Can't understand why my HDD keeps filling up!

On my Fujitsu Siemens Laptop running Vista Business with all up dates, my C drive which has a capacity of 30+gb keeps filling up!
I have moved practically all programs to my D drive, and am continually using disk cleanup, to no avail.
Last week I had 1.25 gb of free space, today I have 57mb.
I ran Tree Size on the C Drive, and the result seems to indicate that I have duplicate folders Users and Documents & settings, each of which have 10+gb?
I will try to attach screen images from the Tree Size program which, hopefully will show what I am talking about.
Perhaps I am mis-reading things, but would appreciate any help.

 

I'm not sure what is going on just want to get some information. I run Win7 which should be similar structure to Vista. Now as far as I understand Documents and Settings is just a symbolic folder that points to the new name for that folder in Vista/Win7 which is Users. On my system my Documents and Settings folder takes up 0kb because it is just a pointer to where the files are actually stored in Users. On yours, as you said, you seem to have two copies. I also noticed that your Users/xocal folder has a different icon than mine.

Besides that your Windows folder is unusually large but that may be related to Vista.

Give a screenshot with your Windows folder expanded. And also one with your xocal folder expanded in the Users folder. (Only interested in the top couple of folders which take up the most space in each folder.)

***
In regular Windows Explorer click the Organize link at the top of the window and select Folder and Search options and then under the View tab tick the circle to Show Hidden Files and untick the box for Hide Operating System Files. Then go to C: and right-click Documents and Settings and select Properties does it have a listing for Location (mine does not--see below)?

 

Your D&S folders aren't actually duplicated - it's just the way Treesize interprets Vista's symbolic link to the D&S folders. If they were duplicated you would be well over 40GB - impossible of course.

Looking at my wife's Vista your stats don't look abnormal to me. This Vista has very little installed software other than Office so I think you simply need a bigger disk -

 

Another thought about this - your D drive is probably a partition of a single hard disk rather than a separate physical disk, and if that's the case there may be a simple way around this space problem. So what's the position on D?

 

Thanks for that. In view of the point raised in the 2nd reply to my query, I will attach screen shots of the normal opened folders, xocal and windows as requested, having first allowed all files to be seen. Whilst I appreciate that the C drive is quite small I have managed to keep 1.24gb free until recently, which was adequate to allow system restore in critical situations. I thought that maybe the sync with my iPhone could have been the cause, but I have iPhone folder on my D drive which has aplenty of free space!!

 

Sorry, I wanted those screenshots in TreeSize. Although I see from Earthling' post that Windows can get quite large overtime (if winsxs is something like 15+gb I don't need a shot of Windows open). So skip the treesize screenshots for now.

It still appears to me that on your computer there is a hard copy of Documents and Settings rather than just a link. In Earthling's screenshot Documents and Settings is again 0kb. But in yours it is 10gb. That is unusual. My math says 45gb partition C:, 20gb Windows folder + 10.5gb Users + 10.5 Docs&Set + 3gb Program Files + 1gb assorted small files = No space left.

So please give a screenshot of the Properties window for both Documents and Settings and Users from explorer. Like my pics in post #2.

***
And give the size of D: and how much free space you have on that drive. As Earthling suggested you may be able to simply Expand C: into some of the unused space on D:

 

Whether D is a partition or a separate disk you have now confirmed that it is the answer to your problem. If you right click your Documents folder it will have a Location tab. Use that to move your Documents folder to D and you will recover all the space it is currently occupying. You can do exactly the same for xocal's Pictures and Music folders. That should resolve your space problem.

EDIT - sorry sach2 - cross posted

 

Correction - missed a step. It's right click Documents > Properties. Then use the Location tab. Sorry 'bout that.

 

Thanks to both Sach2 and Earthling.
I have followed Earthlings suggestion and have gained 175mb on C!
However, I am posting details of my disk structures, so if there is some way that I can merge the 2gb empty partition to the C drive, this would I feel, solve my space problem!!
Pleae advise!

 

I can't be sure but I think that 2gb volume may contain some software from Fujitsu. It might be recovery software of some other type of utility. Most EISA partitions are hidden partitions with manufacturer software. I would hold off on merging that unless you know what is in there.

If it were me, I would download Partition Wizard and install it. Then shrink the Data partition by 10gb or so putting the free space between C: and D:. Basically, start the program and right-click the D: partition. Choose resize/move. In the window that opens Drag the left slider (black triangle) over to the to the right. So you are getting more empty space on the left side. In the text boxes below the graph you will see the amount of free space BEFORE increase. When the free space before box has about 10000mb in it then hit OK. Now, you are back in main window, take a look at the graph in the main window. It should reflect that you now have set up 10gb of unallocated space in between C: and D: if this is correct then hit the Apply button at the top of the screen.

Restart the computer.

Then go back to Windows Disk Management and right-click the C: partition and choose Expand and let it expand into the free space you just created.

 

I'll have a go at this later, Thanks.
But what mystifies me is why the free space on the C drive continually reduces!!
I consciously keep everything away from the C drive, have literally cut and pasted progs from the C drive to the D drive, to the extent that last week I had 1.25gb free! but this had reduced yesterday to 45mb???
I use CCleaner and Easy Cleaner regularly and have run every anti malware prog known to me, yet the tsunami continues!! with the C drive being flooded, but from where, or with what??I just can't pin it down.
Any help greatly appreciated!

 

Resizing the C and D partitions is certainly an option but moving such large amounts of data does carry risks and I would never do it myself without first taking an image of the entire disk, which I doubt you currently have the ability to do, so I would still be looking at better utilising the 38GB of free space on D by moving more stuff from C.

I'm totally mystified why moving the 'special' folders, mainly Documents, Music and Pictures, has only released 117MB, a tiny amount. Your xocal folder is over 9GB, but we can't actually see what the sub-folders are, so if you still have an open mind about how best to fix this I would like to see xocal expanded in Treesize.

BTW, your disk management pictures confirm that your D&S folders are not actually duplicated, and that Treesize is incorrectly reporting both the folders and the disk size. I would use WinDirStat instead, but not right now when you are nearly clean out of disk space.

Windows does grow over time, fact of life. But you are running Vista in far too small a partition TBH. 50GB or more would be normal.

 

That's a puzzling statement. You cannot cut and paste installed programs from one drive to another - well, you can, but they won't run afterwards.

Anyway, I'm quite sure we can free up enough space for your needs if you can be patient, as I'm off out now for several hours. Or of course, you could follow sach2's guidance and resize. Your choice.

 

I have attached Tree size on Xocal, and have expanded App data, Local, & microsoft folders, and can see straight away that Windows Mail is taking up a lot of space. Also that Windows Live Contacts and Windows Live Mail is also quite large, yet I never use Windows Live! and I have had difficulty using Windows Mail recently, in that the send receive button is blanked out , so have reverted back to the home page of my Broadband supplier www.eircom.net for emails, so this could be where the trouble started.
I will empty the Windows Mail folders for a start.
Meanwhile your comments/suggestions on the screen images much appreciated.

 

Sorry!! try this

 

Just a quick word before I leave - uninstall via Control Panel all of Windows Live. Should make a noticeable difference.

Back later

 

Give space sniffer a quick run to get a graphical look at the drive. It may be informative as to whether or not your documents and settings is a separate folder taking up additional space. I've attached a quick copy of mine from a 28gb win7 partition (I'm running off a temporary installation but it is an image of an installation that was used for 6 mos. or so).

We want to see if you have a physical duplicate of your Users folder.

You may have to right-click the exe and Run as Administrator in Vista. http://www.uderzo.it/main_products/space_sniffer/

 

Please do run SpaceSniffer because I am curious if it is just an anomaly of Vista and how treesize displays the drive but it sure looks to me it is duplicating data. In your screenshot from post #15 it has the same size for Roaming and Application Data. That is the same deal as Users and Documents and Settings. Application Data should be a legacy symbolic folder taking up no space (<1kb) and yet it is the same size as its target folder Roaming.

Either it is just a fluke of treesize or it may be a result of how you tried to move sytem folders from C: to D:. I really don't know but it seems like the problem is not in WINDOWS folder but in Users.

 

Making progress!! traced the Windows Live mail and deleted what I could find resulting in an increase in space of 1gb!!!!!
Have run the sniffer as suggested and uploaded the results.
I should point out that there was a live log running which indicated that sniffer was not allowed to examine a lot of files, so not sure if result posted is of any value!! should I have closed down completely any anti malware??

