxed for the better part of a decade, and as for the designs; let's just say my skills have improved.

[bruto]

Another space waster:

If you burn CD's, make sure the program isn't saving CD images.