Disc Space Disappearing

I keep receiving an error message that says low disc space. The amount of disc space is disappearing without having added any new files, photos or programs. Currently it shows that I have 6.58MB of free space
I have
1. Transferred 90% of my files to an external hard drive
2. Run the Disc Defragmenter
3. Run Disc Cleanup
4. Deleted all cookies and cleared the cache
5. Run a full system scan with Malwarebytes. Objects detected were quarantined
6. Run a full system scan with Norton anti-virus
7. I tried to follow the steps in this forum for Malware Removal
- I use only one virus protection program
- I have no disc emulation software
- I followed the steps to make all files unhidden
- When trying to upload any of the additional suggested programs I get error messages as such

"Opening ccsetup408_slim.exe
There is not enough room on the disk to save .....
Remove unnecessary files from the disk and try again, or try saving in a different location.

.....part could not be saved, because the source file could not be read.
Try again later, or contact the server administrator."

In addition, it appears that I am randomly having some difficulty opening some sites, which may or may not be related.

I'd appreciate any help
LMJ

 

Virtual Memory is listed at 8514MB The total paging file for all drives is listed at 8490 MB In step 1 that you listed when I tried to customize the size I received the following error message
"Drive c: does not have enough free space for the maximum paging file size specified"

Under step 2 you listed, There were no recent re-set points in system restore. Under restore points it says "none" When I try to set a new restore point for today's date I receive an error message that says "The restore point could not be created for the following reasons. Insufficient storage available to create either the shadow copy storage file or other shadow copy data."

I completed step 3 and the computer restarted. Unfortunately still having the same issues.

 

If I am accurate in determining the hard disc space, under the OS (C): drive it says 11.9 free of 683GB and under Recover (D): it says 7.25GB free of 14.9 GB

I am running Windows Vista

I assumed it was malware because of the erratic nature of the problem. When I saw the low disc space error message for the first time I decided it was time to go through all of my files and programs. I moved as many as 15,000 photos (no joke) to the external hard drive. Once the files were moved to the external hard drive I deleted them from the computer because I use a web based photo storage site where I have them backed up. In addition, I deleted all unnecessary documents and I uninstalled every program I was not using. I did all of these steps for every user on the computer. There are less than a handful of documents under any user, very few photos, no full length movies and maybe one or two short video clips. We do still have the entire itunes library intact. It took me an entire weekend to move all of the files and within 10 minutes of doing so, the low disc space error reappeared.

In addition, I am having on and off again issues with malwarebytes and my norton anti-virus fluctuating between saying I am covered then I'm not. When I rebooted after the steps I tried earlier today, my Norton said I needed to run Norton Power Eraser to search for rootkill virus. It showed one file that it said to delete.....photoshop.exe I have had that program for approximately two years now and am not sure I have what I would need to re-install it since I opted for the internet download version as opposed to the CD. Not sure what I should do since as you know the full version of photoshop that I have cost several hundred dollars.

I just have a gut feeling that it is malware since it seems like something is eating the memory daily.

 

Well, I was successful in downloading MGtools.exe, however, it will not run correctly. I will continue to try as I notice the disk space is randomly changing every few minutes. It went from 73.8 MB to 5.38MB to 680KB in a matter of seconds. I will try when it shows the most disk space and see what happens.

In the meantime, I tried the other 5 programs, I received the following error messages each time "...file could not be saved because the source file could not be read. Try again later or contact the server administrator" and "There is not enough room on the disk to save.... Remove unnecessary files from the disk and try again or try saving in a different location"

When I ran the disk check, there were no error messages before the system rebooted. I did write down most of the log as it was processing if you think that would help. (I think I have info for 4 of the 5 processes)

My photoshop is not pirated. I thought I purchased the online download only but it appears I do have the CD version and can reinstall it.

 

I deleted more programs and was able to download DiskBoss.

From my uninformed eye it appears that the majority of the files are backup files

Just not sure what to do with the information.

Can you help me through the process?

Can these files be deleted or will it impact performance of programs?

 

Thanks chaslang! I would appreciate the move to the software forum. You have been very helpful. Glad to know it's not a malware issue which gives me hope I can get it resolved... And that's good news!

