why are both my c and d drives showing no space

Please mention the operating system, processor and RAM of your PC. I think it is 64 bits right?

This is the Windows Vista forum, so it's reasonable to assume that the OS is Windows Vista. And in what way are processor and RAM relevant factors?

Kees

So sorry I couldn't reply earlier, this is my info.

Dell XPS 420
Intel Core 2 Duo E 8400 3.00ghz
5GB Ram
Vista Home Premium SP2
32 bit
320 HDD D drive 15 GB (recovery)

The current situation is the same, both drive C and D give me the drive full error, no matter what I delete it makes no or at least very little difference.

I have uninstalled 23 GB in software only to gain 40 MB I have also deleted every thing media wise (37GB of video and photo's) that I can and still nothing. I am running Horizons rollback, so i can keep rolling it back to one date in November when it wasn't as bad but within a day or two it fills up again, even if you turn the pc off it will have 3 or 4 GB less space when you turn it on again.

I can't find any virus or malware and other than doing a clean install which i would rather avoid since I will lose software I would like to keep. I am at a loss as to the reason for all this.

So far, the drive and memory have passed all bench tests.
I am now at 9.71GB on C and 500MB on D

I also have the following back up drives none of which have a problem.

2 x 320GB
1 x 200GB
1 x 2 TB

I am thinking that maybe the hard drive is going bad and just not bad enough yet to fail tests, or I am overlooking something simple, I would appreciate any thoughts on this.

Thanks to everyone in advance

Jaime

I assume you have backed up all your personal files so that if a reinstall becomes necessary, you don't lose them.

As to software, it is inevitable that software will need to be reinstalled, and that's why I keep all my setup CDs, or if I have installed from downloaded setup files, I have backed up those setup files.

You could download and install Belarc Advisor which will inventory your hardware and software, and record the license and serial codes for the software you have, so yu can print that out and then, if ever a reinstall is required, you have the necessary keys and codes at hand.

Have you deleted the Recycle Bin?

Have you run Disk Cleanup? Start > All programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup. After its initial check of compressed files, click the Advanced tab and delete all but the latest System Restore point. Then back to the main tab to clean up all temp files.

That D Drive seems to be a Recovery Drive. What files are being added to that? Whatever they are, they shouldn't be.

Mark

I am all backed up, I won't lose anything of importance really. The software I will lose is the free stuff that can not be reinstalled, but oh well!The D partition is the recovery drive, nothing ever gets put on it, so you can see how frustrating it is to see the full error because if I look at the partition it has nothing more than what should be there.
I do record tv but I save it to the big 2 TB drive
I guess an OS reinstall is looking like the only option. I suppose if it happens again I can put it down to bad drive.
Jaime

Did you try those steps?

Mark

Yes several times, the actual drive shows no files of any large size and I can not for the life of me find anything that adds up to anything like the amount of space that is supposed to be taken up. This sreams of virus but can't find one.
If I have bad sectors on the drive that couldn't be used wouldn't it show a smaller drive capacity ?
This morning after booting up it showed 300 MB left so had to rollit back yet again, I will probably just reinstall at the weekend, it's just annoying that I will lose my GAOTD software they don't allow you to register a second time.
Thanks for your help
Jaime

If my machine is fine and I need space back I might turn off then turn back on SYSTEM RESTORE. It can be a source or consumer of disk space.

Here's an article about the folder in question -> http://forums.techarena.in/vista-help/724347.htm

There's a lot more about this but your posts seem to not mention this folder.
Bob

Thanks for the idea.
I don't use system restore and my backup is to an external drive. This problem with my drives started about 9 weeks ago, unfortunately i didn't notice the drive capacity going down and deleted my older back ups so can't even go back to them to see what may have caused it.
Dell seems to think it's a virus and want me to reinstall the OS I was just trying to avoid it due to some great little freebie programs I have that won't let you reinstall.
I don't see any way round this right now, other than having to roll the PC back every couple of days. I have some free time this weekend and will do a reinstall then.
Thanks
jaime

I read this discussion and I see you didn't find the folder with the content eating the drive space.

Maybe I missed that plus the ideas to use TreeSize Free http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/
CCLEANER as well as turning on System Restore then turning it off.

Seems there is work left to do.
Bob