Help me techies!

[Fixated]

I keep losing HD space. I have over 6 GB the other month, and now I'm at 3.5. I've been cleaning things out, but here is what's weird: I'll delete a lot and be up to 4, then the next time I start up the computer it's down again, without anything significant occuring. What's going on?

[Maine-i-acs]

1. More details needed

Make and specs of PC, operating system, RAM,
Any other users? Got a firewall? Using Broadband or dialup?

Your OS might be losing track of the data on the disk. The CHKDSK utility with the /f switch might help. Back up your data onto CDRW media soon in case this is the beginning of a HD or OS failure!

[Fixated]

2. ......

1.7 Ghz P4, 392 MB SDRAM, GeForce 2 Ti, Windows 98, no other users. Cable modem, and I recently got a free trial of ZoneAlarm to test out the firewall.

[Submariner]

6. Do a scan disk followed by a defrag

to clean up your drive.

[einsteins stein]

3. ignore

question asked and answered

[Fixated]

5. .....

I've actually witnessed within minutes the HD space decreasing after I cleared some up.

[ronatchig]

4. not a techie but

are you emptying your trash file? recycle bin)
Open my computer, right click c drive and click on properties then
click on disk clean up this will enable you to empty the recycle bin and temp file .
It works that way on win 98 2nd version anyway

[trotsky]

7. Do a search on the hard drive.

Go to the advanced properties of the search, and specify you want to find files that are larger than 3 MB. That should cover any MP3s somebody might be downloading. If you find a bunch of unidentified files meeting that criteria, and you don't know what they are, post some of the results here and we might be able to help.

[trotsky]

8. Another possibility

Do you use McAfee VirusScan Online? I have heard reports that the latest version creations gigabyte-sized temp files readily. I don't know if McAfee has a hotfix for it yet or not, but contact their tech support for help.

[Don_G]

9. Have You Done An Anti-Virus Scan?

I'm wondering if a worm or a trojan might be replicating itself on your HD.

[Bossy Monkey]

10. What's your antivirus package?

This has been addressed before, and has to do with a file on either Norton or McAfee growing exponentially for no good reason. I figure it's probably Norton, as I have McAfee and am not having the problem. I'll search the archives and google it and see if I can find the last time this came up.

PS: You might have better success if you put something other than "....." in the subject line of your replies. Just a guess.

[Fixated]

12. .....

I have McAfee. I have looked for the massive temp files I heard about, but I don't think that was the problem.

[Bossy Monkey]

13. .....

Here's the last time it came up. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=162208
As I said, I have McAfee and haven't had a problem. Sorry, no further suggestions

[Maine-i-acs]

11. You also might have a Trojan

Someone could have access to your drive and then is using it to either download or mass email or launch a DOS attack.

Run SpyBot Search and Destroy if you can find a copy - it's free.

[boxster]

14. Could be the Windows swap file (virtual memory).

That would account for large swings. Note the size of a file called WIN386.SWP. The next time your computer seems to have dropped a ton of hard drive space, check it again. It's also referred to as "virtual memory".

If that turns out to be the case, you can set the swap file to a static size, instead of letting Windows maintain it.

Here's a document on it (not mine): http://www.completeclinic.com/sn_thrashing.html

Another possibility, as people have mentioned, is a virus. Update your virus definitions and run a full system scan. Viruses can eat hard drive space very quickly.