 

See log of sniffer scan!!

 

@sach2 - if you look at the disk management screenshot in #9 it confirms that C is a 30 GB partition of a 160GB HD. The treesize screenshot of C in #1 is reporting 45.8GB. The apparently duplicated folders aren't real.

@xocal - why are you deleting Live files rather than using Control Panel's uninstall? If you use Control Panel > Programs and Features you may find there's a lot more Live stuff installed than just Live Mail.

 

Thanks for pointing to that picture. I completely missed/misunderstood your explanation earlier. Sorry! :-o
Xocal is definitely running on a 30gb partition and those are ghost folders in tree size.

xocal, it seems like your partition is just too small to hold an established Vista installation which grows as it saves various updates over a few years. I think SpaceSniffer ran fine. I don't see anything excessive or out of the ordinary. Windows is about right for an older installation since winsxs tends to grow very large overtime. Your Users folder is about right considering Apple has a fairly large backup. And Program Files is fairly small as well.

I'd still increase the size of C: as I think you will be fighting a constant battle for space. I'll take a closer look at the screenshots to see if I missed something that can be reduced but nothing jumps out at me. I hope Earthling has more suggestions.

 

Well I would next take a look at how much space is allocated to system restore. If that is at its default setting it will be 4.5GB where 2GB should be sufficient. THIS article explains how to check it and adjust it. But I do agree with sach about the small partition and once you have created a bit of elbow room and removed the stuff you just don't want then you could look into first creating a full disk backup and then resizing your partitions. That would best be dealt with in a new thread but ATM I'm concerned to prevent any risk of the system locking up because it has simply run out of space.

 

may I once again thank both yourself and Sach2 for not alone giving me useful tips, but also for the fact that I have learned a lot about my laptop.
I was aware that synching an iPhone would create a back up, but thought that this had been backed up to my D drive whereas it has gone to my C drive.
I had no idea that the iPhone would use up or occupy 6gb, and as I have just acquired an iPad2, I guess I'll just have to increase the size of the C drive.
Re Partition Magic, I have this on a disk and have used it on my PC with XP+ in the past, but am concerned that I may need a more modern version for Vista.
You mention downloading it, do you have a link that I can use or can i just Google for it?
Am pleased to say that I am back to 1.35 gb free space, and have left the iPhone backups on the C drive.
Can I do a complete backup to the D drive or is it safer to save it to an external drive i.e a CD or DVD? How much space will I need?
Thanks for all your help!

 

I will be happy to help you resize partitions after you and Earthling get your backup straightened out.

I just want to WARN you that it is best to Expand the C: partition in Windows Disk Management rather than a third party partitioning software. For Vista I would definitely use Disk Management for expanding C:.

Shrinking D: may have to be done with something like Partition Wizard http://majorgeeks.com/Partition_Wizard_Home_Edition_d6175.html because you want the free space to be located in between C: and D: which Disk Management won't do.

But again let Disk Management expand C: into the newly created space as it is safer. So hold off on partitioning until you make a plan first.

 

Your D drive has 80GB of files, and all of that will have to be moved as part of the resizing process. My concern is that any disk errors in moving such a large amount of data could cause data loss, but whether that possibility is of any concern only you would know. If the important stuff on D has already been backed up, or can easily be, then we could decide to proceed with resizing D without first doing a disk backup, as a disk backup would definitely require an external drive with up to 80GB free. DVDs would be impractical. However in an earlier post you said you had moved some programs to D and if that is the case then a backup of D is rather more necessary.

C is less of a concern, as enlarging C will not require any data to be moved, so very low risk, and the same applies to the 2GB EISA partition.

So to sum up, if you don't have and don't want to get an external drive then a backup is not really practical, and with no backup and if there should be any disk errors during resizing, then serious problems could possibly ensue.

I suggest you give some thought to all that and don't rush into resizing without weighing up the risks and options. The actual backup process, should we decide we need one, may need additional software but it's free and won't present any insuperable problems.

Getting late here now, but I'll be around tomorrow.

 

Thank you both once again for your suggestions. Will mull them over and revert when I decide my course of action! At least I now have some free space to carry on with.

