hard disk constantly filling up

by Raymie64 Nov 9, 2012 6:43AM PST

Hi. I have recently been having problems with my hard drive continuously filling up. I don't know if it's a virus or whatever but one minute I had around 200gigs of space then 500mb! I deleted about 15gigs of films and stuff then noticed it started to fill immediately and very quickly. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Discussion is locked

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The usual are

by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Nov 9, 2012 6:46AM PST

Torrents and more. The poor soul I last helped with this had a machine with a real nasty on it. Even my dad's PC caught "Zero Access" and we had to wipe his machine to get rid of that one.

Let's hope your machine never had torrents on it.
Bob

PS. Grif tells how to find the usual pests at link.
http://forums.cnet.com/7726-6132_102-5098912.html?tag=posts;msg5099421

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gluttonous hard disk

by AthenaDram Nov 9, 2012 6:50AM PST

Does it error that you've reached maximum capacity?

Try starting it in safemode and downloading a free antivirus program (if you don't have one already). The top one that c|net recommends is http://download.cnet.com/Avast-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10019223.html - it says it will take up 92MB if you still have the space

Once the scan is done let us know the results - otherwise it could just be that your hard disk is terminally ill

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hard disk constantly filling up

by Raymie64 Nov 9, 2012 6:56AM PST

I used malwarebytes in safe mode and scanned with avg and advanced system care. All came back clear. Could it just be my hard drive is buggered?

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buggered

by AthenaDram Nov 9, 2012 7:02AM PST

That would be my next best guess

Unfortunately, hard drives do die - often when they're very young, or very old - How old/young is your machine?

If it's a crafty virus/malware you might have to, like R. Profitt says, wipe it just to be sure - Fortunately (or is it unfortunately?) you have nothing to lose if you have a dwindling hard drive:

Case A) You leave it, and your hard drive implodes on itself

Case B) You wipe it, isn't a hardware problem, you have a fresh hard drive to work with

Just make sure to get your important stuff off the machine first!

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buggered

by Raymie64 Nov 9, 2012 7:07AM PST

It's an old hard drive (2007) and have been adding bits to my computer like graphics card, RAM etc so that's probably the likely case. Might just buy a new one?

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Luck

by AthenaDram Nov 9, 2012 7:16AM PST

Sounds like a good direction - you're on the lucky end of things though! Hard drives have grown to be pretty cheap since 2007

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thanks

by Raymie64 Nov 9, 2012 7:20AM PST

Thanks for the advice. Keep you updated incase that doesn't work

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Or you run torrents.

by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Nov 9, 2012 7:08AM PST

And those apps which will pass all scans can nab a chunk of diskspace almost unannounced. I've lost count of issues torrent users bring to me.

hard disk constantly filling up

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