Hard Drive Space... what is filling it up?

[David]

Alright, I am most likely over looking something but right now my math and the computer math is not adding up.

What I mean is that my hard drive claims that 595 GB has been used and I have 316 GB free.....

Hard Drive Space.jpg

I did not think that I have that much data on the drive so I broke it down and the math just does not add up.

C drive.jpg

Here is the break down:
Apps folder - 0 bytes
Brother folder - 3.73 mb
Dell folder - 816 kb
Drivers folder - 7.37 gb
Intel folder - 44 kb
LocalStorage folder - 32 kb
Perflogs - 0 bytes
Program Files folder - 3.83 gb
Program Files (x86) folder - 8.55 gb
SadpLog folder - 12 kb
SmartSound Software folder - 24.4 mb
Temp folder - 12 kb
UnrealTournament folder - 14.7 gb
Users folder - 158 gb
Windows folder - 31.9 gb
IFRToolLog file - 3 kb.

I am not a math wiz.. but the above des not total the 595 gb that the computer said that is used. So what is happening to my hard drive space?

[David]

Well after doing some reading and after a referral from a reputable source I downloaded a program called WizTree to see what is taking up the space...

wiztree.jpg

System Volume Information folder is the elephant in the room. I guess I can reduce this by changing the system restore space.

restore.jpg

What do you recommend? What should I change it to or if I should?

[Hermskii]

Mine is set to use half the drive too but it doesn't. Erase the backups and start over ever once in a while. What is you virus scan? Some virus store crap in that folder you have.

[David]

Mine is set to use half the drive too but it doesn't. Erase the backups and start over ever once in a while. What is you virus scan? Some virus store crap in that folder you have.

I have Avast and that folder is 698.3 mb.

I reduces the amount of space for the system restore to 11%/100 gb. Now I have 572 gb of free space instead of 316 gb.

Good, Bad, indifferent? Yes I freed up some hard drive space but did I leave enough room for system restore to be effective? From what I have read, this should be fine and having too much room in a system restore is a waste.

[EvilGrins]

As an American male, which I'm assuming you are, in this chaste yet decadent society in which we live... I suspect the most likely thing filling your hard drive is the specific one thing you neglected to admit you have.

[David]

As an American male, which I'm assuming you are, in this chaste yet decadent society in which we live... I suspect the most likely thing filling your hard drive is the specific one thing you neglected to admit you have.

Hahahaha.

I had a juvenile response to that, but in a humorish/light hearted/fun loving way. (I do have some pictures of your MOM) But I digress.

Once I reduced the size of the system restore, it freed up 256 gb... and EvilGrins no porn on the computer. I love and respect my wife, and I love and respect my daughters and I would like to keep them, so no porn; and besides I prefer women to leave some things to my imagination. Show too much and you are no longer an attractive mystery. You are just there and that is no fun.

[EvilGrins]

Porn? Did I say anything about porn?? Clearly someone has it on the mind to make such an assumption.

Just a few? She's done so much though!

[David]

Porn? Did I say anything about porn?? Clearly someone has it on the mind to make such an assumption.

Just a few? She's done so much though!

You are correct about one thing, I did make an assumption. With your words that you chose carefully earlier, I did assume the likely topic of what you were hinting about.

It does not mean that it is on my mind. I just added 2+2 and I thought it equaled 4, but as we know that is not always correct.
http://www.businessinsider.com/2--2-doe ... l-4-2014-6

Have fun, enjoy, and play on.

[Dr.Flay]

Nice to see how you went from problem to solution, and indeed spotted the biggest space-hog.

There are many more culprits for hogging space, so...

Some other candidates for cleaning:
Windows Hotfix installers - Once an update is installed you should never need to uninstall it, so these are safe to get rid of.
You can remove these with Windows own disk cleanup option, or with CCleaner.

Fragmentation - Often only considered for speed, but defragging a large partition can often reclaim a few GB (this is why I recommend defragging SSD occasionally)
Windows own defrag will rarely finish because as soon as anything changes, it restarts from the beginning.
Piriform Defraggler or Auslogic Disk Defrag will both complete the task, and do it better.
https://www.piriform.com/defraggler/builds
http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/

I like tools that show the disk contents as a pie-chart or as blocks of different sizes. This gives you a quicker idea of where to look.

A good selection here.
http://www.howtogeek.com/113012/10-best ... indows-pc/

Everyones favourite system cleaner "Piriform CCleaner" can also be used to clear even more temp files and trash (includes Antivirus Temp files)
https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/builds
https://singularlabs.com/software/ccenhancer/

[a nameless entity]

I went and got the free program "Defragler" quite a while ago, because I have been having a problem where Windows defrag does not defragment the whole disk.
However Defragler failed also.

I deleted a large no longer played game's folder yesterday to make more room on my C drive, and then tried defragler again. It still reports that drive C is "healthy", but won't get the job done. Windows always fails too. However the report from windows seems to indicate that the fragmented files all live in the system restore folder. I have created a new restore point, and was wondering if I just delete all of the older restore points, will that possibly make it possible for either of these programs to finally defrag the disk nice and neatly?

I ask this question because the area that wouldn't defragment originally was in a game's folder that I downloaded via a torrent program. The game folder's contents were strewn all over the hard drive, and could not be neatened up with defragging. Even removing the folder, defragging, and restoring from a backup would not seem to work.
But now the problem area is elsewhere.

[Dr.Flay]

If it is reaching the end but you still see some fragmentation, that will be locked files.
Some of these are things like the Master File Table "MFT", Pagefile, recovery data, folder markers and AV temp files.

Defrag tools can disable one part of the recovery system while in use (VSS)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Copy

Make sure you try running the defrag by right-clicking and run as admin.
Some locked files can be defragged in Safemode because the system will not be using it.

You can also go to the files tab and manually defrag a file. If you click on a red block it will also highlight the files in the list.

Folder markers are a pain, and I tend to do just what you suggest. I move the folder to another partition and back again.
I always partition all drives, so I always have some way to tidy them (habit I picked up in the Amiga days)

I have several defrag tools installed because they are small.

CCleaner Enhancer adds a lot more cleanup options to CCleaner, eg. delete old AV temp files.

NOTE: No 2 defrag tools will move all the same things in the same way.
Some will move all files to the beginning and some don't. Most will let you choose.
Some will decide that a file is not fragmented enough to bother with (settings usually available)

If you try the Auslogics one, scroll down the page and get the portable version.
http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/

Some other defrag tools worth trying (all small and free)
https://rejzor.wordpress.com/powerdefrag/
http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/
http://www.mydefrag.com