How Do I Find It?

I'm trying to free some space up on my computer...
I ran disc cleanup and all those other goodies that rid you of cookies and temporary internet files.. blah blah blah.
I've deleted all pictures and video and music.
STILL I can't find where about 6 gigs are being eaten up by something other than the OS.

HOW DO I FIND WHAT FILES ARE TAKING UP SO MUCH SPACE??

I removed all the programs I don't want.
This doesn't make sense.

Do you know how I can locate where all the space is going??

Thanks!!!

 

Ya never said what os you have.

If its Xp look for a free program called "ExplorerXp" . Pretty sure Major Geeks has it.

If its vista and you did a upgrade from xp chances are the huge file is your old window instalation.

 

Opps! Sorry!
It's Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 3

Ok I'll download that program you suggested.

Thanks!!

 

If ya get the chance. Give us a shout on what was taking up so much room. I myself am curious and I thank ya in advance.

 

Pretty good chance it is your system restore files.

Go to My Computer, Tools, Folder Options. On the View tab, uncheck hide protected operating system files, and check show system files.

Then go back to the root of your hard disk and look for a folder called system volume information. How big is it?

 

It says the folder is empty....

i'm trying to use the explorer program but it keeps crashing and saying that it can't do it's thing cuz something else is using the server and it asks me to switch or end task and when I switch it brings me to the start up menu. So I don't know.

I'm gonna try one more time.
I'll totally post what I find when I find it.
Thank you all SO much!!!!

 

If your computer is running fine, then stop the system restore service using services.msc (start, run).

Give it a few minutes and reboot. See if it reclaims your space, as it will remove your system restore points.

I think you have to take ownership of system volume information to see its contents/size...

 

Do you, by any chance, use the ZoneAlarm firewall? I have seen some HUGE log files from them.

 

I turned off the system restore and it did not free up any space

no, I do not have Zone Alarm.

And how do I use this Explorer XP program to locate the large files?? Some kind of Search function??? Or do I have to explore the entire drive manually to find it??

Thank you, guys, so much!! As usual, you all ROCK!!! :dood

 

How do you know there is 6GB of wasted space?

 

It's my other computer ... laptop ... that only has 6.1 gig hard drive. Total. It's tiny. So I like to keep the extra shit OFF. And right now it's reading only 1.72 gig left of free space!! I don't have anything on this computer really cuz I mostly use it as a storage device for my pictures. But I took EVERY unused program off and there should be way more room left on the drive.

What else should I do?

 

Open up the program explorerxp. Single left click on C drive. You should see File name and the size of the file. There is a little plus sign next to The C drive. Single left click on the little plus sign you should get a some other folders to then open up. Single left on each folder, and on the right hand size the name and the size of the file should open up.

Hope that helps.

If no luck there. Open up "my computer" icon Then right click on the diffrent folders and select properties, that should give you the size of the folder. Let us know what you find.

Also try a program called "startup inspector" Its tiny and will help you disable safley start up programs. Once opend hit the "consult" button at the top and it will show and tell you whats safe to disable and not safe to disable. Once you disable all the safe stuff, then restart your computer and try "explorerxp" again. its a pretty tiny program.

 

Your missing space may be disk overhead.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_Overhead

 

tons and tons of my music cds .... I guess they were in weird file formats ...not wma or mp3 and that's why I couldn't find them when I searched out for all the music on the computer. I had NO IDEA they can accumulate like that and take up SO much room!!! I spent quite a long time trying to decide what I could live without on my computer and just listen to the cd without ripping it. LoL!! :-D

Thank you SO much for you help!!

Is there a program like that for Vista???