0 bytes of space left on the C: drive

By Calum
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Grand Master

Calum Veteran

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Hi.

Quick Explanation:

My C: Drive has absolutely no space at all (0 bytes) and I cannot uninstall programs, as there is not enough room for them to create temp files. I also cannot create a screenshot as Paint won't save (even to my E: drive) and Photoshop won't load.

Please help me and tell me how I can free up a lot of space (as I did have about 16 GB free and have not put ANY more files on the C: drive since I had that much free :s

I have tried ALL of the Disk Cleanup options and the Disk Defragmentor; none of them clear up anything.

Detailed Explanation:

My laptop was supposed to have 80GB when I bought it, however, I noticed, after I bought it, it had two drives, each at 40GB; thus, I assumed it was either partitioned or there were two seperate drives...anyway, that is beside the point. What is the problem is this:

I orignally put ALL of my files on the C: drive, however, a few months ago my C: drive was getting extremely full. I had about 3 GB of space left, so what I did was took all of my documents, music, pictures, videos, etc and put them all on the E: drive (which was the other 40GB of my laptop). This gave my C: drive a healthy 16GB of free space (or something like that) and my E: drive also had about 20GB of free space.

However, recently, within the last two weeks, I noticed that my C: drive had somehow got really full again, it was in the red and had about 1GB of free space :s, so I tried Disk Cleanup and uninstalling uneeded programs. I did this and it only cleared up about 300MB of space. So I just left it.

Now, I was just innocently browsing the Internet on my laptop on Saturday and I got a pop-up at the bottom telling me my C: Drive was running dangerously low (or something along those lines), so I checked it and it said it had about 200MB free, so I did Disk Cleanup, which added about 245MB of free space and I left it at that.

Today, it told me that I only had 100MB of free space althogether on the Drive! :o So I tried Disk Cleanup which only gave me about 67KB of free space. After that, I tried Disk Defragmenter and that made the problem worse and left me with only 43KB of space left altogether. That's when I got worried, so I tried to uninstall a program to clear up space and it told me it needed about 1,634KB in order to create a temp. file to uninstall the program.

I now look at my C: drive and it tells me there is literally 0 bytes of space left.

This means I cannot uninstall ANY program to free up space and Disk Cleanup also does not clear up much as I have already done it.

Please can ANYONE help me???

I am getting very worried, as it tells me my system may become unstable with lower than 300MB free on the C: drive and System Restore would also not work under 300MB.

I'd be EXTREMELY grateful.

Thank you in advance, and sorry for my lack of computer knowledge.

Calum.

Edited by cJr.
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Grand Master

NienorGT

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Try Delete files directly? (Shift + Delete) this bypass the Recycle Bin

Reduce to low level (~256mb) TEMPORARY the page file?

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Grand Master

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Turn off System Restore and delete some save points?

I think I have done that. I clicked on 'Disk Cleanup > More Options > System Restore and Shadow Copies > Clean up...

That did nothing though for some reason.

Is that right? Or on you on about another thing?

Try Delete files directly? (Shift + Delete) this bypass the Recycle Bin

Thanks, I would like to try that, however, there is nothing on my C: drive apart from the WINDOWS folder and all of the program files (which is why I'm very confused as to why it has gone from 16GB to 0 bytes :s) and I can't delete Program Files without uninstalling the program first... or can I?

Thank you for all your help so far guys. Please keep it coming everyone and hopefully we can sort my urgent problem out.

Edited by cJr.
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Grand Master

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Reduce to low level (~256mb) TEMPORARY the page file?

Sorry, I missed this part. What does it mean though exactly? And how can I do that?

Turn off Hibernation (If Enabled) in Control Panel > Power Options. Well thats where it is in XP, not sure about Vista, if you are using that,

OK thank you. I will try that. I am using Windows Vista Home Premium (and starting to hate it now, after this lol). I am sure I will be able to find how to do this. Will this clear up space for me atm? Or is this just to make sure this doesn't happen again in the future?

(sorry, my knowledge just really isn't that good about Hard Disk Drive stuff lol)

EDIT: OK, I cannot actually find out how to turn off Hibernation in Windows Vista Home Premium. Please can somenbody tell me how and also what it will do in relation to clearing up sapce on my C: drive. Thanks :)

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The Dark Knight

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I noticed in you signature that you are using iTunes. Did you import a lot of WMA tracks recently? If so, then iTunes may be eating up your hdd space, as it converts all wma files to mp3 before importing. Other than that, do as other people here have suggested, delete system restore points, empty the recycle bin, etc.

