Losing HD space w/ Windows XP

[MrPunkin]

Okay guys. I am by no means a newb to computers, windows, etc. I have had a computer and done all my own hardware and software upgrades, repair, etc since I was 10. I run XP, two Mac OS X machines, and a FreeBSD server. I think you would understand then my frustration in not being able to address a constant loss of HD space on my XP computer.

I have 4 partitions, plus an external drive. My Windows install resides on my G partition, which is 9GB. I have removed any large programs from my system drive and installed on other drives. The largest application I have is .NET 2, which is a few hundred MB, then a group of small apps, nothing more than a gig or so. I have system restore turned down to only use 200mb max on my system drive. I had 200mb free space the other day, not a ton but whatever, it works. Today I am down to 76mb free space. Where on earth is all my space going!? I have removed all the temp "uninstall" folders in the Windows folder that get created after microsoft updates, as well as cleaned out all old and un-used profile data. I don't have any content in "MyMusic", "MyPhotos", or "MyDocuments". Can someone please point me to a way to diagnose my issue? Thanks.

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[mechBgon]

What's the present size of your Prefetch folder in the Windows directory?

 

[imported_nocturne]

remember, the term bloatware was coined in respect to windows...

 

[MrPunkin]

Thanks mechBgon, I will check that out today on my lunch. I have a hard time believing it will be huge or the long lost space I'm hoping for but at this point anything helps and i'm sure, since I didn't know about prefetching, that it will help a bit.

Can anyone else think of where 5-7GB of space on a system drive can go? Any other places to check?

 

[mechBgon]

1) open up drive G: and begin right-clicking the folders and looking at their Properties. When you find a big one, open it and repeat the process with the sub-folders.

2) scan for rootkits (F-Secure BlackLight scanner is one rootkit detector) and see if something's giving you its own version of reality.

 

[Pulsar]

I didn't see you mention the settings of your swap file.

How large do you allow it to be?

 

[MrPunkin]

I currently let windows manage my swap file. I'll check out that rootkit thing as well. I have done the per-folder search previously to no avail. Its really a mystery to me, but I will continue to look.

 

[Slikkster]

You can try this freeware pie chart disk usage tool.

The unshaded center of the chart is your unused space. Where the shading starts and moves outward are the folders/files closer to the root folder of the drive. As the chart goes further out, you get more sub-folders in the view. Anyway, it's pretty obvious once you see it. Just hover the mouse over any section of the chart, and it will tell you what folder you are in. Once you get a view of what's eating your space, I would use Windows Explorer to get a more detailed look:

http://www.steffengerlach.de/freeware/scn2.zip

 

[imported_nocturne]

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=80511&st=0

Guide about what files you can remove from your windows folder (just don't delete INF folder files, as you never know if you're going to need them).