AHHRRGHHH My hard drive!! Memory problems?

Question

Sorry this is a long read, but I'm desparate.

Ughh I've had issues with freeing space on my laptop for a very long time, but now i've got about 600 something megabytes left out of 101 gigs and that number loves to fluctuate whenever i delete and add stuff. But it's always under 4 GB left and I'm sick of it. I'm on vacation taking more photos and small videos now, so I desparately need that little bit of space!

I've tried everything. I googled my problem when I first noticed it and I've tried defragmenting, disk cleanup, deleting temporary internet files (I guess that goes with disk cleanup too...). I'm even trying to delete old videos and pictures and music! But media shouldn't be the problem! My music takes up just over a gigabyte, my videos also just over a gig, and pictures are freaking 54 MB!! Media is definitely not what's eating up my space.

Today I noticed my Documents folder and how large it is. I would have never suspected that because I never store anything in there except Word documents, Powerpoints, and little things like that for school assignments. But it tells me the folder takes up 47.8 GB. That is absolutely insane. 1,340 files and 192 folders (most of which are tiny and/or empty folders needed for programs) The crazy thing is, I select everything (and hidden folders are in view) and at the bottom thing says that "93 items selected, Size: 225 MB" WHAT?!?! This is so confusing! If I could fix this whole 40-something gigabyte My Documents folder issue, I wouldn't mind having a tad bit of clutter everywhere else on my computer. 40 gigs is enough for my pictures and other personal files.

Does anyone have ANY idea why my memory and documents folder is so messed up?

HELP IS APPRECIATED? THANK YOU!!

Answer 1

First, I'm not too familiar with Vista, but I am familiar with the Microsoft Windows platform.



It is likely that somewhere in your documents folder Vista has been storing temporary content although it's hard to imagine over 40GB of space has been allocated.



You stated you have hidden files in view but do you have the "protected operating system" files in view too?



Try looking in this folder...



C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Local Settings



Where "user_name" is the name you have provided to Vista as a user name to log in. Have a look at each folder, right click, properties, and wait for it to size up the content.



EDIT:



Ok. That's your problem. Access denied means it won't report the size of the folder either. There is a setting somewhere, I'm sure, that will allow you complete access to the system as long as you have the "admin" access or whatever Vista is calling it now.



Review your file folder settings in the control panel. In fact, review anything security related in the control panel to see if you can unlock the system to gain access to the system folders.

Answer 2

try this... but to tell you frankly .. i'm not yet a college student nor a working guy... im still 16 years old and a computer freak.. okay.. here it goes.. try copying the important files in your my documents.. and then.. paste it somewhere else safe,, (just copy the important files and paste them somewhere else... choose them 1 by 1.. dont choose them all together..) then delete the my documents folder.. and also clear the recycle bin after deleting the my documents folder.. and make another my documents folder and transfer the files there that you copied earlier... then check the disk space... i hope this helped.. ^_^V good luck with your laptop..

Answer 3

Depending on your settings, your 'System Restore' if it is turned on will fill up your hard drive with stuff it saves each time an update is done to your system.



If your system is running good, if you turn off 'System Restore' it will erase all those restore points and give you back a huge amount of hard drive space.



Check it out and then you can always turn back on the 'System Restore' feature.



Sarge

Answer 4

yeah, i was gonna suggest deleting almost everything in the temporary directory in your folder.....log in as administrator if you arent getting permission.



anyway....what other alternatives I would do:



buy a portable hard disk...their prices are going down drastically.....



but the best thing to get a brand new fresh system: back up all your data, and reinstall your oprating system, formatting your hard disk...i'm telling you you'll be overjoyed at the sighet of a fresh new system and you'll get all your space back..



p.s. why dont you back stuff to dvd's or cd's

Answer 5

Format your hard drive , take it out and format it on another machine to make sure it is done correctly. After this you will be amazed at the space you have after loading up windows again.