Hard Disk Space Disappearing with Windows 7

[JoshuaJay]

I can't explain this and at this point am pretty infuriated because it simply makes no sense to me.

Space is randomly disappearing on my hard drive, (I check how much free space there is like, 10x a day, so I automatically know when something isn't right)

Had 17.3GB free this morning, restarted my computer. After it booted up, now only 15.6GB free.

I have completely scoured the HD and it's program files, there is NOTHING new on it.

Really losing my mind here guys.

Edit: I just found 2GB worth of stuff in my AppData/Local/Temp folder, but the dates of these files go back a lot longer than this morning. Deleting it anyway.

 

[iFargle]

Have you ran a chkdsk? That usually clears up a bunch of space for me.

 

[JoshuaJay]

Have you ran a chkdsk? That usually clears up a bunch of space for me.

That's a good suggestion and I'll try that, I haven't done one in about 30 days.

However that really wouldn't explain 2GB of space missing after a simple restart?

 

[KSoD]

Sounds to me like normal activity. Do you have your browser set to clear it cache and temp file when you close it out? If not that completely explains why your temp file folder has over 2GB of space used and it dates back before this morning.

 

[JoshuaJay]

Sounds to me like normal activity. Do you have your browser set to clear it cache and temp file when you close it out? If not that completely explains why your temp file folder has over 2GB of space used and it dates back before this morning.

Browser is set to clear cache, but no that is the first time I've cleaned Temp file since Win7 Image install.

Normal activity is 2GB lost through simply restarting your PC after uninstalling an app? I mean you could be right I've just never experienced that before.

The whole point of the uninstall was to clean up space, but after restart I just had less space pfft (

 

[KSoD]

If that is the first time you cleaned temp files there is the issue. Every time you install a program, the files are stored someplace temporary while the install takes place. After that they then are where you see them and expect them to be.

Yes 2GB can be normal. Adobe Photoshop is a 15GB application to install if you do all parts. So to have 2GB of temp files is not uncommon anymore. Heck even games are starting to hit the 10GB+ size so yes 2GB of temp space is not uncommon anymore at all. Without knowing what programs you uninstalled I cant say for sure, but I can say that without EVER cleaning out your temp files that yes 2GB is normal for that folder.

Start>Run>cleanmgr

Cleans your files up for you easily.

 

[JoshuaJay]

I wasn't talking about the Temp file though, I get how that works.

I'm simply asking how can your HD be at 17GB, then you hit 'Restart' and 60 seconds later when it boots up it's at 15GB. That's all that doesn't make sense to me.

I mean, I just don't understand how going through the Boot process eats 2GB of data, not talking about Temp at all. According to what I know about how a OS boots, it doesn't eat Gigabytes of data randomly just from being turned on.

To be more clear. The Temp file was 2GB all along, it is completely separate of the 2GB missing after restart. Two totally separate issues. Sorry for the confusion by mentioning the Temp file.

I think I found the issue, but still doesn't explain how a restart effected it.

 

[KSoD]

You claim in your last post that you uninstalled something and then restarted. Did you refresh your explorer screen to see what the hard drive space truly was before you hit the restart button? Or did you just assume that what you saw on screen was accurate even without refreshing?

So it could very well be that the system only did have 15GB of space left before you hit restart you just didn't know this cause you didn't know the accurate space left before you restarted.

I can't begin to answer your question cause I have no idea what programs you have installed nor do I know what programs you have to auto start at boot up. For all I know it could be due to a RSS gadget on your desktop or a weather gadget. All of which can and do use hard drive space.

How do you know that your Temp file was 2GB? You already claimed to have just found this folder after creating this topic and seemed very perplexed about how it could pre-date this morning. So if you did know about this folder why are you wondering how the files could pre-date today? Let alone how could you know that this folder has not changed in size at all?

I am not understanding your statements at all here. Cause you say 1 thing to start this topic and now you are saying the exact opposite. So which is it? Do you know for a fact that the folder size is and was 2GB before all of this started or did you figure it out afterwards?

As I have already said, uninstalling a program can easily create 2GB worth of temp files. If you did not refresh the screen before you restarted, yes this could easily cause the space difference noted. This could also explain why it didnt show up before the restart and it showed up after.

 

[Slaymate]

It could be happening for a variety of reasons. The first things that come to my mind are System Restore or your Page File.

 

[Lexluethar]

IF you have windows backup setup check those files as well.