Memory on the C drive?

Question

Looking at properties on my C drive and it states that I have currently used only 13GB (it's a new computer).
Yet, BT informed me that I downloaded over 16GB last month and went over my limit. How is this possible?
Is memory stored elsewhere on the computer? I hardly download anything, just email attachments from friends.

Answer 1

Thats a great question.

I need to ask, did you stream any video files? Like watching them, without saving them? This would use a lot of bandwidth and you would not be able to detect it by checking the C drive.

Otherwise, did you delete stuff that you downloaded? or

Someone might have used your account to download stuff. It's scary but people hack other people's accounts and download as much as possible.

Answer 2

Internet/Broadband usage does not equate to storage usage.
BT say you downloaded 16GB, this does not mean you downloaded and saved 16GB of data it means you accessed 16GB of data.
Although this is seems quite a lot, do you share your internet connection with other coputers in the house ?
When wathcing streaming music (radio) or films the bandwidth will constant and possibly quite high but your computer may only store part of the data (buffer) at any one time.
Also, IE and other browsers cache any pages you see (up to a limit) but may be set to clear out all the tempory stuff when you shutdown or start up or you may have done it manually.
Do you play online games ? Although the throughput of these is small you have to consider any updates or new maps you may have downloaded.
If your computer is online all the time, check to see if you have a virus or adware as these may be sending and recieving over the connection when you are not using the computer.

As you can see there are many explanations as to why the usage is high but there is no evidence of it!

If you still think it is wrong then you could try finding out when the most bandwidth is used and try to remember if it was you or not.

It is unlikely that someone is using your connection without your knowledge UNLESS you have an insecure wireless connection and you are finding people sitting outside your house using a laptop or your neighbours are getting free internet through it! If this is the case SECURE it with a password at least.
Some wireless routers store the MAC of any equipment connected to it so log onto your router and see.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Not everything will be stored on your C drive. Only the stuff that you may have downloaded and decided to store there. For example e-mail attachments count towards your download limit and these are usually stored in temporary Internet files. There are also cookies, downloaded from sertain websites automatically, though small they also will count towards your limit So maybe check your temporary internet folder and add up the sizes from the files in there and see if you get the extra 3GB.

Answer 4

Yep - I agree that is probably a good reason - that someone is using your broadband link. Do you have a wireless router - if so ensure that you have some form of protection from non-approved users. Check your router documentation for details.
Remember however that the data downloaded from the net is overwritten when you visit the same site... so if you visited the same site which downloaded large amounts of data then you could have the same result - ie high download rate and nothing to show for it on your computer. ... but 16GB is a lot of data.

Answer 5

often when looking at whatever online the files and pics and videos go into a temporary internet file and are deleted every time you restart your computer some computers will use what is called a virtual drive which works as a pretend drive or a temporary holding space seperate fom your main hard drive thus freeing up memory and space on your c drive.

Answer 6

Your reminiscence area may be low because you save too a lot in personal computer or files to modify force length you should thoroughly format the frustrating force and create new partition

Answer 7

You will need to go to Tools, Internet options and then empty the temporary files and cookies from the computer, it is amazing how much of the space can be filled with these files just by surfing the Internet.

Answer 8

It is possible to have multiple partitions. You may be storing music on another drive like D:

It may be possible to compress the data, but not without performance loss.

Answer 9

your hard drive contains things that are saved on your computer. when you connect to the internet you are downloading all the time by visiting sites but you do not save it to your hard drive.

Answer 10

I would

Install firewall
Install Anti-virus
Update virus definitions
Scan the whole machine for viruses
See if anyone else has used the PC

Oh - encrypt wireless router if applicable