Bizarre hard drive space issue

I'm running XP home w/ SP2 on a Dell Dimension 8100 w/ 768 MB of RAM. I
reformatted in January and my machine was running well for six weeks or so,
after which it started slowing down and acting buggy. It got progressively
worse until about two weeks ago, when I got an error message saying it
couldn't do whatever I was trying to do because the hard drive was almost
full. I couldn't imagine this could be true, as my drive is 80 GB and I
only have 35GB or so of data on it. The drive's properties also claimed it
was nearly full. I ran the disk cleanup thingy which only freed up a few
MB. I unhid system folders and checked the properties of each folder on
the drive (my C: drive, by the way) and they totalled about 35 MBs ("size
on disc"), just like I expected. Checked System restore, which was turned
off like I thought (which I assume means it's using no space). Checked
paging file, which is set at 2304 MB - a little high, but it's worked for
me fine in the past. Ran Checkdisk, which found nothing, and Scandisk,
which found and fixed one orphaned.tmp file with no appreciable impact.
Defragged, no help. Ran Seagate's Seatools (the drive is a Maxtor) and
Dell's 32-bit Diagnostics (which scans all the hardware in the machine for
malfunctions). Both gave me a clean bill of health. I cussed at it and
threatened to buy a Mac. Still no help. Compressed the data (via the
checkbox in the drive's properties) which crunched it down to about 58 GB
(from almost 75), and it's running better, but not all that well. Since
then the alleged space used has crept back up to about 61GB, and I haven't
added any data to speak of, just a few e-mails and a teeny-weeny Word file
or two, and the bugginess has gotten worse. If no one can help, I might
have to cuss at it again...

I'd imagine youre problem(s) are related to the format.Sure xp didnt
reinstall
& make another partition.Try going to run,type:cmd In cmd typeiskPart In
DiskPart type:list disk Type:list volume Look for other/unknown
partitions,if
all is ok type:EXIT Type:CHKDSK C: /R Agree to restart,type:EXIT Restart
pc
Also,in hd properties,you should'nt have C: compressed

"John Wright" wrote:

> I'm running XP home w/ SP2 on a Dell Dimension 8100 w/ 768 MB of RAM. I
> reformatted in January and my machine was running well for six weeks or so,
> after which it started slowing down and acting buggy. It got progressively
> worse until about two weeks ago, when I got an error message saying it
> couldn't do whatever I was trying to do because the hard drive was almost
> full. I couldn't imagine this could be true, as my drive is 80 GB and I
> only have 35GB or so of data on it. The drive's properties also claimed it
> was nearly full. I ran the disk cleanup thingy which only freed up a few
> MB. I unhid system folders and checked the properties of each folder on
> the drive (my C: drive, by the way) and they totalled about 35 MBs ("size
> on disc"), just like I expected. Checked System restore, which was turned
> off like I thought (which I assume means it's using no space). Checked
> paging file, which is set at 2304 MB - a little high, but it's worked for
> me fine in the past. Ran Checkdisk, which found nothing, and Scandisk,
> which found and fixed one orphaned.tmp file with no appreciable impact.
> Defragged, no help. Ran Seagate's Seatools (the drive is a Maxtor) and
> Dell's 32-bit Diagnostics (which scans all the hardware in the machine for
> malfunctions). Both gave me a clean bill of health. I cussed at it and
> threatened to buy a Mac. Still no help. Compressed the data (via the
> checkbox in the drive's properties) which crunched it down to about 58 GB
> (from almost 75), and it's running better, but not all that well. Since
> then the alleged space used has crept back up to about 61GB, and I haven't
> added any data to speak of, just a few e-mails and a teeny-weeny Word file
> or two, and the bugginess has gotten worse. If no one can help, I might
> have to cuss at it again...
>

What size is the Recycle Bin?
Disk Cleanup does not empty the Recycle Bin.
Disk Cleanup searches your drive, and then shows you temporary files,
Internet cache files, and unnecessary program files that you can safely
delete.
--
Ronald Sommer

