Have Windows 7 54 bit with 300 GB WD HD. AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz Been screaming along great since April 2011. Defraged, disc cleanup mid December. Suddenly today, Jan 2012, get messages that have very little disc space. Disc cleanup and defrag today. Checked volume of all folders and still can account for only about 100GB of space used. Properties of drive indicate only about 8 GB free. I should have about 200 GB free. Only recent change is addition of wireless router adapter and disconn from wired network. Have 0 in System Recovery folder and it's set to 0. I have backed up important files on portable HD to keep my data safe. Anyone know what could cause this? Are there hidden files? What is using up the space?GrafinLupus

Try using www.windirstat.info to verify the space on your drive. It gives you a very nice summary and graphical view of what is taking up space on your disks.Rich Prescott | Infrastructure Architect, Windows Engineer and PowerShell blogger | MCITP, MCTS, MCP Engineering Efficiency @Rich_Prescott Windows System Administration tool 2.0 AD User Creation tool

Is it free? Is is safe? Is it obvious how to use it?GrafinLupus

Free, safe and obvious how to use it.Rich Prescott | Infrastructure Architect, Windows Engineer and PowerShell blogger | MCITP, MCTS, MCP Engineering Efficiency @Rich_Prescott Windows System Administration tool 2.0 AD User Creation tool

Thanks! I'll try it tomorrow and let you know how it went.GrafinLupus

first try CHKDSK and see if there are any file system problems also you could also through more capacity at the problem, I recently grabbed a 2 TB disk for backups Windows MVP 2010-11, XP, Vista, 7. Expanding into Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server, SharePoint, Cloud, Virtualization etc. etc. Hardcore Games, Legendary is the only Way to Play Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

Please explain in detail how to use CHKDSK. Assume I am ignorant except for the fact that I have heard the term before and have a vague recollection of the meaning of it.GrafinLupus

open up My Computer and right click on the C: drive and select properties select the tools tab and click on check now make sure the check box for "automatically fix file system errors" is selected Windows MVP 2010-11, XP, Vista, 7. Expanding into Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server, SharePoint, Cloud, Virtualization etc. etc. Hardcore Games, Legendary is the only Way to Play Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

Thanks. Tried it but got the following popup window: "Windows can't check the disk while it's still in use Do you want to check for hard disk errors the next time you start your computer?" Is there a way to get around this without power down and up again? or: How do I NOT use the c drive and do this now? If I power down and up again how will I know what the result is if I choose "Schedule disk check"?GrafinLupus

click on yes and then reboot the machine may reboot a second time if it finds problems Windows MVP 2010-11, XP, Vista, 7. Expanding into Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server, SharePoint, Cloud, Virtualization etc. etc. Hardcore Games, Legendary is the only Way to Play Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

Thx. TTYL.GrafinLupus

In doing your disk cleanups, have you removed previous System Restore points? These can consume a fair bit of space over time on a system disk.

Thank you. There are no System Restore files. I checked. I deleted a bunch of unnecessary files. Moved some stuff to another HD that I have on the PC. All of my personal files and data are less than 50 GB. The remaining 250 GB is still disapperaing. I ran a tool from a friend called Cleanup.exe that I have been using for years. It doesn't find much since I keep using it. I am running BitDefender and deleted the cache of logs from that, too. It has done a great job of keeping my stuff clean for a couple yaers now. I did find a huge file of CryptnetUrlCache. Almost 8 GB. I can't find it now, even though I didn't try to delete it. I found it mentioned in an XP forum on this site but it doesn't seem to have relevant info. GrafinLupus

a 300GB disk is now close to warranty expiration, so getting a new disk can now get you into 2TB easy. you need a UEFI rig to use the bigger disks for boot Windows MVP 2010-11, XP, Vista, 7. Expanding into Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server, SharePoint, Cloud, Virtualization etc. etc. Hardcore Games, Legendary is the only Way to Play Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

I just built this PC in April 2011. I have built a few but I don't claim to be a genius. The 300 GB HD was fine and only 1/4 full only a couple months ago. Was I duped into buying equipment that is already antiquated? I Have Windows 7 and Adobe Creative Suite 5 Premium which should, together, only use up 26 GB. I only put about 50 GB of files on it myself. That should leave over 200 GB for the remaining stuff. This is a recent problem. It ran fast up until a week ago. If I really must upgrade to a bigger HD can you send me to a site that can explain more about the UEFI rig? I want to learn how to make sure I'm not throwing away more $ needlessly. Maybe I should just put in another 500 GB and put my personal files elsewhere. I'm still baffled by this issue. The programs I have should not fill 300GB. GrafinLupus

RAID is one page I have on the the issue Hard Disk Limits Windows MVP 2010-11, XP, Vista, 7. Expanding into Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server, SharePoint, Cloud, Virtualization etc. etc. Hardcore Games, Legendary is the only Way to Play Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

This still does not answer my question of what is filling the hard drive.GrafinLupus

open up a command prompt as administrator chkdsk /f exit then reboot Windows MVP 2010-11, XP, Vista, 7. Expanding into Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server, SharePoint, Cloud, Virtualization etc. etc. Hardcore Games, Legendary is the only Way to Play Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

open up a command prompt as administrator chkdsk /f exit then reboot Windows MVP 2010-11, XP, Vista, 7. Expanding into Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server, SharePoint, Cloud, Virtualization etc. etc. Hardcore Games, Legendary is the only Way to Play Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

You have spent a lot of time to try to assist me but I am probably at a more basic level than the info you are providing. I do appreciate your patience. I am dedicated to learning this, though. Please elaborate on opening command prompt as admin. I am not successful in doing this. I don't know the steps to get the command window to recognize me as admin. Please provide excruciating detail. I know the computer name and probably the correct password. GrafinLupus

the command prompt is available from start->all programs->accessories right click on the shortcut and chose run as administrator Windows MVP 2010-11, XP, Vista, 7. Expanding into Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server, SharePoint, Cloud, Virtualization etc. etc. Hardcore Games, Legendary is the only Way to Play Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews