My hard drive has increased by over 20Gb in less than a week and I haven't even installed anything. My virus check and defragmenting is a constant ritual and everything is in order but where or what is it?
2007-01-16 12:30:26 · 5 answers · asked by Sweet n Sour 4 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
Okay sorry for the more expert in this field
What I meant in fact as some have specified is exactly that, 20GB of my already available memory has been used. This is so far and I can't work out on what. I am thinking of formating my computer and reinstalling everything.
I just hope its not a hacker or someone else using my computer through the internet.
2007-01-16 20:59:56 · update #1
I'm assuming you mean the occupied portion of your HD is increasing.
Whenever you use the Internet, it stores cache files that accumulate. When you open attachments from email they go into your temp directory. But the average user won't take a 20G hit in a week!
You'd have to be doing some heavy surfing. Downloading lots of music and more likely videos.
If this doesn't describe you, then use your search and set the file name as *.* , let it look in system directories but limit the dates to that last week. Then sort by file size when it's done. That should give you the answer.
2007-01-16 12:40:32 · answer #1 · answered by KirksWorld 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think you need to read some basic glurg about what a hard drive is and how to check its size, the amount used and the amount that is free. If you buy a new computer it might have perhaps a 80Gb hard drive. That number is fixed unless you physically replace the hard drive. A few basic programs might take up 10Gb leaving 70Gb free. Defragmenting could change the amount used and the amount free by a small amount but the total would stay the same. To find the total size and used/free parts of your hard drive, double click "My Computer", then right click the hard drive and select "properties". A virus check will not change the free/used parts of a hard drive by anything more than a few Kb.
2007-01-16 20:57:17 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hahaha..hilarious...Could be a number of possiblities...If you are sharing your computer with someone else then if they ahve an acocunt on your computer then the space being used could be invisible to you until you log in as that user...
Another thing you can check: I strongly suggest you right-click on each folder on your drive at the "ROOT" level and sleect "Properties" and let it tally which folder is using up the most space...that folder that uses the most space, traverse into it one level deep and repeat the same step until you locate the folder who is using the most space...that should help you identify who is using it and what it is...
Because the amount of missing space is 20GB i think it throws out the window the possiblity of a large cluster size setting for your drive..Curious, how large is your harddrive...is it like 300-500 GB in size...Anyway, one way to speed up drives is to change cluster sizes of files...the bigger the cluster size the faster your drive will operate, but the problem is the more wasted space you will have that seems to be missing (my computer has a missing 3 GB of space). I just wonder if your cluster size per file is set way high.
2007-01-16 20:38:00 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your available space may have increased due to defraging and clean up, but it cannot physically increase.
2007-01-16 20:38:38 · answer #4 · answered by Jimfix 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
impossible i think... cant get more gb. its physical memory on the harddisk. to get more you must buy. just my belief
2007-01-16 20:35:24 · answer #5 · answered by guitarpr0d0gy 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