Hard Drive Having Major Issues

Hey,
My hard drive on my laptop recently is having issues. A few days ago I had about 35GB free and now I am down to 12GB free. I didn't install anything or do anything different than what I normally do on a day to day basis. I ran a disk defrag yesterday and my space actually went from 14GB at the time to 8GB. I then ran a check disk last night and now I am at my current state, 12GB. I have also done several disk cleanups, but that didn't really do anything. This is too weird, I definitely need help and suggestions.
Thanks.

 

I have had this issue at home at times disable system restore and delete all past restore points then make a new one its not the hard ware its a soft ware bug i believe

system restore is useless anyway =./

 

I wouldn't say that system restore is useless, but if the PC is running fine, it wouldn't hurt to clear out the system restore folder once in a while. It's a 'super hidden' folder and the easiest way to empty it is to right click My Computer, select Properties, then click the System Restore tab, then check the little box to 'Turn Off System Restore'. Then reboot the PC, and uncheck the box and set a new restore point. But this may not free up all that much drive space. It depends on how much space is devoted to system restore, and if the devoted space is full or not. You may want to use a tool that will tell you which files and folders are using up space....

 

Try WinDirStat, it takes a few minutes to analyze your file system on the HD and then will give you a color coded graphic showing where files are on your HD. Just click on the large blocks to locate the files in the directory tree.

I think system restore files do show up as an unknown type (in windirstat) so turning off system restore could eliminate them [actually I think it is one block of reserved space not multiple files] but system restore did not take up 20GB in a few days.