"John Wright" <jacksxxxxnetjunk@yahoo.com(removexs)> wrote in message
news:F1c0i.1213$LR5.160@newssvr17.news.prodigy.net ...
: I'm running XP home w/ SP2 on a Dell Dimension 8100 w/ 768 MB of RAM. I
: reformatted in January and my machine was running well for six weeks or
so,
: after which it started slowing down and acting buggy. It got
progressively
: worse until about two weeks ago, when I got an error message saying it
: couldn't do whatever I was trying to do because the hard drive was almost
: full. I couldn't imagine this could be true, as my drive is 80 GB and I
: only have 35GB or so of data on it. The drive's properties also claimed
it
: was nearly full. I ran the disk cleanup thingy which only freed up a few
: MB. I unhid system folders and checked the properties of each folder on
: the drive (my C: drive, by the way) and they totalled about 35 MBs ("size
: on disc"), just like I expected. Checked System restore, which was turned
: off like I thought (which I assume means it's using no space). Checked
: paging file, which is set at 2304 MB - a little high, but it's worked for
: me fine in the past. Ran Checkdisk, which found nothing, and Scandisk,
: which found and fixed one orphaned.tmp file with no appreciable impact.
: Defragged, no help. Ran Seagate's Seatools (the drive is a Maxtor) and
: Dell's 32-bit Diagnostics (which scans all the hardware in the machine for
: malfunctions). Both gave me a clean bill of health. I cussed at it and
: threatened to buy a Mac. Still no help. Compressed the data (via the
: checkbox in the drive's properties) which crunched it down to about 58 GB
: (from almost 75), and it's running better, but not all that well. Since
: then the alleged space used has crept back up to about 61GB, and I haven't
: added any data to speak of, just a few e-mails and a teeny-weeny Word file
: or two, and the bugginess has gotten worse. If no one can help, I might
: have to cuss at it again...

No parttitons, and chkdsk didn't help

"Andrew E." wrote:

> I'd imagine youre problem(s) are related to the format.Sure xp didnt
> reinstall
> & make another partition.Try going to run,type:cmd In cmd typeiskPart In
> DiskPart type:list disk Type:list volume Look for other/unknown
> partitions,if
> all is ok type:EXIT Type:CHKDSK C: /R Agree to restart,type:EXIT Restart
> pc
> Also,in hd properties,you should'nt have C: compressed
>
> "John Wright" wrote:
>
> > I'm running XP home w/ SP2 on a Dell Dimension 8100 w/ 768 MB of RAM. I
> > reformatted in January and my machine was running well for six weeks or so,
> > after which it started slowing down and acting buggy. It got progressively
> > worse until about two weeks ago, when I got an error message saying it
> > couldn't do whatever I was trying to do because the hard drive was almost
> > full. I couldn't imagine this could be true, as my drive is 80 GB and I
> > only have 35GB or so of data on it. The drive's properties also claimed it
> > was nearly full. I ran the disk cleanup thingy which only freed up a few
> > MB. I unhid system folders and checked the properties of each folder on
> > the drive (my C: drive, by the way) and they totalled about 35 MBs ("size
> > on disc"), just like I expected. Checked System restore, which was turned
> > off like I thought (which I assume means it's using no space). Checked
> > paging file, which is set at 2304 MB - a little high, but it's worked for
> > me fine in the past. Ran Checkdisk, which found nothing, and Scandisk,
> > which found and fixed one orphaned.tmp file with no appreciable impact.
> > Defragged, no help. Ran Seagate's Seatools (the drive is a Maxtor) and
> > Dell's 32-bit Diagnostics (which scans all the hardware in the machine for
> > malfunctions). Both gave me a clean bill of health. I cussed at it and
> > threatened to buy a Mac. Still no help. Compressed the data (via the
> > checkbox in the drive's properties) which crunched it down to about 58 GB
> > (from almost 75), and it's running better, but not all that well. Since
> > then the alleged space used has crept back up to about 61GB, and I haven't
> > added any data to speak of, just a few e-mails and a teeny-weeny Word file
> > or two, and the bugginess has gotten worse. If no one can help, I might
> > have to cuss at it again...
> >