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simsie

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http://www.vistajuice.com/2007/04/enabledi...nation_in_v.php

It turns out there's a really easy way to do this, so if you want to turn the hibernation on or off, simply do the following:

1. Click Start, All Programs, and then right click on "Command Prompt".

2. From the context menu click on "Run as administrator".

3. If User Account Control prompts you to allow the action, click on Continue.

4. In the command prompt window, type "powercfg –h off" (or "on" without the quotes) followed by Enter button.

4. Close the Command Prompt window and you're done :)

Hopefully it'll clear the space instantly, a space equal to that of your RAM.

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Grand Master

NienorGT

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Well, delete something like:

C:\Users\Public\Recorded TV\Sample Media (143MB)

C:\Users\Public\Music\Sample Music (59MB)

C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper (44MB)

C:\Users\<USER FOLDER>\AppData\Local\Temp (Variable)

Edit: Virtual Memory: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/e...e5c4b81033.mspx

Ideal size is actually 1.5 of your RAM and the same for initial and maximum.

But for that cause, reduce both value to extremely low level (like 256MB) this will SLOW DOWN the computer, BUT it will allow you to menage hdd space before reputing it to regular settings.

Edited by NienorGT
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Grand Master

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I noticed in you signature that you are using iTunes. Did you import a lot of WMA tracks recently? If so, then iTunes may be eating up your hdd space, as...

I have put A LOT of tracks into iTunes recently, within the past two weeks, yes. About 300. However, I don't think they were WMA, as I didn't see the orange converting symbol, or I didn't have to wait for them to convert before I editing the tags.

Is it possible the same could happen with tracks that are already in MP3 format? And if so, how do I sort this problem out with iTunes eating up HDD space?

http://www.vistajuice.com/2007/04/enabledi...nation_in_v.php

Hopefully it'll clear the space instantly, a space equal to that of your RAM.

Thank you. I did exactly the steps you said and what is on that article, but for some reason, it still says 0 bytes... :s :(

Well, delete something like:

C:\Users\Public\Recorded TV\Sample Media (143MB)

C:\Users\Public\Music\Sample Music (59MB)

C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper (44MB)

C:\Users\<USER FOLDER>\AppData\Local\Temp (Variable)

Edit: Virtual Memory: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/e...e5c4b81033.mspx

Ideal size is actually 1.5 of your RAM and the same for initial and maximum.

But for that cause, reduce both value to extremely low level (like 256MB) this will SLOW DOWN the computer, BUT it will allow you to menage hdd space before reputing it to regular settings.

Thank you. Deleted all the links you said and still left with with 0 bytes on the hard drive. I also changed the Virtual Memory thing to 256MB for the Minimum AND Maximum (that's what you meant, yes?) and am going to restart my computer now for the changes to take effect.

Happened to a friend once, was a virus.

I'm starting to think it could well be a virus lol. Although I have Kaspersky and it hasn't picked it up, I will do a virus check.

Thank you for your help so far guys, please keep it coming, I am very grateful. Also, has anybody else got any other ideas to my problems?

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simsie

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If you are deleting and still getting 0 bytes that signifies there is most likely something seriously wrong, trying to clear more space won't achieve anything, I don't think.

Try doing a search for *.* and ordering by size? See if anything big is taking up the space...

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Grand Master

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If you are deleting and still getting 0 bytes that signifies there is most likely something seriously wrong, trying to clear more space won't achieve anything, I don't think.

Try doing a search for *.* and ordering by size? See if anything big is taking up the space...

Thank you. I did a search for "*.*" (without the quote marks) and the biggest thing found was my video for 'When You Were Young' by The Killers, which was 64MB. Again though, this is all on the E: drive and not on the C: drive.

If WHATEVER you do the size STAY at 0 (or near), then you HAVE a Virus (Sorry but...)

Thanks. It probably is a virus :( I'm running a virus scan now. Can anybody tell me if there is a better anti-virus, other than Kaspersky? Especially if it doesn't pick up this virus, as it runs out in 9 days anyway... i heard there was a free one called AVG or something...

Once you get a bit of space back, download something like TreeSize

http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml

Should tell u where your space has gone?

OK I will do that once (if) I get a little bit of space back. Thank you.

Boot in a live linux and see if it reports the hard drive space correctly

OK. Please tell me how to do this and how long it will take (as I need to be up at 10am lol and it is now 2:30am).

Also, if it is a virus, I recently downloaded and installed two programs which could be the culprit. 'Lavasoft Ad-Aware' and 'Spybot - Search and Destroy'.

