Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Says my Hard Drive is Full, AFTER I Deleted 35Gigs

Aug 8, 2010 5:56PM PDT

I've cleared out a whole lot of stuff I deleted stuff and emptied out my recycle bin.

Then I ran disk clean up and defrag.

I know for a fact the total amount that I have deleted is well over 35gig.

I restarted my computer and it STILL says it is full (only 11 gig left.) pressed F5 to refresh it said 20 gigs... but still does not acknowledge the 15gigs that I removed.

I've read forums of people saying the same thing "vista says my hard drive is full" and people have told them to run disk clean ups etc. to track what extra files they have.

But that does not in any way explain why it says it's full AFTER 35 Gigs have been removed.

Does anyone know why this is? Or how to fix it?

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Re: disc space
Aug 8, 2010 6:31PM PDT
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7591_102-0.html?messageID=3353666#3353666 tells how to start researching the disc space used.

It might take time, but (using more advanced tools like chkdsk and icacls from the command prompt to get access to folders that normally are invisible) it has always been possible to track every single segment of the hard disk in use.

Kees
- Collapse -
At disk cleanup...
Aug 9, 2010 10:04AM PDT

...remove all restore points except the current one...then google for how to manage restore points.

- Collapse -
Vista OS, Hard drive says nearly full, but can't be
Aug 25, 2010 12:07PM PDT

I am another having the problem of a full hard drive. I cannot possibly have the nearly 400gb of files on a 500gb hard drive that Windows Explorers says are there. If they are there I did not put them there. I have Vista Ultimate OS. I have deleted restore points and gained about 60gb more of free space, but that still is far more used space than I can account for. And, withing minutes the space I freed up is quickly filling up again, 4gb in just a few minutes.

The mysterious part of this is that this same computer was used by someone elsein this houshold for 3 years and he never had this problem. I, on the other hand, had the same problem with another Vista Home Premium OS computer before I switched to this one.

Is it possible that I am frequenting some website that has invaded my computer and is usurping my hard drive? I have always had and maintain antivirus software on my computers. One other possibility comes to mind. We have an unsecured home wireless network. Could my computer be accessed by someone that is causing this problem. All efforts to see what is supposedly filling my hard drive have failed.

Incidentally, I have a second 500gb hard drive on this computer and it is not affected.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.