Are there any XP utilities that will help me recover lost disk space?

[Arkitech]

I'm running XP Pro with a primary drive of about 115 gig but for some reason my space keeps disappearing. I don't if I'm being hacked or attacked by viruses. I've scanned my machine countless times with anti-virus and spyware, I have a hardware firewall installed to stop intrusions but I still keep losing free space. Previously I had the system restore function enabled on my machine but even after I turned it off I still lose space.


Anyone know what might cause an issue like this?

Do you know of any tools that can help me find or recover my missing drive space?

 

[Lonyo]

Try Treesize to find out what's taking up space and where.

 

[gorcorps]

It's the little built in tool called drivecleaner or something like that. Go to your system tools menu in the start menu. It should be there. That has freed up a lot of space on my system by running that every so often.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

if you have norton, see if it is secretly hiding your deleted files in Norton Protected Recycling Bin

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: gorcorps
It's the little built in tool called drivecleaner or something like that. Go to your system tools menu in the start menu. It should be there. That has freed up a lot of space on my system by running that every so often.

Which OS?

 

[BlueWeasel]

Originally posted by: EagleKeeper

Originally posted by: gorcorps
It's the little built in tool called drivecleaner or something like that. Go to your system tools menu in the start menu. It should be there. That has freed up a lot of space on my system by running that every so often.

Which OS?

I assume he's referring to Disk Cleanup in XP (under Start -- Accessories -- System Tools).

 

[gorcorps]

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel

Originally posted by: EagleKeeper

Originally posted by: gorcorps
It's the little built in tool called drivecleaner or something like that. Go to your system tools menu in the start menu. It should be there. That has freed up a lot of space on my system by running that every so often.

Which OS?

I assume he's referring to Disk Cleanup in XP (under Start -- Accessories -- System Tools).

That's the one. I'm pretty sure it was w/ 2000 pro also, but that was some time ago and I can't really remember. I freed up a good 6-7 gigs on each drive after running that. It took a few hours for the full effect, but it was worth it.

 

[MustISO]

Under XP you should also check the System Restore tab under System Properties. Personally, I turn that option off.

 

[ActuaryTm]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
Try Treesize to find out what's taking up space and where.

Agreed (or similar product/solution).

Even a simple search using the Windows shell should find where said storage space is being utilized most. The "why" behind the files presence should be what is sought, and not simply their removal.

 

[mundane]

CCleaner can also free up some disk space - first time I ran it, managed to find over a gig of crap to clean.

 

[Arkitech]

I finally solved the problem, it turns out whenever I would burn DVDs in Nero from a mounted drive Nero creates a temporary img file. I had about 40 gigs in temp files, but they were hard to find because they were under an unusual directory. (not the typical program files directory).

So in short problem solved.

thanks for the advice