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General discussion

Running Out of Space for NO Reason!

Sep 13, 2010 5:24AM PDT

My computer is about a year old. It runs on Windows7 64bit. Problem is, I don't do much on it except surf the net a lot, some Photoshop work, and a game or two.

My C drive keeps running out of space. Of the 150GB that I had, there's a mere 19GB remaining. I'm sure my installations and files didn't do that. Heck, I hardly have any music on my system...and no movies. So why does the space keep going down? Is it being held up by something, and how can I clear it?

Thanks, any help is much appreciated/

Discussion is locked

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Download and run
Sep 13, 2010 9:08AM PDT

a free application called windirstat it will list all directories(folders) and files on your selected drive and show you their size and the size of any subfolders and files they contain.
WARNING: Be very carefull not to delete any files or folders unless you are very sure what they contain and what effect they have on your system viability.

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Tree size free
Sep 13, 2010 5:15PM PDT

I prefer Tree Size over WinDirStat

You can see which folders and files occupies what space and find out which one to delete. I suspect a virus though, it happened to me 2 years ago and I had to back up and reformat my machine to remove it. But try Microsoft Security Essentials and see if they can see the virus.

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Maybe system restore?
Sep 13, 2010 5:36PM PDT

Thanks...

But I doubt it's a virus. Kaspersky does a good job at picking up on the smallest of threats. It began (awkwardly) running out of space just days after I bought it.

I read somewhere that Windows7 creates "back-up" or "system restore" versions of itself too often, which hogs space. Any idea how I can look into that?

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Sure......use Google
Sep 13, 2010 11:58PM PDT

Goggle>>>>>>>system restore windows 7

Goggle>>>>>>>windows backup windows 7

You'll find how to turn them on/off/modify space used.....etc.

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try this
Sep 14, 2010 5:54AM PDT

try to google "registry cleaner download"
try also " tuneuputilities download"
try "ccleaner download"

download all three and run and i guess it would help

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Not recommended.
Sep 14, 2010 5:57AM PDT

of the 3 utilities you offered, 2 of them could cause more harm than good.

Only CCleaner is generally recommended here. Registry Cleaners and System "Optimisers" are not.

Mark

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win7 out of space
Aug 10, 2011 3:46AM PDT

You might also check your restore point settings, it can be taking several gigs of space, that is stored where you will never see it. also your pc may be setup to hybernate and that will create a large file as well, if you don't put your pc into hybernate turn that off

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memory space
Aug 10, 2011 2:50PM PDT

I've heard that if you surf the internet a lot and buffer things (movies, videos, etc) even if you're not downloading it directly into your computer, the memory space is taken up... Not sure if it's true but that's what I hear..