HDD problem

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I have a netbook that I use for quizzes, general surfing and back up of backup and I was adding more music and it told me that it was low on disc space, so I deleted a few gigs worth of music files that I don't use very much and tried to transfer the new music again, but it still wouldn't fit.

I deleted quite a bit and it still showed as completely full. Turned it off and on again, tried scans, clean ups etc but to no avail.

I have been fiddling about with it for about an hour now and have noticed the activity light on the HDD is going although I'm not doing anything and also have just right clicked on the C drive and found that there is now 438 Mb free, so it looks like it's deleting files, but very slowly? The capacity is 149Gb.

Any suggestions?

[Excalibur]

I have a netbook that I use for quizzes, general surfing and back up of backup and I was adding more music and it told me that it was low on disc space, so I deleted a few gigs worth of music files that I don't use very much and tried to transfer the new music again, but it still wouldn't fit.

I deleted quite a bit and it still showed as completely full. Turned it off and on again, tried scans, clean ups etc but to no avail.
Any suggestions?
Sorry mate, you've already done what I would have suggested. :o :o

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I've just taken another 650Mb off and it hasn't shown up on the HD either.

Also, it said it had 438Mb free and now it has 404Mb free and I haven't put anything back on!

[DeckstarDeluxe]

the notebook isnt running hot or anything else daft like that Darren?
is it running slowly than it should, is it taking ages to load/unload date and open up programs?

[Excalibur]

I've just taken another 650Mb off and it hasn't shown up on the HD either.

Also, it said it had 438Mb free and now it has 404Mb free and I haven't put anything back on!

It's Dysnumerate? :confused:

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

the notebook isnt running hot or anything else daft like that Darren?
is it running slowly than it should, is it taking ages to load/unload date and open up programs?

Nope and the space is still going down...

[DeckstarDeluxe]

sorry not sure what to suggest then.

Had it long? been thinking about getting a notebook for image projection etc...

[Disco Leisure UK]

Possibly you could have some large hidden files somewhere? if your hard drive is thrashing have you any antivirus programs running in the background?, I was told to use a program called windirstat, apparently it scans all your drive and folders including hidden folders and lists every file and application on your PC and shows how large the files are, you can then clean and delete them, I have not used it as of yet but the local PC store advised me about this program.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Possibly you could have some large hidden files somewhere? if your hard drive is thrashing have you any antivirus programs running in the background?, I was told to use a program called windirstat, apparently it scans all your drive and folders including hidden folders and lists every file and application on your PC and shows how large the files are, you can then clean and delete them, I have not used it as of yet but the local PC store advised me about this program.

At this point, that doesn't really matter, as I have deleted large files and the space isn't showing. That's the problem.

[discomobiledj]

Have you emptied them from your recycle bin?

[DJ James Lake]

It sounds like the directory has got corrupted on the drive. That would cause similar problems

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Have you emptied them from your recycle bin?

Indeed.

[Disco Leisure UK]

Virus or Worm? when did this start you could try system restore and go back either a few days or week etc before this problem showed up...

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Virus or Worm? when did this start you could try system restore and go back either a few days or week etc before this problem showed up...

I have system restore off on this lappy.

I think I've sussed it. There is a programme called Roxio Back On Track that I didn't even know was on there...

I'll let these people explain..


HP has installed Roxio Back On Track on my HP Mini and it doesn't seems to care how much space it takes up when it automatically saves state. It can easily take up the entire disk with files hidden from Windows. Defragmenting won't help. First, plug your computer in and right-click>Properties on the desktop. Go to Screensaver>Power and set all the Plugged-In values to Never. This process is going to take a long time and could make the space unrecoverable if interrupted, so make sure that doesn't happen. Don't allow your computer to hibernate and don't put the screen down until it's finished. Go to Programs>Roxio>Back On Track. Look under Free Disk Space for previous saved states and look at the bottom-left to see how much space the backups are taking up. Keep the original restore point but delete the others and turn off the automatic save state option if you can. You can only delete saved states if the Continue button turns orange when selected. It's best to manually save state when you get your computer the way you like it but before you start adding pictures, videos, or other files. Last, click the Disk Cleanup button and delete the Roxio Saved States using the Disk Space Cleanup Manager.

There was a more simple solution though, which is...


It was 34GB of Roxio BackOnTrack 'recovery' files, including copies of every antivirus update, windows search update and anything that had ever been in my recycle bin! Completely ignored the setting to keep only 14 days of deleted files. Obviously a very sloppy app and shame on HP for preinstalling it.

Of course it took me a few days to figure all this out. And Windows 7 disk cleanup utility would identify the files but was unable to delete them succesfully. Final answer: Unintalling Roxio BackOnTrack through the control panel. Files gone, app gone, and my disk has room to breathe again...

...so basically, this bit of software made a copy of everything including what was in the recycle bin, so everytime I deleted something it took more space up!

I have deleted the programme and 25Gb of space has magically appeared. That's 2 hours of my life that I'll never get back. Another 14 hour day again. :(

[DeckstarDeluxe]

I have system restore off on this lappy.

I think I've sussed it. There is a programme called Roxio Back On Track that I didn't even know was on there...

I'll let these people explain..



There was a more simple solution though, which is...



...so basically, this bit of software made a copy of everything including what was in the recycle bin, so everytime I deleted something it took more space up!

I have deleted the programme and 25Gb of space has magically appeared. That's 2 hours of my life that I'll never get back. Another 14 hour day again. :(

and heres me thinking it was your dancing that was the issue ;)

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

and heres me thinking it was your dancing that was the issue ;)

Haha! I was dancing whilst the laptops were backing up and then they stop backing up 'cos of this problem, so I stop being joyful and stopped dancing. :(

[BeerFunk]

You'd think that people or companies would be held accountable for software defects such as these. That said, it's difficult to prove how much time and resources you wasted, as an individual user - but this type of thing certainly wouldn't be acceptable in a multi-user office environment.

[DJ Jules]

You'd think that people or companies would be held accountable for software defects such as these. That said, it's difficult to prove how much time and resources you wasted, as an individual user - but this type of thing certainly wouldn't be acceptable in a multi-user office environment.

There are now successful cases in the US where users have sued software manufacturers for shipping software with defects. No UK precedent yet though...

Julian