twiggystig
Experienced
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2009
- Posts
- 34
Windows (or another process) is actively reading/writing to them, which is why you can't delete them.
Finding Free Disk space
- Thread starter dr_mabeuse
- Start date
Windows (or another process) is actively reading/writing to them, which is why you can't delete them.
temporary internet files and temp folder are two different locations.
the contents of temp can be huge.
I have a picture viewing software that was free with a samseung camera.
I found that every time you run slide show it creats a copy of the entire folder of pictures maybe 20-30 MB in temp.
other programmes may do the same.
to locate temp folder go into control panel. click on folder options. click on view.
in the advanced options list uncheck the hidden files and folders icon.
this will allow temp folder to be visible.
locate this folder and delet the contents.
in the past I have found a visible temp folder with nothing in it.
you need to find the one that is in the hidden folders.
I have deleted everything found in that folder in the past and have never had anything disasterous vanish. they are temp files.
this folder has often contained four or five gig of 'stuff'
the contents of temp can be huge.
I have a picture viewing software that was free with a samseung camera.
I found that every time you run slide show it creats a copy of the entire folder of pictures maybe 20-30 MB in temp.
other programmes may do the same.
to locate temp folder go into control panel. click on folder options. click on view.
in the advanced options list uncheck the hidden files and folders icon.
this will allow temp folder to be visible.
locate this folder and delet the contents.
in the past I have found a visible temp folder with nothing in it.
you need to find the one that is in the hidden folders.
I have deleted everything found in that folder in the past and have never had anything disasterous vanish. they are temp files.
this folder has often contained four or five gig of 'stuff'
satindesire
Queen of Geeks
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2005
- Posts
- 13,101
Have you thought about getting an external Hard Drive and moving all your songs/writing/movies/music to that?
My Aunt is like, OBSESSED with the Sims and has literally gigs and gigs of custom content...so we got her an EHD for Christmas so she could free up disk space. Works really well.
My Aunt is like, OBSESSED with the Sims and has literally gigs and gigs of custom content...so we got her an EHD for Christmas so she could free up disk space. Works really well.
Weird Harold
Opinionated Old Fart
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2000
- Posts
- 23,768
Two filename conventions that your disk probably has in abundance:
Files ending in .BAK and files beginning with '~' Both are MS Office conventions for back-up and temporary save/document recovery files. Every time you have had a computer problem that shut down MS Word/Excel/Powerpoint/Outlook, or other MSOffice component, it leaves a ~*.* file behind. A year or two of the norml trial and tribulations of computer use leaves those auto-save files behind.
Another file type that has probably taken over your drive are *.LOG files. Dozens of programs generate a log of every action they take -- anti-virus logs, e-mail/POP3 logs, Firewall logs and the like can accumulate a Gigabyte or ten over five years.
I'm not sure how Norton handles updates, but AVG keeps the *.BIN file from every previous update even though it never, ever refrences anything except the current update and the previous update. WARNING: be wary of deleting Binary files (*.BIN) because it is a common file designation for important bits of binary information programs need. Make sure you're deleting un-needed updates and not important program components.
In Explorer, click on 'View' on your menu bar and choose "Details" to get a disply like the one in the attachment. Then go to folder options and set "all folders like current folder."
In the Detail view clicking on the header block of each column will sort on that column, or reverse the sort for a second click. Sort on file size and you can find the largest file in each folder.
Also in the View menu, turn on the "Status Bar" -- Each folder will show the nunber of files and total disk usage for those files or the number of files selected and the total bytes selected.
cd1_christine
Really Experienced
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2005
- Posts
- 233
CCleaner FTW.
I agree 100%. I recently put CCleaner on a friend's machine, and removed 10GB of temporary files. They'd already been over some of it manually, trying to find what was taking up space, but lots of places that hide stuff like this use hidden folders, so if you do the right-click-properties trick, you can't find it. It can look like Documents and Settings\username is taking up 10GB, but every folder under your username only takes up 2GB total. The other 8GB is in hidden folders.
CCleaner will find these and remove them.
I agree 100%. I recently put CCleaner on a friend's machine, and removed 10GB of temporary files. They'd already been over some of it manually, trying to find what was taking up space, but lots of places that hide stuff like this use hidden folders, so if you do the right-click-properties trick, you can't find it. It can look like Documents and Settings\username is taking up 10GB, but every folder under your username only takes up 2GB total. The other 8GB is in hidden folders.
CCleaner will find these and remove them.
Hell, newegg.com has a toshiba harddrive that's 1,000 GB, for like $99 right now.
Its not that hard to fill 40GB. I have 940GB at home and its 2/3 full. Sure, I use my PC a lot, but I have friends that make me look like a lightweight.
Don't underestimate the need for drive capacity.
Also, have you run a disk surface scan and defrag'd?
Its not that hard to fill 40GB. I have 940GB at home and its 2/3 full. Sure, I use my PC a lot, but I have friends that make me look like a lightweight.
Don't underestimate the need for drive capacity.
Also, have you run a disk surface scan and defrag'd?
Alot of good advice here...if I may offer a few more..
