Computer files.....?

Question

I would like to know if there's a way to find out what are the newest files added to my computer or files that have recently been added. I know I can look up files in Windows Explorer by the date order but unfortunately some files get placed in different folders and I wanted to know if there was a less time consuming way to find them. For example my hard drive had 10 gigs free when I last checked it say 1 week ago.....today I check it cuz it said it was low on disk space and it had 22mb to my astonishment.....I want to know what could possibly be on my system!! Any suggestions PC geniouses ?

Answer 1

Space could also disappear when a file expands, so look for files that have been modified in the past 5 days.

Search will let you do that, although it will list files from all over.

I recommend ccleaner, it's free and may make all the difference for you.

http://www.ccleaner.com

Answer 2

That's an awful lot of space to leak away in a week or so. In addition to looking for new files, as Geekout describes, you might want to run some anti-malware programs to see if something has taken up residence and is using your machine for file storage.

If you have an anti-virus, I suggest you make sure it has the latest virus definitions and run it. If you don’t have one, many people here swear by AVG (it’s free).

I also suggest you download Ad-Aware SE and Spybot S&D (they’re free), install them, update them and run them. If any of the above doesn’t seem to be able to get rid of everything it reports finding, try running it again, this time in Safe Mode. Safe Mode often prevents the malware from running and protecting itself.

Also, turn off System Restore to evict any copies of bad stuff that might be lurking there.

To get into Safe Mode:

1. Log out and reboot your machine.
2. When the machine starts the reboot sequence, press the F8 key repeatedly.
3. Select Safe Mode from the resulting menu.
4. The machine will continue booting, but the Windows desktop will look different. You won't be able to see the Internet, for instance. Log in as Administrator. Administrator often has no password.
5. When you're finished, log out and reboot back into normal mode.

Update and run them all regularly.

Good luck.

Answer 3

You can do an advanced search to see what files/programs were added on specific dates

Start>Search>All files/folders>Click on the "When was it modified" then choose "Specify dates" choose the date of your choice also in the drop down box select "Created"

You will then get a list of the files that were created on that particular date

Answer 4

It's not your hard drive space, it's the amount allotted in your settings for certain tasks.

WILL ADD. Go to system tools, disk cleanup and check all of the options there. And use the cleanup tool while your there.

Answer 5

It can be a Virus bildingup in your system takeing up your hard drive.

Answer 6

CCleaner

Answer 7

search has options for date.