Does anybody know if any of those are suspicious programs or anything??

Edited by cJr.
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Neowinian

Dennis Cangemi

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Nope, they are both reputable anti-spyware programs, though not needed. Uninstall them and try to free up enough space in order to download the free 30 day trial of Nod32 Smart Security. www.eset.com

Best virus protection/spyware removal/system protection you can get.

If you can't get rid of whatever this is on the C: drive install it on your other drive and scan C from there maybe.

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Grand Master

NienorGT

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I use myself Kaspersky. Best Paid AV IMO.

But a Virus that make infinite files in random folder, that so easy that any one could do it with a little programming....

So it make somewhat impossible to detect.

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Grand Master

Calum Veteran

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Nope, they are both reputable anti-spyware programs, though not needed. Uninstall them and try to free up enough space in order to download the free 30 day trial of Nod32 Smart Security. www.eset.com

Best virus protection/spyware removal/system protection you can get.

If you can't get rid of whatever this is on the C: drive install it on your other drive and scan C from there maybe.

Thank you, I will try that Nod32 Smart Security and will probably even buy it, replacing my Kaspersky.

I have managed to free up 100MB on my C: drive somehow. (after I restarted my computer from changing the Virtual Memory, it gave Disk Cleanup 58MB of space and I have now uninstalled some programs, getting the free space to a lousy 100MB lol.

More help from anyone will be much appreciated. I am going to try and do EVERYTHING suggested in this topic.

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Thrawn

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If this IS a virus, it sounds really terrible... perhaps you should reformat and reinstall. That would also be good because you can combine the two partitions during install, if you know how to. Do you have any easy backup solution for your files?

In a case like this, virus scans must be run with Windows in Safe Mode. If Windows refuses to boot (a full HD can do that), you may need to use a Windows boot CD to delete files from the command line. You can delete non-essential programs in Program Files, like MS Office, Photoshop and other adobe software etc. You can always re-install it later. You should have at least 2-3 GB free on a 40 GB system partition at all times.

Does the system restart?

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Grand Master

Calum Veteran

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I use myself Kaspersky. Best Paid AV IMO.

But a Virus that make infinite files in random folder, that so easy that any one could do it with a little programming....

So it make somewhat impossible to detect.

I see what you are saying. Is there any way I could detect and stop this, though, if any of my anti-viruses don't?

If this IS a virus, it sounds really terrible... perhaps you should reformat and reinstall. That would also be good because you can combine the two partitions during install, if you know how to. Do you have any easy backup solution for your files?

I have an external hard drive which has all of my music, pictures, videos and other documents all backed up onto it :)

However, I do not know how to format and then reinstall my OS. Please may you tell me how? Would that still allow me to keep certain programs such as Microsoft Office and Photoshop?

Also, how long would that take? As I will try it either tonight or tomorrow.

About merging the two partitions... I don't know how to do that and whether it would be wise, as someone I kno once said the reason why it has two is in case there is a failure on my C: drive, no other files on the other drive would be harmed (or something like that)... however, mergning the two would make it much easier for me! lol.

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PermaSt0ne

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before you start reformatting stuff, boot into safe mode and do a virus scan from there with KAV or NOD, which ever you prefer. as for manually searching. just go to start > search and search for folders under 2kb and see if there are a bunch of folders with random characters for names

formatting it will delete everything on your hard drive. so you will have to re-install your programs after installing your OS (photoshop, office, etc.). so you need your windows cd and it's product key before you do this

merging the partitions you need a program like Acronis Disk Director or Partition Magic. windows can't do it

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Grand Master

Calum Veteran

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before you start reformatting stuff, boot into safe mode and do a virus scan from there with KAV or NOD, which ever you prefer. as for manually searching. just go to start > search and search for folders under 2kb and see if there are a bunch of folders with random characters for names

formatting it will delete everything on your hard drive. so you will have to re-install your programs after installing your OS (photoshop, office, etc.). so you need your windows cd and it's product key before you do this

merging the partitions you need a program like Acronis Disk Director or Partition Magic. windows can't do it

Thank you, I will have to sort out the formatting and re-installing another day then - either Tuesday or Wednesday.

However, I can do the littler things now:

Windows Vista Search wouldn't let me search for folders under 2KB, only files (unless I just couldn't find that option), so I searched for files under 2KB and found loads of files in a folder called 'Manifest' which was in a folder called 'winsxs', inside the 'Windows' folder. There are loads of files in this folder with names like 'x86_netrtl32.inf.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6000.16386_en-us_c4f13195a1ff3e2b'

Is that maybe cause for concern?

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