Help - my computer says the disk is full?

Question

But its an 80gb disk and I only have aboput 20gbs of files on it as far as I know. How can I find our where all the memory is used up as I have five family users on the computer and lots of files. Alternatively, could it be a virus causing this?

I have done disk cleanup, but it only yielded 1gb of space. Many thanks

Answer 1

So far as i know, there is no thing can fill up you 80GB hard disk, even when you turn hirbenate fucntion, system restore upto 50%, or even paging file. its maxium space would not exceed 20GB.
so, do as follow, go to start -> settings -> control panel -> administrative tools-> computer management, you will see a windows appears, look for and click on the "Disk management", you will see all information about your disk and partitions as well. for example, total capacity, number of partitions, free space, used space.
look at used space, free space and capacity and see is it real capacity is 80GB or not.
if your hard disk capacity is about 75GB, and the used space is nearly 75GB, for example, so there must be something is hidden on you disk. do one more thing, from windows explorer, go to Tools -> Folder Options , choose View tab -> Tick to the circle named show hidden files and folders -> OK and OK
after go back to your disk and check each folder seperately and see if any folder has exceeded the estimated space or not. for example, maximum space for windows folder is about 2.5GB, for programme files varies from 2GB - 4GB depends on your usage. other folders, you can check by yourself and find out what make your disk full like that.
if the disk capacity is not about 75GB, so please check again with the store where u bought it.
maybe there is some partition hidden and have not formated yet.

Answer 2

It's 80gb and you only have 20gb of files? Maybe you only have a 20gb partition formatted. A hard disk or hard disk partition needs to be formatted in order for the operating system to use it.

I'll assume you're using Windows XP (correct me if I'm wrong, though). If that is the case, you can use Disk Management in Windows to check if you have unpartitioned or unformatted space. First go to Start, click Run, then type compmgmt.msc. Then, in this window, go to Storage, and then Disk Management.

Don't know if this is the cause of your problem, but it's worth checking.

Answer 3

Open My Computer
right-click on C:
click Properties

You should get a pie-shaped reading of used and unused space on your hard drive.

Do you do regular housecleaning?

> Screensavers run in the background while you are working. They use memory. Screensavers with graphics eat memory. For this reason, I have reset mine to blank.

> How about Startup?

Load only those programs you use daily. For the rest, surely you can wait a minute for them to load.

Regularly, run a Disk Cleanup, Scandisk, and a Defrag. These commands are in Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools.

Get rid of your history:
click Tools
Internet Options
Delete Cookies
Delete Files (offline content)
Clear History
Set days to keep pages in history to 0.

Would be interested in knowing if this helps.

Answer 4

Ok. To see how much space you're really using, go to Start, My Computer, then right click on the hard drive icon and click properties. The pie chart has 2 pieces. The blue piece is how much space is used.The purple is only free space.

I would recommend you go through your documents and delete any unneccesary files. I would also go to the control panel and click on add or remove programs and uninstall any unneccesary programs. That not only removes files, but it speeds up your pc.

Answer 5

lol, 5 users on 1 computer? no wonder your disk is full,(everyone downloads stuff), and if you use Windows XP, the 'Windows Restore' would take alot of space..try to login as admin before doing clean up

Answer 6

windows uses some for its pagin system and recycle binyoy can do a disk cleanup to free some of it and reduce the ammount of space the recycle bin uses

Answer 7

umm....if ur putting information on the disk it says it's only using a little but it's using more....if ur putting music on it ...it might have stuff on it already..i don't know..good luck

Answer 8

I think so you should delete some unwanted files and install antivirus software. "But do as you think". Best of luck!