disk free space constantly decreasing...?! BOOTVIS!

[indome]

Hello, everyone...

I have a strange problem:

I have a 80gb drive with 2 partitions, one is 10gb for the C: drive (system files and MS office apps only). I have about 2.5gb of free space on that partition. After about an hour or two of web browsing, I get a "low disk space" warning on my C: drive and my whole system slows waay down. I reboot and the whole 2.5gb magically reappears on my C: drive. Other partition is unaffected.

Steps I've taken:

1. At first I thought my temporary internet files folder was set too high, but it's only at 500mb. Still, I moved it to the other, larger, partition. Same thing happens.

2. Ran a virus check with Norton latest definitions and had Spybot Search & Destroy (with latest update) do its thing, but turned up nothing.

3. Must be the virtual memory settings, then. Set it to "let Windows manage my settings" and also tried setting the page file to 1.5gb (I have 1gb of system RAM). Problem still persists either way.

4. Reinstalled XP Pro. Not fresh install, just reinstalled over existing. Trying to avoid hassle of formatting and reinstalling absolutely everything...

The problem only seems to occur when I'm browsing on IE6, I haven't noticed if simply running programs also causes this issue. This is about the extent of my tech knowledge...I'm new to these forums and would appreciate any help from any wise techie gurus out there...

Thanks!

System specs (if it helps):
Asus A7n8X deluxe
AMD Athlon XP 2600+
1gb DDR333 RAM
80gb drive divided into a 10gb C: partition and a 70gb G: partition (second HDD and 2 optical drives assigned drive letters in between)
XP Pro

 

[earthling]

I would run disk clean up, and disk defragmenter, if you haven't ran them already. These programs may solve the problems you are having.

 

[indome]

thanks for the tip, will try and hope it works...

 

[indome]

Okay, I think I figured out what is causing the problem.

After running Speed Disk, I noticed in the post defrag report that the file with the most fragments was "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\LogFiles\WMI\trace.log"

I navigated to the file and sure enough, I observed the size of "trace.log" grow proportionately to the amount of disk free space I was losing. So the thing is...does anybody know what the heck this file does, why is it doing what it's doing and what I need to do to fix the situation? Windows will not let me simply delete the file, says "it is being used by another person or program"

Thanks!

 

[ahurtt]

Did you try to read the contents of the trace file? Obviously something is causing a lot of output to that log. Find out what it is writing to the log file and at least then you've identified the problem. Post us another follow-up with some of the contents of the trace log file.

 

[ahurtt]

Try this. Go into the Start Menu -> Administrative Tools -> Performance.
In the Performance applet, open down the Performance Logs and Alerts menu. Then clickon Trace Logs.
Is the log file in question listed here? Try and disable it or remove it or otherwise alter its settings to take up less space.

 

[indome]

I finally found the answer Googling around at http://infoprosjoint.net/ij5/archive/topic/2806-1.html

A couple weeks ago, I ran MS Bootvis to optimize my boot up time. It does this by logging and analyzing boot up activity. Apparently, Bootvis kept logging ALL system activity even after boot up. Open Bootvis, click "stop logging", problem solved.

Thanks for your help!

 

[indome]

NOT AGAIN!!!

Well, I sure am at my wit's end...

Although I have deleted the trace.log file and uninstalled Bootvis, XP recreates the trace.log every time I reboot and the same problems keeps happening again! I have totally eradicated all vestiges of Bootvis from my system, even going through the registry and eliminating any reference to Bootvis and I just can't get rid of that stupid trace.log file.

Can anyone out there who understands Bootvis help?

 

[lobadobadingdong]

I ran bootvis on my box, that log file doesn't exist on my machine. sounds like a runaway application or virus of some kind to me. does your router create a log file on this machine? are you running a firewall that logs traffic? I'm more ap to suspect that than anything, as the only trace.log files I've everseen where tracedumps and/or network traffic analyzers. what are the contents of the log file?

 

[indome]

I'm a student on a university T1 connection, so I'm not too sure about what's going on in the network (router/firewall settings). But I do know my problem is definitely with Bootvis...

When I run Bootvis and select "Stop Tracing" under the "Trace" menu, I am able to delete the file. Otherwise, XP gives me the "this file is in use by another program" message. The problem is that Bootvis seems to start tracing again every time I reboot. I need it to stop tracing for good.

I tried opening the trace.log file but got a "this program has stopped responding" error in Notepad.

Thanks for trying to help, though.

Happy Thanksgiving all!