A interesting problem- help needed

Klo · 13 Apr 2008 at 14:18

I switched on my computer this morning and decided to do a disk defragment (as you do). However, when I analyzed my hardrive, I discovered it looked like this.

Now, I can guarantee you that I have not used that much space. Infact, last time I checked, it was around 78% free space. Somewhere, something is taking up all this space.

Ive done a full virus scan which didn't find anything, and am currently backing up all my data (which will take ages). Whilst writing this, the amount of space on the disc has actually gone down 20mb or so, for no apparent reason. I did use a eraser program to delete a file yesterday, but I can't see that doing that amount of damage, unless its somehow written over my hardrive with 0+1's?

Can anyone help, as I actually have no idea what to do.

AbsenceJam · 13 Apr 2008 at 14:29

Why don't you browse your disk to find out what's using all the space...? Just rclick on various folders till you find the source, be sure to enable viewing hidden folders and OS files.

binaryknight · 13 Apr 2008 at 14:35

download the trial of treesizepro its invaluable for finding files / folders that are hogging space.

it is also possible that the drive has become corrupted and misreporting the size used

fobose · 13 Apr 2008 at 14:36

JdiskReport is a freeware program and should tell you whats taking up all your space.

Rangler · 13 Apr 2008 at 15:08

Do you have system restore turned on.?

If so check what space is allocated to that in system properties.

Netvyper · 13 Apr 2008 at 15:32

can I just drop in an advert for 'spacemonger'

I am in no way affilitated; but its a really nice tool for exactly this issue

There is a trial of the newest version, or an older freeware version. Both work really well.

Klo · 13 Apr 2008 at 17:17

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, but for some reason, its sorted itself out after it finished defragging the drive.

Adrianr · 13 Apr 2008 at 17:41

It wasn't a photoshop scratchdisk file was it? I accidentally took up 140GB in two 69.9GB scratchfiles on my hardrive. It erases them as soon as photoshops closed, but if photoshop crashes during use it can just dump them on the hardrive for you to manually delete.