Hard Drive Space Dissappearing?

[sebastian_insua]

I have just recently got a ne PC and have only filled up approximately 25gb/160gb, but recently the number increased to 40gb (without me loading anything additional on).

How do i find what is using up the additional space as when i look at the C Drive through My Computer it says i have used up 40gb, but when i select all of the files in my C Drive it says i have only used up 25gb.

which reading should i trust?

How can i find out where the extra space is being used up and free it?

(i have checked Windows /temp and temporary internet files...

Is there a program which shows more indepth harddrive usage information that i might want?

Thanks!!!

[james_bond_rulez]

what is your operating system?

if you use winxp, system restore might be using up the space

[sebastian_insua]

yep i have windows xp (=use system restore) is there any way i can check how much space is used up by system restore.

[hungrylilboy]

go to start > control panel > performance and maintenace > then click system restore on left hand side under see also

then click system restore settings and u will see a bar that allows u to select how much space u want system restore to use

try deleting all but the most recent restore point and see whether that gets ur space back

[sebastian_insua]

nah it didn't...
http://members.fortunecity.com/black1ce/photos/desktop2.jpg
http://members.fortunecity.com/black1ce/photos/desktop3.jpg
that's what i mean....

edit: those didn't work but nevermind...

[Turkishjade]

Just adding my 2cents, but I had the same problem. I found that the "Disk Cleanup" seems to miss one place on my hard drive:

C:\Documents and Settings\{Your Logged In User name}\Local Settings\Temp

You can delete everything in it, as long as you close all of your programs first.

Oh, and the obvious thing would be to clear the cache of your internet browser.

[Legolas]

try "diskvision"- awesome visual hard drive space tool

[peat moss]

Here 's a tool to see whats taking up your space. It's free but I 'm sure there are better one's out there.

http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml

[Z-95]

Did your computer just suffer a crash before the bloated readings? I know on mine a few times after a crash the free space value in the hard drive system area can be corrupted. A quick run of scandisk fixes this for me. (Of course if you didn't suffer a crash, you shouldn't need to do this :D )

[sparsely]

when you're selecting all files for the sizes, make sure hidden/system files are being displayed (Tools > Folder Options > View)