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19763
Hard Drive keeps indicating near full or full even though I have 114 GB free space still available of 460 GB Hard Drive...
Hello,
I have a Dell Studio 1745 Laptop. Got it a little over three years ago. I have a 460GB hard drive, and have had no problems with really, until a few months ago. One day I was using as usual, and after a while it started slowing down, and momentarily freezing... Eventually I checked to see why it was doing that. I viewed the graphic of the drive, and it was indicating like 15GB left available on the drive, but the recent time before that when I checked, I had around 120 GB left free on the drive. I got worried. I had been downloading files, and doing some work. I thought maybe I had a virus, so I did a complete scan. Found a few things and they were removed. Still had the problem, so I started removing programs I don't use, and deleting old files, stil had the problem. So I did a disc clean, and it cleared out all the way back to the 120 GB of free space. Anyway, to make a long story short, it has been about 4 months, and I have been having to frequently do disk cleans, and defragments, to keep restoring the free space on my hard drive, because it starts creeping up toward full, and slowing down, and freezing momentarily. I also am constantly clearing out the cache in my IE browser and my Google Chrome browser, sometimes that restores some or all of the free space on my drive. Has anyone had or is anyone having this or this type of problem with their hard drive. Has anyone had the problem and gotten it resolved? It is getting to the point where I can't do much at one time on this computer, and that isn't good, I need it for work and personal business. Anyone have advice or suggestions for a fix. Is there some logging going on, that fills up the drive, that I need to turn off? It is crazy, that my drive goes from (now) around 114 GB to 60, 40, 22, 15 GB in just a matter of minutes, or hours, for some reason I don't know about. HELP!!! Please.
- Lawrence -
Dell-Kuldeep M
621 Posts
0
August 15th, 2013 11:00
Hi Lawrence,
Please run the diagnostics. You may try any of the following methods to run the diagnostics:
Or
Delete the contents from the Temporary Folder and Prefetch Folder on your system using the following steps:
Similarly type ‘PREFETCH’ in the Run Open Box to open the Prefetch folder and delete all its contents.
Please share the operating system.
Keep me posted with the results. I will be glad to assist you further.
Lctoliver
9 Posts
0
August 16th, 2013 07:00
Hello Kuldeep,
I followed your instructions. I cannot tell yet if my hard drive is still doing the same thing. I will keep you informed. My operating system is Windows 7.
Thank you for your quick assistance. I hope what I did is the fix for the problem.
- Lawrence -
Lctoliver
9 Posts
0
August 16th, 2013 12:00
Hello Kuldeep,
I just noticed that steps you had me do, did not fix the problem. The drive space still creeps up toward full. I had both my Google Chrome browser and my IE browser open, and after a while, the drive space ha gone from 113 GB to 58GB and shrinking. I'm not downloading anything, the computer is just sitting. What could cause this, you have any idea? I'm getting very frustrated.
Dell-Kuldeep M
621 Posts
0
August 16th, 2013 16:00
Hi Lawrence,
Do you have Microsoft Office 2013 installed on your system?
Whenever you browse the internet, cookies and other information websites is stored on your hard drive; however uses a very low hard drive space.
You may check the windows backup and recovery is not on and utilizing the space.
Note: If you haven't set up backup, you won't see Manage space.
The issue is more likely to be caused by virus duplicating the files that is causing the hard drive space going low that fast.
Keep me posted. I will be glad to assist you further.
Lctoliver
9 Posts
0
August 17th, 2013 07:00
Hello Kuldeep,
I also keep thinking it is a virus. I keep running Microsoft Security Essentials full scan, but have not come up with anything new that has been detected and removed. I did have a virus on earlier (a few months ago) that did what you said. It created duplicate folders and files (shortcuts). After I installed Microsoft Security Essentials, it detected the virus (three of them) and removed them. Maybe that is around the time my problems started. Maybe I haven't been able to completely get rid of it. I do think that the disk space problem occurs when I am using my browsers. I think I got the virus when I copied some files from the computer at work, onto my USB drive, and then copied them onto my laptop. It was a network virus, that replicates itself. I was wondering why all of a sudden I was seeing duplicate folders as shortcuts, and some duplicate files... I was also thinking that I have some logging turned on, that is gone crazy... maybe it is all related to the virus. I will keep you posted. Thanks.
- Lawrence -
Dell-Kuldeep M
621 Posts
0
August 19th, 2013 11:00
Hi Lawrence,
It seems that the virus was not completely removed and is causing the issues.
As per forum guidelines, we will not be able to assist you with virus removal.
I would suggest you to restore the system to factory settings or install a fresh copy of the operating system.
Steps to restore to factory settings: http://dell.to/16payKB
Steps to install windows: http://dell.to/12V8j4Q
Click on the link and chose the operating system.
Note: Please back up all your data before restoring / reinstalling Operating system on the machine. Dell will not be responsible for any data loss/ data back up after operating system reinstallation.
Please feel free to reply for any further assistance. I will be glad to assist you further.
speedstep
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
•
47K Posts
0
August 28th, 2013 06:00
Turn off hibernation
Turn off paging file
Set Event log to max size and overwrite as necessary
Turn off system restore
Download and install Pirform CCLEANER.
Now how much room do you have?
speedstep
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
•
47K Posts
0
August 28th, 2013 06:00
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner