I'm losing Hard Disk space rapidly

flamingdts

flamingdts

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I'm not a computer wiz when it comes to complex stuff, but I've realized I've been losing hard disk space rapidly. I downloaded several softwares to help me locate the problem, and it seems like it is in the local settings folder, under application data. I'm losing about 0.01 GB per minute.

I'm not too sure as of yet, but it seems like the Opera browser could be eating up my space. Does anyone have any advice or knowledge as to reasons to decreasing hard disk space?
 
Sounds like cache files. Either from browsing the net, or possibly some other program. Check what you have open when it's happening.
 
10MB getting eaten every minute doesn't sound right (600MB an hour). Can you isolate the folder in which this is happening?

A lot of viruses will save log files to the local settings folder, is your computer acting weird in any way? What kind of anti-virus protection do you have?
 
you might wanna boot your computer in safe mode and run a virus scan there are some viruses that can do that
 
Use Spacemonger to visually see what is taking up your jiggawatts.

http://www.sixty-five.cc/download/

o5oq9.gif
 
I have AVG and zone alarm. I would occasionally use malwarebytes anti malware.

I seem to have isolated the files (thanks to treesize) to Opera and/or the Temp files in local settings. I'm not sure why the cache folder is increasing rapidly though. However, I'm 100% positive the issue resides in local settings, at least that's where the size increase seems to be occuring.

I've done a virus check and everything is clean, at least with my current anti virus programs.
 
So it's the Opera cache folder doing it? Or are there other folders in local settings that have this issue?

Unfortunately I only used opera a couple times so I don't got any ideas. As long as this is happening in the opera cache folder probably not a virus.

Might be an obvious question but have you rebooted? Is it happening after a reboot before you start up opera?
 
Well it has actually happened before, though I think I failed to notice it. However, yesterday I have at least 2 GB space left on my Hard disk, but today a warning popped up notifying me that I have 185 MB left. I popped up CCleaner, and it cleared 7 GB for me. Now I cleared several other useless files, and I have 13.4 GB.

I think the Opera folder is doing it. Whenever I run CCleaner now (in between around half an hour intervals), I would remove around 24,663 KB of Opera internet caches.
 
flamingdts said:
Well it has actually happened before, though I think I failed to notice it. However, yesterday I have at least 2 GB space left on my Hard disk, but today a warning popped up notifying me that I have 185 MB left. I popped up CCleaner, and it cleared 7 GB for me. Now I cleared several other useless files, and I have 13.4 GB.

I think the Opera folder is doing it. Whenever I run CCleaner now (in between around half an hour intervals), I would remove around 24,663 KB of Opera internet caches.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a virus. When you ran your scanner, did you run it at startup and in safe mode? No browser should be using that much space up so quickly.

Also, try using a different browser for awhile and see if Opera is still eating all your gigabytes. If it is, then you've definitely got some kind of weird virus going on.
 
do you have Win7? if not you can use the predicament as an excuse to format and upgrade to Win7.
 
Anyone recommend any other anti viruses I could use to identify the problem?
 
You really have to isolate the folder where the space is being eaten up before you can determine what's going on. If its in the opera cache it's probably not a virus, anywhere else and it could be.
 
No Limit said:
You really have to isolate the folder where the space is being eaten up before you can determine what's going on. If its in the opera cache it's probably not a virus, anywhere else and it could be.
Click to expand...

Ok this whole thing is getting ridiculously complicated. Does anyone know some other clean up programs I could use?

I'm not even sure it's opera, but I do know I've lost a bit less than half a gb today. Is it normal to lose a hundred megabytes per day assuming you game, internet etc?
 
Google around for "hard drive space analyzer" or maybe someone here can make some recommendations (I havent used one in ages). You do not needs a clean up program. You need to find out what is eating up all your space. The best way to do that is to download a program which will show you which directories are taking up the most space. Once you know the directory we can take it from there (assuming it's really just one directory).

If you have good reason to suspect Opera then the easiest thing for you to do is to back up your settings (bookmarks, etc) and uninstall it. See if the problem goes away. If it doesn't atleast now you know it's not opera.
 
I think he already did get a program like that.
 
Vegeta897 said:
I think he already did get a program like that.
Click to expand...

Yes, but he still hasn't identified what folder is causing the issue (if it is in a single folder). Without that not really much that can be done if virus scanners return clean.
 
picturebefore.png


This is after

pictureafter.png


Seems like something is wrong. At the bottom, I had 25.9 gb remaining, and now I only have 24.5. I lost 1.4 GB.

However, at the top it states I initially had 275,163.3 and then afterwards I have 275,222.2. So according to that, I only lost 58.9 megabytes. Could this be a result of system restore? Though if you look at it the lost of space came from local settings.

Now if you look at this picture. On one side it states I have 26.3 GB remaining, and the other states I have 24.5

picture1gu.png
 
Can you take another before/after picture but with both screenshots showing the application data folder expended?

Pretty much what I'm doing is looking at the before then comparing with after folder by folder. We know it's somewhere in the application data so we just need to identify where. You might also want to expend the microsoft and opera folders in both screenshots if they will fit.

Also, if you could post the time you took each screenshot that would be helpful.
 
There is about a 6-7 hour interval between the two screenshots.

69322606.png


35650244.png


Again, this picture shows two completely different values. One states I have 24gb of free space, the other states I have 22gb.

87932098.png
 
In the first screenshots you posted I missed that you had 2GB of files on the root of your C drive. What files on the root of your C drive are taking up 2GB? If you can't see it then it's probably the page file which will grow and shrink as you use your computer. The maximum of how much it will grow will depend on how much ram you have.

Opera is taking up some space but not enough to see the space decrease you are seeing. So Im starting to suspect it's the page file. Can you do this as a test. Take a screen shot of the TreeSize program on the root of your C drive when you read this then take it again in a day or 2.

Are you really seeing Gigabytes of space taken up (more than 2GB) if you don't clear the cache for a few days?
 
Ok, here is a screenshot of today.

26758973.png


I now only have 22.1 Gb remaining, from the initial 26.
 
Your computer is like the human body.

If you don't feed it, it will start eating itself.

You must download more porn for it to eat.
 
Well your computer is obviously a fat, greedy monster if my pictures don't satisfy its hunger.
 
Vegeta, my computer is acting all weird right now too. Send me some nekkid pix plz.
 
Doesn't make any sense. Either that program is screwed up or it's system restore doing it. By default with your hard drive size I think system restore can eat upwards of 10GB. But I dont know that it should fluctuate that greatly.
 
No Limit said:
Doesn't make any sense. Either that program is screwed up or it's system restore doing it. By default with your hard drive size I think system restore can eat upwards of 10GB. But I dont know that it should fluctuate that greatly.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking it's system restore too. Viruses don't randomly fluctuate hard disk space, they take it up.
 
That's not always the case. A lot of time they will be designed to clear out log files once they get to a certain size so it doesn't lock up the entire program. Those files can also be hidden so programs such as the one you are using won't see them. But if you actually had a virus I'm sure you would be seeing other symptoms by now such as seeing popups when browsing the net.
 
No Limit said:
That's not always the case. A lot of time they will be designed to clear out log files once they get to a certain size so it doesn't lock up the entire program. Those files can also be hidden so programs such as the one you are using won't see them. But if you actually had a virus I'm sure you would be seeing other symptoms by now such as seeing popups when browsing the net.
Click to expand...

So should I continue looking into the problem or will this be a constant fluctuating thing?
 
If you don't care about restore points try turning off system restore for a day or 2 and see what happens.
 
FYI the two values 26,000,000 bytes and 24gb are the same... :)
Look at one or the other. Don't confuse yourself or take time to learn 1024 vs 1000.

System restore is a bit of wasted space if you don't need it.
 
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