My D Drive is full but it won't let me access it?

Question

I have windows xp on a gateway computer. Usually the C drive is all I work on. the D drive stores system restore files.

Recently the computer crashed and wouldn't reboot except in safe mode. When I checked disk it said both c and d were ok. When I tried to defrag, I saw the D drive was completely full and all red. I don't know what is in there! it is maxed! I went and clicked on clean D disk, and clicked on "delete all but the last system restore point." THen I turned OFF system restore, as a last ditch effort to defrag or clean up D. Nothing. It is still full, and red. I ran my antivirus (zone alarm pro) on both c and d. Found nothing. I ran adaware. Found nothing. I have a system recovery disk which I've never used. Would that do the trick? I am scared I've lost my computer. I am on another computer now but I am afraid I am going to lose my connection as the router is hooked to the other one and its going crazy.

Any ideas? someone help please.

how do i format the parition then??

for a while, whenever I hit "format" for drive D it kept saying "Drive d is in use, close applications using drive D and try again"
I kept clicking on D to read the files but I kept getting this thing that said it was NET ANGEL -"warning: do not access these files".
I adjusted the virtual memory like alladin said. Finally I managed to reboot my computer without letting it go into safe mode using what msoexp said, out of safe mode I was allowed finally to "Format" for drive D. It cleaned out the drive, and the computer quit crashing and it starts now with no problem.
I want to to give the points to alladin and msoexpert both. I used combinations of both your answers! I used msos advice to get out of safe mode and to format the drive, and also alladin was definitely right, all that stuff in there was from the virtual memory. alladin offered to help further if I still had a prob. that was super nice. Gosh should I put it to vote or just pick one? Why don't they have ties here?

Answer 1

The system recovery disk would work but it wil wipe out EVERYTHING in the process. You say that the D drive had nothing but system restore files but it is possible that your pagefile (virtual memory) is also on D? I ask because IF it is then Windows defrag would show it as fragmented (red) but wouldn't be able to defrag it, especially if the pagefile was corrupted. In general Windows defrag can't defrag the pagefile when the system is fully booted, even in safe mode. If the pagefile or the file system where the pagefile is stored is corrupted then Windows wouldn't be able to initialize virtual memory and will only let you boot into safe mode.


To check this right click My Computer and select 'Properties' then click the 'Advanced' tab. Near the top under 'Performance' click 'Settings' and then the 'Advanced' tab. Near the bottom under 'Virtual memory' click 'Change'. Make sure the C drive is highlighted. Underneath that make sure 'System managed size' is selected and click 'Set'. Click OK several times until the system asks you to reboot then click yes.

Of course if your pagefile is already on C then we'll have to look for other reasons why you can only boot into safe mode. At this point if you don't have anything important on D just open My Computer, right click on D and select 'Format...' The defaults will be fine for now so then click 'Start'

If none of this helps let us know and we'll go from there.


Hey the points don't really matter right? Vote for whichever helped you the most! Or flip a coin! Whoever wins gets the 10 points and if you still feel the need to reward the other person, go through their other answers and give them a thumbs up for each 'best answer'. That person gets a point for every thunmbs up on a best answer.

Answer 2

Usually after a system crash or inadvertent shutdown, the system will go into safe mode once just to make sure things are OK. If your system is consistently going into safe mode, that's a sign that Windows itself thinks something is wrong.

You can force Windows to boot normally by hitting the F8 key just after you hear that the initial beep when you turn the computer on, and before you get the Windows XP logo. This gives you a menu where you can choose options like boot into safe mode, normal mode, etc. You'll want to boot normally.

FYI, you'll have to hit that key pretty fast because Windows XP might start loading before you know it. May have to let it go into safe mode, then hit restart, and try again until you time it just right.

If Windows doesn't find anymore problems, your system should be back up and running just fine. If it freezes or crashes, then that's another story.

If you're able to boot successfully into Windows, check to see what's on the D drive to be sure nothing's gone. Most likely, it should still be working and you probably didn't loose anything. If it is very very heavily fragmented, then you can try defrag, but that will probably take quite a while to do. I would suggest taking anything off that shouldn't be there.

System restore disks generally don't use all available drive space so you might have some other things on there that can be deleted.

The main thing is to get your machine to boot back into Windows without going into safe mode. Even if you left the D drive totally maxed out, it won't hurt anything.

Answer 3

Put the hard drives from the computer into another working computer and take all the files you want to save off them. Then put them back and reinstall windows.

Answer 4

I to did the driving once i ought to attain the pedals, for sure that became 29 years in the past, I drove everywhere & became fortunate sufficient in my state decrease back then I were given my first drivers license at 14.

Answer 5

your filesystem is crashed, nothing can be saved, all you can do is format the partition.