ok i need serious help because i am afraid my hard disk will explode or get deleted.

the free space in my hard disk keeps changing by itself by huge amounts.

yesterday i had about 500 MB left, and then i downloaded a 250 MB lecture, and it INCREASED to 950 MB.

have i lost about 500 MB of files???

then, i downloaded more stuff (several pics of cars), and it increased to 1.13 GB.

and then i haven't done anything since then but it says 1.10 GB.

what the hell is this?

i have never had this problem before.

i run adaware, spybot, and grisoft avg regularly (once a week), but since yesterday, i have run each program 2-3 times.

adaware showed a data miner called Time Sink which had installed itself as a program folder in C: drive. deleted it manually and using adaware. and i don't think a data miner would cause such changes.

but other than that, nothing else.

3/2/2007 10:34:58 PM

If I were you I would consider investing in a decent capacity external hard drive. I know that might seem like pointless advice, but your system is getting really bogged down being so close to full like that.

Other than that I'll have to apologize for not being able to diagnose your exact problem. Have you run a virus check to see about trojans, etc?

3/2/2007 10:42:53 PM

having a full drive isnt going to bog a system down

a fragmented drive will

3/2/2007 10:44:47 PM

What is likely happening is your System Restore is cleaning out old files it no longer needs, or just to make room so you don't run out of disk space.

Alternately, your system is cleaning out it's Temp directories. Although I can't say I've ever really seen Windows XP do this properly.

But either one of these options are likely reasons why your drive space is fluctuating.

- To fix your temp files:

Windows+R (Run prompt) -> Choose the drive you want to clean -> Follow the prompts.

- To temporarily flush your System Restore points:

Windows+Pause (System Properties window) -> System Restore (tab) -> Turn off System Restore on all drives (check the checkbox) -> Apply (button)

Now watch your disk space increase a bit ... Once done, turn it back on by unchecking that box and hitting Apply.

Don't do this if you care about your previous restore points in System Restore.
Do do this to create some free space on your disk if you know that you just have useless System Restore points that you don't want to keep anymore.

I am not responsible for what you do. But that's what I know.

[Edited on March 2, 2007 at 10:47 PM. Reason : .]

3/2/2007 10:46:34 PM

you need to delete that pr0n folder.

no, but seriously, when you get down that close to your total capacity, weird shit may happen. there are so many caches and temp folders, theres no telling which of them are causing fluctuations.

you really need to offload a lot of your stuff to an external drive. or better yet, buy a second hard drive and install it. consider deleting bullshit you dont need. run disk cleanup utility on your c drive.



[Edited on March 3, 2007 at 3:11 AM. Reason : ]

3/3/2007 3:06:37 AM

also if you have never cleaned your temp files you might want to use CCleaner from ccleaner.com
It clears history, cache, temp internet, and temp files in one click. I like it when I am being lazy.

get another HD asap and move your files over. After the backup, do a defrag.

All the advice so far is going to be great for you.

3/3/2007 7:42:27 AM