The machine I'm using right now is my portal machine, meaning it's the one I surf the net with, get email, yadda yadda..you get the idea..the other machine is the one I play MMO games on and do coding with. As a result of this, this machine runs into the out-of-space issue quite often..here's what I've found that might help..
When you go through the various directories on your hard drive from Windows Explorer, start with the very first and go down the list. It might help you to keep track if you arrange the files alphabetically. (I get them confused if I don't and forget where I'm at in the list)
Once you start, make sure to tell Windows to view each directory's contents as *Details*. This will give you a slightly more comprehensive view of the size of the files on your hard drive. Unfortunately you'll have to do this for every folder but the good part is, the first time you do it, you won't have to do it again next time you open that folder.
Viewing as Details gives you the name, size, type and last date modified for every last thing on your hard drive, except the actual folder "containers". (As in the ones you have to click on to access the contents of)
Some things I've found over time that can cause problems like this are old archives (.ZIP, .RAR, .GZ, etc) and a serious culprit can often be your email folders. This is usually because people want to send you all these cutesy things they've found on the 'Net and when you get them, your computer downloads them to your harddrive and stores them as a part of your email until you tell it to actually save the attachment somewhere else. It's surprising to find out but your email folders can grow like a avalanche over time.
Other things to check are programs that did not uninstall properly and have quietly left their installation folder out somewhere on your hard drive (usually program files unless you're like me and deliberately install them into a seperate directory of their own so you can find them again). This happens in many cases when the installer removes everything out of the windows OS but leaves a few files behind that the uninstaller cannot remove due to being locked or other. Just like your email, this can potentially avalanche, especially fi the files it leaves behind are large sized.
As others have pointed out it's always good to clear temp files and defrag. One thing I noticed you mentioned was that you use Norton's. Make sure (and I'm guilty of this too) to empty out your trash bin AFTER clearing temp files and BEFORE defragging. On top of that make sure to tell Norton to empty the protected files from your trashcan as well. Usually done of course by right-clicking and selecting the option to clear all protected files from all potential drives. Norton has a system where even if you delete stuff, it sort of catches it before it actually goes into the Windows OS trashcan so it can help you undelete should you ever make a mistake. Problem is, when you clear the Windows OS it doesn't touch anything Norton's intercepted so you have to tell it to clear both out.
Therefore it makes sense as I mentioned, to clear all temp files, which will end up deleting them, and then emptying both options for your trashcan (Norton & normal Windows) then defragging.
As a last ditch, you might consider splurging about $20 USD for a DVD/CD writer and burning some things to DVD/CD to get larger volumes of free space on your HD.
Dunno if any of this helps but I regularly run into your problem and do a massive purge.
The machine I'm using right now is my portal machine, meaning it's the one I surf the net with, get email, yadda yadda..you get the idea..the other machine is the one I play MMO games on and do coding with. As a result of this, this machine runs into the out-of-space issue quite often..here's what I've found that might help..
When you go through the various directories on your hard drive from Windows Explorer, start with the very first and go down the list. It might help you to keep track if you arrange the files alphabetically. (I get them confused if I don't and forget where I'm at in the list)
Once you start, make sure to tell Windows to view each directory's contents as *Details*. This will give you a slightly more comprehensive view of the size of the files on your hard drive. Unfortunately you'll have to do this for every folder but the good part is, the first time you do it, you won't have to do it again next time you open that folder.
Viewing as Details gives you the name, size, type and last date modified for every last thing on your hard drive, except the actual folder "containers". (As in the ones you have to click on to access the contents of)
Some things I've found over time that can cause problems like this are old archives (.ZIP, .RAR, .GZ, etc) and a serious culprit can often be your email folders. This is usually because people want to send you all these cutesy things they've found on the 'Net and when you get them, your computer downloads them to your harddrive and stores them as a part of your email until you tell it to actually save the attachment somewhere else. It's surprising to find out but your email folders can grow like a avalanche over time.
Other things to check are programs that did not uninstall properly and have quietly left their installation folder out somewhere on your hard drive (usually program files unless you're like me and deliberately install them into a seperate directory of their own so you can find them again). This happens in many cases when the installer removes everything out of the windows OS but leaves a few files behind that the uninstaller cannot remove due to being locked or other. Just like your email, this can potentially avalanche, especially fi the files it leaves behind are large sized.
As others have pointed out it's always good to clear temp files and defrag. One thing I noticed you mentioned was that you use Norton's. Make sure (and I'm guilty of this too) to empty out your trash bin AFTER clearing temp files and BEFORE defragging. On top of that make sure to tell Norton to empty the protected files from your trashcan as well. Usually done of course by right-clicking and selecting the option to clear all protected files from all potential drives. Norton has a system where even if you delete stuff, it sort of catches it before it actually goes into the Windows OS trashcan so it can help you undelete should you ever make a mistake. Problem is, when you clear the Windows OS it doesn't touch anything Norton's intercepted so you have to tell it to clear both out.
Therefore it makes sense as I mentioned, to clear all temp files, which will end up deleting them, and then emptying both options for your trashcan (Norton & normal Windows) then defragging.
As a last ditch, you might consider splurging about $20 USD for a DVD/CD writer and burning some things to DVD/CD to get larger volumes of free space on your HD.
Dunno if any of this helps but I regularly run into your problem and do a massive purge.
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