what happened to my hard drive space?

5 Responses to “what happened to my hard drive space?”

1. ihayter13 Says:
   December 22nd, 2009 at 01:23

   Run a disk clean-up and see how many temporary files and temporary internet files on the hard drive. You might also be running a program that retains data on hard drive like some dvd burning programs

2. Mat Says:
   December 22nd, 2009 at 02:05

   Try using TreeSize to determine where all the space on your hard drive is going.

   http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml

3. Jeremy L Says:
   December 22nd, 2009 at 02:07

   Your harddrive is like a filing cabinet. The more files you put in, the more room you run out of. You can only store so many files before that “filing cabinet” is out of room.

   Unforunately your question is too vague. It’s entirely possible that you have downloaded so many things that you have run out of room. Installing programs takes up harddrive space. A virus can “eat” space up by creating tons of dummy files. There are a number of reasons you could be out of room.

   Let it be known that media files (movies, music) will very, very quickly take up all your room as they are huge in comparison to other files.

4. Serenity Says:
   December 22nd, 2009 at 02:17

   Yes, it most certainly can. It sounds like you have allowed malware to infect your new system. Peer 2 Peer applications are notoriously infected with malware. It sounds like your torrents application downloaded malware which is quickly downloading files at a rapid rate and filling up your hard disk, or at least giving the appearance of doing so. It could be a totally off figure, which the malware has convinced the system is correct. It may be correct, or it may be the malware wanting to convince the system it is full.

   Are you running any security software on your system? I am sure at least trial security software was installed, but have you allowed it to update the malware signatures, which are the code that blocks or deletes malware as it comes into your system?

   As you just received the system I recommend you use your recovery disk to take it back to the state it was in when you first received the system. If you wish, you can backup and data you have downloaded, but I really don’t recommend this because you do not know where the infections is in your system, and you could just reinfect when you restored the data to your newly restored system, recreating the infections at the point of factory defaults. When you do this, you would need to have some serious help in cleaning the infection up, as you would no longer be able to use your recovery disks to do so for you. They would be corrupt and suspicious at best.

   I am sorry to give you such bad news, but it is the truth none the less. I mean well, and I don’t have anything against Peer 2 Peer file sharing and swapping, as long as it is legal.

   When running Peer 2 Peer applications, you need to run the strongest security suite you can afford. Don’t use the freeware stuff because it simply is not strong enough to protect a system in a Peer 2 Peer situation. The free security software is good for the average user, where they are not engaging in dangerous activities. I personally prefer the Panda internet Security Suite, but thats me. Everyone has their own preference, so just do your home work and be sure it is what you want before you install it because it is difficult to get most firewalls and anti-virus program properly removed when you no longer want them. Anti-spyware programs are easy to remove, and you can run multiple programs of that type. You can only run one firewall and one anti-virus at a time, and even having the remnants of one left on a system when another is installed causes system instability at best, and crashes which require reinstallation of the OS at worst.

   To take your system back to the state it was in when you bought it, boot from your recovery CD or DVD, and then select Repair. If you can afford, buy a new installation disk and perform a clean install because all the horrid trial software will be returned to your system too.

   Anyway, sorry you had to experience this, good luck and please have a nice evening.

5. dstud395 Says:
   December 22nd, 2009 at 02:54

   Run Disk Cleanup

   Start / All Programs / Accessories / System Tools / Disk Cleanup.

   Make sure you go to the far tab and delete your old restore points; they take up a lot of space.

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