Unknown Files Taking Up Hard Drive Space

Hello all, I have a HP ProBook 4520s and the hard drive is 250GB's, and im constantly running out of space and I keep getting windows complaining that im running out etc.

I used two programs to help decipher what is taking up all this space, the screen shots are attached.

My specifications are:
Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit
HP ProBook 4520s
Intel Core i3 CPU M 380 @ 2.53Ghz
2GB's RAM
(I tried using the "insert image" feature but the photos didnt show up).
http://postimage.org/image/dyul9utb9/
http://postimage.org/image/53nrzgsl3/
http://postimage.org/image/rmugu5tbl/
http://postimage.org/image/wxsvolmc3/17f678d9/
We at first thought of getting a newer hard drive that is bigger but we want to figure out what is truely taking up all this space. As you can see in the photos there is a image that shows the screenshot of "unscanned space" on my C drive. And in the Jdisk program the results show that 47GB's of space is taken up, but what is taking up the whole hard drive?. Oh and I also attached a screenshot of my actual hard drive, there is only 28.6GB's free in space. I have tried to compress and delete as much files as possible so far. Thanks in advance. for any tips or suggestions.

Sure, I'll ask:

What is the partition scheme of the drive? Have you tried booting with a live Linux CD to see if there are hidden partitions Windows can't see?

What does Windows Explorer show as free space? Is the drive actually partitioned into 1 250gb chunk? What does Disk Management show? (if you don't know where it is, just search for Disk Management under the Windows 7 start button, it'll say "Create and format hard disk partitions", or just do start/run/diskmgmt.msc)

check system restore...

start>control panel>system>advanced system settings>system protection tab>then higlight your 'c' drive and hit configure....move the slider to 1 or 2%, more than likely it is set higher, and it will keep taking HD space with each restore image, when set real high, it just uses tons of HD space, TONS......

My laptop was having same problem, for some reason the slider was @30%, I had so many restore images, you only need that last 2 or 3 images...regained OVER 30GB of HD space....

If you have done this, my bad...

There are other ways to get more HD space, ie, move temp internet files to another volume, if you don't hibernate then you can remove hiberfil and you can also set your swap file to another volume, all these moves will gather more chunks of valuable HD space...

laterzzz.........

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrDigital

What does Windows Explorer show as free space? Is the drive actually partitioned into 1 250gb chunk? What does Disk Management show? (if you don't know where it is, just search for Disk Management under the Windows 7 start button, it'll say "Create and format hard disk partitions", or just do start/run/diskmgmt.msc)

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http://postimage.org/image/hhbtpj99z/

http://www.sharkyforums.com/

Here is the screenshot of my C drive showing that I only have 28GB's left on that drive: http://postimage.org/image/wxsvolmc3/

Normally I would make the images viewable on this thread without having to click a link, but i couldnt upload them directly so I had to go to a site and link them and then post them here. Thank you all for all the suggestions so far.

Again, is swap file on c? How big is it? Make it fixed @2048/2048

Do you hibernate? If not, disable hibernation in power options and administraive tools/services and remove the Hiberfil file from the "C" drive (HUGE file),,,

Move Internet temp to another volume...

Do the system restore check like i suggested...this one is probably the one causing constant loss of HD space...

All this will take you maybe 10 minutes, and depending on how things sort out, you should get a lot of extra space for that drive....

I can flat out guarantee you will find significant HD space...and it leaves you time to have a beer and enjoy your extra space, oh, and report back when done...:)

Laterzzzzz...............

Quote:

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Originally Posted by voodoochild16

Normally I would make the images viewable on this thread without having to click a link, but i couldnt upload them directly so I had to go to a site and link them and then post them here. Thank you all for all the suggestions so far.

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Added the image to your post voodoo.

If you want to add images to a post in the future use the img tags.

Code:

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ie:
[img]http://s13.postimage.org/6cqct1jyt/Capture4.png[/img]

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by bldegle2

Again, is swap file on c? How big is it? Make it fixed @2048/2048

Do you hibernate? If not, disable hibernation in power options and administraive tools/services and remove the Hiberfil file from the "C" drive (HUGE file),,,

Move Internet temp to another volume...

Do the system restore check like i suggested...this one is probably the one causing constant loss of HD space...

All this will take you maybe 10 minutes, and depending on how things sort out, you should get a lot of extra space for that drive....

I can flat out guarantee you will find significant HD space...and it leaves you time to have a beer and enjoy your extra space, oh, and report back when done...:)

Laterzzzzz...............

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So everytime i hibernate it makes the restore thingy bigger?. Anyways I lowered the system restore thing down like you told me to and i now have 212GB's of free space, thank you so much for that suggestion!. Here is the "after" photo of the "unknown space" section in the program Spacesniffer that shows that "unknown space" as only 20GB's now. I set the system restore thing to 10%, as it wouldnt let me set it at 2%.
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/5185/alastp.jpg

I have never heard of something like this kind of problem, it's totally new to me, thanks again!.

U R entirely welcome...

the hibernation part is not directly connected to the System restore, it is a separate but similiar thang, but since you are not running with an SSD, the suggestion to disable and delete the Hiberfil from the 'C' drive is mute. The Hiberfil just allows sleep keeping all your data, open programs, and windows intact when it wakes up, just like nothing happened...

However, it remains an option as you fill up the drive with more 'stuff', you may need to 'purge' again to eke out the last smidgen of usable HD space...

I am surprised you can only go to 10% on System Restore slider, but, hey, it worked...all the rigs I have worked with lately allows the slider to go all the way to 0%, whatever...

Go for it...

laterzzzz...........