 

Hallelujah! I think I have conquered the problem thanks to a tip from chaslang in the malware forum. I found a folder called N360_backup (Norton Security Suite) that contained a whopping 301,503 files worth 548GB. I re-set my security back-up to once a month and will now know where to look if I start running out of disk space again! Without Major Geeks I would never have solved this problem

 

You may also be losing a lot of space to Restore Points that are automatically created whenever you install or uninstall anything or some significant changes to you system. The amount of space allocated to these restore points is set in the following location:

Right click on My Computer on desktop or in Explorer > Click on "Properties" > Click "System Protection" > Click on your system drive (usually C > Click "Configure". There you will see a slider for adjusting how much disk space to allocate to restore points. These files are hidden in a special type of Windows folder that programs like DiskBoss usually can't see. And these backups can take up a LOT of space. Here you also have the option for turning restore points off altogether (not recommended unless you're doing weekly disk imaging backups).

Good luck and I hope Santa leaves a big HDD in your stocking this year

 

Sounds as if you have set Norton to backup to your C drive - not a great idea at all as if the drive fails or simply won't boot you lose your backups too. You need to backup to a separate physical disk, most ppl use a plugin external for this sort of thing.

 

Thanks Earthling. I have changed my backups to go to a CD and will use the manual backup option from now on.

RustySavage...I tried to follow the process you listed but I couldn't find the "Configure" tab/link or a slider. I just found options for setting the restore point or turning the function off. Could you perhaps help just a bit more? I am using Windows Vista operating system.

 

Sorry bout that... I'm using Windows 7. I don't have a machine with Vista installed. I checked my other PC running XP and the way to get to the aforementioned configuration screen is to click as follows:

My Computer > Properties > System Restore Tab

This brought me to the tab listing my drives, with a "Settings" button above it.

I highlighted "C" drive and clicked the Settings button. This brought up the screen that we're looking for (the one with the slider for adjusting amount of space to allocate to system restore).

Maybe somebody else who's using Vista can jump in here and help with this.

I saw in an earlier post that the Major walked you through deleting restore points. The problem now is that you're going to start creating restore point backups again and your disk space will show a gradual decline again (assuming that this is part of the problem).

I'll see if anyone I know is running Vista and try to get the info that way.:confused

 

You need to open a command prompt 'As Administrator' for this. In the command window type vssadmin list shadowstorage. This will tell you what is currently allocated and how much is being used. If you want to reduce the allocation type vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /Maxsize=xGB where x is the size you want in GB.

To open a command prompt As Administrator type cmd in the Start > Search box and right click cmd.exe above.

 

Greetings, LMJ.

Pardon the interruption. For future reference (and it may also help with your present scenario) CCleaner Portable can be unzipped to a USB flash drive and run as a standalone program regardless of hard drive capacity. It's a highly recommended drive cleaner.

 

From Malware FAQ:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/content/page/how_to_disable_and_enable_system_restore.html

Thank you Earthling for the nifty command line tutorial regarding this matter :-D

For those averse to the command line, the above link shows Vista users the graphical sequence of steps for setting the max space allotment for system restore.

 

Well, not really, you can only turn it on or off in the GUI in Vista.

@ the OP - if you want to try the command line I strongly suggest you copy and edit what I posted rather than trying to type it in as the slightest syntax error will cause it to fail.

 

Hmm, that's strange. So, if you're running Vista, how do you know the amount of disk space allocated to Restore Point backups? Does Vista just keep adding Restore Points until the disk is full or the user deletes some of them? Can you set those parameters via the command line in Vista?

Obviously, I'm a Vista virgin

 

I found a setting in Vista's disc cleanup window that has an option for removing all but the most recent restore point and also eliminates shadow copies. After eliminating programs, moving 95% of my files to an external hard drive and deleting the Norton backup files on my C: drive...I have almost 90% free disc space! So I think for awhile I'll try that route and monitor my disc space carefully.

I have copied and saved your directions Earthlink and will not hesitate to use your prompts should I notice my disc space being gobbled up again.

I can't tell you how thankful I am for your help!

 

Thanks Caliban! Will definitely be following your device on this one!

 

By default Vista allocates 15% of the disk for system restore, so with large disks this could usefully be reduced.