On May 9, 11:00 am, John Wright <JohnWri...@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote:
> No parttitons, and chkdsk didn't help
>
>
>
> "Andrew E." wrote:
> > I'd imagine youre problem(s) are related to the format.Sure xp didnt
> > reinstall
> > & make another partition.Try going to run,type:cmd In cmd typeiskPart In
> > DiskPart type:list disk Type:list volume Look for other/unknown
> > partitions,if
> > all is ok type:EXIT Type:CHKDSK C: /R Agree to restart,type:EXIT Restart
> > pc
> > Also,in hd properties,you should'nt have C: compressed
>
> > "John Wright" wrote:
>
> > > I'm running XP home w/ SP2 on a Dell Dimension 8100 w/ 768 MB of RAM. I
> > > reformatted in January and my machine was running well for six weeks or so,
> > > after which it started slowing down and acting buggy. It got progressively
> > > worse until about two weeks ago, when I got an error message saying it
> > > couldn't do whatever I was trying to do because the hard drive was almost
> > > full. I couldn't imagine this could be true, as my drive is 80 GB and I
> > > only have 35GB or so of data on it. The drive's properties also claimed it
> > > was nearly full. I ran the disk cleanup thingy which only freed up a few
> > > MB. I unhid system folders and checked the properties of each folder on
> > > the drive (my C: drive, by the way) and they totalled about 35 MBs ("size
> > > on disc"), just like I expected. Checked System restore, which was turned
> > > off like I thought (which I assume means it's using no space). Checked
> > > paging file, which is set at 2304 MB - a little high, but it's worked for
> > > me fine in the past. Ran Checkdisk, which found nothing, and Scandisk,
> > > which found and fixed one orphaned.tmp file with no appreciable impact.
> > > Defragged, no help. Ran Seagate's Seatools (the drive is a Maxtor) and
> > > Dell's 32-bit Diagnostics (which scans all the hardware in the machine for
> > > malfunctions). Both gave me a clean bill of health. I cussed at it and
> > > threatened to buy a Mac. Still no help. Compressed the data (via the
> > > checkbox in the drive's properties) which crunched it down to about 58 GB
> > > (from almost 75), and it's running better, but not all that well. Since
> > > then the alleged space used has crept back up to about 61GB, and I haven't
> > > added any data to speak of, just a few e-mails and a teeny-weeny Word file
> > > or two, and the bugginess has gotten worse. If no one can help, I might
> > > have to cuss at it again...- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Try : http://windirstat.info/

Have you actually tried checking for large files on your PC?

Maybe you enabled some system log that is slowly filling your HDD.

Try looking for files that have changed in the past few days.
Maybe some worm that is filling up your HDD.


"smlunatick" <yveslec@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1179339985.727933.68990@w5g2000hsg.googlegrou ps.com...
> On May 9, 11:00 am, John Wright <JohnWri...@discussions.microsoft.com>
> wrote:
>> No parttitons, and chkdsk didn't help
>>
>>
>>
>> "Andrew E." wrote:
>> > I'd imagine youre problem(s) are related to the format.Sure xp didnt
>> > reinstall
>> > & make another partition.Try going to run,type:cmd In cmd
>> > typeiskPart In
>> > DiskPart type:list disk Type:list volume Look for other/unknown
>> > partitions,if
>> > all is ok type:EXIT Type:CHKDSK C: /R Agree to restart,type:EXIT
>> > Restart
>> > pc
>> > Also,in hd properties,you should'nt have C: compressed
>>
>> > "John Wright" wrote:
>>
>> > > I'm running XP home w/ SP2 on a Dell Dimension 8100 w/ 768 MB of RAM.
>> > > I
>> > > reformatted in January and my machine was running well for six weeks
>> > > or so,
>> > > after which it started slowing down and acting buggy. It got
>> > > progressively
>> > > worse until about two weeks ago, when I got an error message saying
>> > > it
>> > > couldn't do whatever I was trying to do because the hard drive was
>> > > almost
>> > > full. I couldn't imagine this could be true, as my drive is 80 GB
>> > > and I
>> > > only have 35GB or so of data on it. The drive's properties also
>> > > claimed it
>> > > was nearly full. I ran the disk cleanup thingy which only freed up a
>> > > few
>> > > MB. I unhid system folders and checked the properties of each folder
>> > > on
>> > > the drive (my C: drive, by the way) and they totalled about 35 MBs
>> > > ("size
>> > > on disc"), just like I expected. Checked System restore, which was
>> > > turned
>> > > off like I thought (which I assume means it's using no space).
>> > > Checked
>> > > paging file, which is set at 2304 MB - a little high, but it's worked
>> > > for
>> > > me fine in the past. Ran Checkdisk, which found nothing, and
>> > > Scandisk,
>> > > which found and fixed one orphaned.tmp file with no appreciable
>> > > impact.
>> > > Defragged, no help. Ran Seagate's Seatools (the drive is a Maxtor)
>> > > and
>> > > Dell's 32-bit Diagnostics (which scans all the hardware in the
>> > > machine for
>> > > malfunctions). Both gave me a clean bill of health. I cussed at it
>> > > and
>> > > threatened to buy a Mac. Still no help. Compressed the data (via
>> > > the
>> > > checkbox in the drive's properties) which crunched it down to about
>> > > 58 GB
>> > > (from almost 75), and it's running better, but not all that well.
>> > > Since
>> > > then the alleged space used has crept back up to about 61GB, and I
>> > > haven't
>> > > added any data to speak of, just a few e-mails and a teeny-weeny Word
>> > > file
>> > > or two, and the bugginess has gotten worse. If no one can help, I
>> > > might
>> > > have to cuss at it again...- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -
>
> Try : http://windirstat.info/
>