 

OK but do take a look at the system restore post I made, as that should yield a further 2.5GB elbow room. Sounds a lot but actually isn't, and can quickly get eaten up. Really you need 15 GB or more free.

I'm not going to be around much for the next few days, and then not at all for about a month, but sach2 and others will move you on once you are ready.

 

Gentlemen! I found a brand new 2TB external hard drive amongst my collection of gadgets and would like to tackle doing a complete back-up, with a view to increasing the size of my C drive, and would appreciate info re any articles on the subject, or failing that, some basic advice on how to go about doing it!
Thanks in anticipation!

 

Am back again, to advise that I have found a 2TB external drive amongst my collection of gadgets, and would now like to do a full back up of my laptop, with a view to resizing the C Drive as you both advised. However I fear doing it incorrectly, and would appreciate any link to an instruction article which I could follow to ensure I do it correctly.
Thanks in anticipation!

 

Hi,
With a 2tb drive you have plenty of space for a backup (assuming the drive is empty or at least has several hundred GB free space). I think you would want the external drive formatted to NTFS since FAT32 has a 4gb maximum file size and your backup image would be much larger than that. You can plug the 2tb drive in to your Vista computer and then go to Start/Orb and type disk management into the Search box and hit <enter> to open a window which will show you the external drive and its file format to be sure it is NTFS. Let us know if it is NTFS or if you need to reformat it.

For backup you can use a couple of programs Todo Backup or Macrium Reflect are both reliable. Since you have so much free space I would choose each program's option to image the laptop's entire HD/Disk since the HD is about 160gb and the image will be smaller than that. A quick look at both programs shows selecting full disk backup seems fairly straight forward, you would just need to select the external HD as the place to store the backup. I,would go ahead and use both programs and let each create a backup since you have plenty of space (redundancy can't hurt). You can always delete the backups if you don't want them later. If you have a couple of blank CD/DVD in your gadget box, you should use the option in each program to write the bootable CD which will allow you to boot into the program to restore the image you've created should your Vista installation become corrupted. Definitely, burn at least one bootable CD, you'll need it if there is a problem with Vista.

As far as resizing the partitions after backup it shouldn't be a big problem. Shrinking the D: partition is fairly easy and basically safe. No more risky then doing a disk defragmentation. Resizing the Vista partition in your case just amounts to taking over newly freed up space so it should be low risk too. I posted some info in my post #10 and can expand on that if you need/want when you get to the resizing.

 

You can get the Windows version here: http://majorgeeks.com/Partition_Wizard_Home_Edition_d6175.html
Or the ISO for the bootable CD here at the last link on the page: http://www.partitionwizard.com/download.html

The Windows version should be fine but if you have a blank CD you may want to burn the CD version to have for emergency. You have to burn it as an image file. Imgburn's "Write Image File to Disc" will do it.

Your screenshots look fine but it seems you only used 60gb for your backup. Which program did you use and did you choose to backup the whole disc? There is some compression in backups but my rough estimate is that you backed up 90gb of files so I just want to make sure you chose whole disk as the backup type.

Looking at the free space on your D: drive, I would adjust the numbers in that post #10 and shrink D: by 20gb so that eventually you could give the Vista partition 20gb rather than only 10gb.

Maybe post a screenshot of Disk Management after you shrink D: (using Partition Wizard) so I can take a look if you are unsure about expanding C:.

 

Thanks for detailed guidance, finally did as you suggested and expanded C by 20gb, see attached.
However, I feel there is more to be done, as am constrained to using Safe Mode to use my laptop!
Do I need to restore the back-up? and if so, is there a safe procedure?
Some instances of problems in normal mode, is the fact that use of Windows Explorer causes a freeze, and get error message that W/Exp is closing.
Also Windows Mail is unbelieveably slow.
Also find that screen stays blank on start-up, until/unless I press Fn+F10 buttons!

 

The partitions look good. Try running chkdsk on both C: and D:.
You can set it up in Safe Mode. Got to Computer right click C: drive and select properties. Under the tools tab select Error Checking button. Tick both boxes and hit check now button. It will schedule for the next reboot. Reboot and let it run the chkdsk.
Then do the same for D:.

On the F10 problem:
What exactly do you see from the time you power on your computer until you use Fn+F10? What happens when you hit Fn+F10, what screens do you see?