 

Although I think I have my disk space problem pretty well resolved (I have about 90% free after everything I have gone through), at least I know now to monitor the amount of space the restore points are using. Thanks for sharing...I feel a little more knowledgeable because of your help

 

Did you ever find your way to the Restore Point configuration page for adjusting the amount of disk space that Vista allocates to backups or did you use the command line commands suggested by Earthling? I'd just like to know for future reference, how one makes this adjustment on a system running Vista.

And I'm glad you finally reclaimed that disk space. I know how disconcerting it is when you see your disk space sliding away without any clue as to where it's going. With only 10% remaining you must have really been wigging out!

 

Well Rustysavage, I guess neither. I never found a setting in Vista that allows for adjusting the amount of disk space that is used, but I did find a setting in Vista's disc cleanup window that has an option for removing all but the most recent restore point and also eliminates shadow copies. I figured that was a decent option and will not contribute to too much lost disk space in the future. However, I saved Earthling's directions on using the command line for future reference should I need to clear some space. I should be good now that I know Norton 360 was the main culprit. On the day I first posted I was in a panic because I actually dropped to 4KB of space! Glad that nightmare is over!!
All the best to you!

 

Now that that's over you should really rethink your whole backup strategy. I have Norton360 Security Suite as well so I'm familiar with the backup component. It's an acceptable program for doing file backups but there are plenty of freeware backup programs around that have more features. You should really backup more often than once a month, too (for obvious reasons). You said earlier that you copied 90% of your files to another drive, is that an external HDD? That's really your best option for storing backups. I was just shopping online for some thumb drives and I saw some crazy good deals on external HDD. If you don't have one, now would be a good time to invest. Most big stores are carrying out their "Cyber Monday" deals for at least a week.

Also, look into doing whole disk/partition imaging in addition to file backups. The latter is fine for recovering lost or corrupted files but there's no file backup program (including Norton 360) that's going to do you a lick of good if your Master Boot Record or partition tables get trashed by a virus or some unruly program, or a host of other things that can render your system unusable or totally unbootable. If you can't use/boot Windows, then you can't run your Windows based backup program. Even if you could, programs like Norton Backup doesn't backup the MBR, partition tables and critical system files that are necessary for booting up your machine.

Disk imaging is a wholly different type of back up. It backs up you disk byte for byte and therefore always include the aforementioned critical system components. That allows you to simply overwrite your entire screwed up disk with a good copy of your disk. What makes it all possible is a boot disk that you create ahead of time, and that contains a mini operating system (usually WinPE or Linux) along with the backup software that will do the writing of the disk image from your external drive back onto your hard drive. It all happens during boot time, well before your Windows Vista OS even begins to boot up, so even if your disk is badly infected with a sneaky low level rootkit, it never gets a chance to "wake up" during the restoration phase.

As you probably have guessed, I got burned a couple times (had to reformat my drive) and that's what turned me into a backup zealot. I may draw some ire for this statement but I think all of this malware cleaning and postapocalyptic system repair business is idiotic. It can take days to complete and even then you aren't guaranteed a healthy system. The last time I got infected I just threw in my disk imaging boot disk, rebooted, and let it rewrite my infected disk with my last backed up disk image while I watched an episode of Breaking Bad. After turning off the tube I came back to a healthy bootable system. No chasing down malware, no scrambling for the latest antiviral definitions, no lengthy system scans, no seeking help on malware forums, no repairing MBRs, no restoring trashed files from file backups, no..... I trust you get the picture.

Do yourself a favor. Get an external HDD and a capable disk imaging program. A very simple, capable and totally free program is AOMEI Backupper. Here's a link to their homepage:

http://www.backup-utility.com/free-backup-software.html

Good luck friend!

 

I'd like to triple underline what rustysavage has said. Once you are in the habit of regularly imaging your system drive there isn't anything other than a motherboard failure that can prevent you from recovering your system, just as it was, and usually well within the hour. Even a failed hard disk is no great problem as these programs can restore your system to a new disk in short order. Just one additional bit of advice though - create a separate data partition and move all of your personal stuff to it. That way you only have to image Windows and your software, and if you decide/need to restore an image it won't overwrite your data files. You can then use Norton as you use it now, to safeguard your personal stuff located on the data partition.

There are several free imaging programs available for this as well as some really excellent paid ones. Whichever you go for you can sleep safe in the knowledge that even the worst of disasters that can befall a computer can't harm yours.