why is my hdd saying i only have 19gb left?

Question

i have a 70gb hdd and its sorta new, a few years, ok, it says i only used liek 15% of it , but then it says i only have 19gb left? whats wrong?

Answer 1

Start here
One should do a disk cleanup everyday and defrag two or three times a week if the computer is used moderately.
1. You may need to do a Disk Cleanup..and be sure you have all the boxes checked....
2. Defrafg your C drive or whatever is your main harddrive... Make sure you have selected the C Drive.... This is called a Disk Defragmenter...
For both go to :
Start...
programs..
accessories...
system tools..
Do this often...
3. Then go to your.. My Documents... Or wherever you keep you personal documents. Right click on each folder, select properties and see what size they are. When you add them up you might find that KBs turn into MBs and they turn into GBs real fast. So you may need to delete what you dont want and burn what you want to CDs. Music, Videos, High quality photos take up tons of space.
4. Some software can take up to 1/2 Gig or more of space. Go through your old software and remove any you are not using. Including any software products that may have come with your computer that you are not using. Check through your ..Add or remove programs in the control panel. I hope this helps some.
Good Luck
E

Answer 2

Interesting situation - I will make the dangerous assumption that you are running a Windows XP system?

If so - delete temp files (not the directories, just the files in them) - this should free up space, however it does not explain the discrepancy between percentage remaining free and the 19gb value you are seeing.

As a question - where are you deriving these two numbers?

If you open My Computer and right click on your hard drive and select properties it should give you a graphic and numeric display of used space on the drive.

If you're tech savvy (not nervous about fiddling with your computer...)

Open Control Panel. Click on Administrative Tools. Click on Computer Management. Click on Disk Management.

The information then displayed includes physical and logical disk information, total capacity, free space and percent free for each drive.

Examining this data may provide insight into the size discrepancy you see displayed.

Hope this helps.

-dh

Answer 3

Just a guess here, but maybe you've filled it up? Try deleting all of the files in both your Temp folder and Temporary Internet files folder. They're located at C:\Documents and Settings\your name\Local Settings.

DON'T delete the folders, just delete every file inside of them. You should recover quite a few gigabytes, if you've never done that. And no, you have absolutely no use for any of those files.

Answer 4

Do a disk cleanup and a defragmentation.