Member Avatar for wmc1956

I have an HP Pavilion a820n that I formatted and reinstalled Windows XP because it had a virus and now it keeps saying there is low disk space (about 415 MB) and when you try to run videos it keeps stopping and starting. It has a 6G hard drive and about 1G of RAM. Before it got the virus it ran videos fine and never said it had low disk space. The only program it has besides the bare necessities is CA Internet Security Suite which it did not have before the virus. Anyone have a clue what the problem is? Thanks!

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A short, practical diagnosis and checklist that adds to the replies by , and .

A very small C: (6 GB) plus 1 GB RAM means a few system files or a single large folder will quickly eat free space and make playback stutter. Usual culprits are: System Restore/Volume Shadow data, the paging file (pagefile.sys), the hibernation file (hiberfil.sys), antivirus quarantine/logs, or leftover Windows update/uninstall folders. System Restore on XP can consume a large fraction of a small volume (XP will allocate up to about 12% of a >4 GB volume), and the pagefile is often set to roughly 1.5x RAM by default — both can take a large slice of a 6 GB drive. System Restore will also stop creating points if free space gets very low (XP uses thresholds around 50 MB / 200 MB). (learn.microsoft.com)

Find what is actually using the space before deleting. As suggested, run a disk-usage scanner (GUI tools are fine); command-line option: Sysinternals Du (runs as Administrator) will list folder sizes quickly. Example commands to run from an elevated cmd prompt: 

du -q -l 1 C:
dir /a c:\pagefile.sys

The Du download/page is on the Sysinternals site. Use the scanner output to locate the heaviest folders (System Volume Information, Windows\Installer, Program Files\CA, etc.). (learn.microsoft.com)

Once you know the offender, take controlled actions: reduce or disable System Restore via Control Panel -> System -> System Restore (disabling deletes restore points), or shrink its slider; examine Virtual Memory settings (My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Performance -> Advanced -> Virtual Memory -> Change) and consider a fixed, smaller pagefile only if the system remains stable; if hiberfil.sys exists and hibernation is not needed, disable hibernation to remove it; run Disk Cleanup to remove temp files and update uninstall data. Back up before removing system files or turning off protections. (support.microsoft.com)

Longer term: a 6 GB disk is simply too small for XP plus security software and media. Replacing the drive with a larger HDD/SSD (or adding external storage for videos) is the most robust fix and will prevent recurring low-space and playback issues — exactly the hardware point raised. After cleanup, run chkdsk and defragment to restore drive efficiency.

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Member Avatar for tigerbright

Hi, 6GB hdd ? i suggest upgrade to a larger hdd, you can accumulate 2GB of internet related records , then there is the page file which may expand to another couple of GBs, then the Windows XP nominal 20% free space - not much left for the Windows sp3 , temp files , applcations etc, however issue seems caould be sound driver issue causing wasted resource usage - what sound device are you using ? if an expansion card i suggest uninstalling then reinstalling using the default windows driver, then upgrade from the computer support site if oem, or the card vendor site if retail/non-original

commented: Welcome back to daniweb, tigerbright. Although i do not know you:) +9
Member Avatar for jingda

What did you reformat in the first place. Not all the time reformating will help you clean up the virus properly. You have to manual remove it. And your 6G hard drive do you mean 6 GB?

Download Windirstat and see what is using your hard disk space. Post back when you are done.

Member Avatar for flagstar

Did you do manual reformat using retail XP or with recovery disk?

Member Avatar for gerbil

Aw, heck... see the thread about pagefile.sys just down the page.
Full and slow? Well, it would be.

Member Avatar for tigerbright

Just one aspect of running Windows XP - it requires a nominal 20% of total hard disk space as user reserved free space to assist efficient processing - Windows will work if encroached upon but performance will suffer

Member Avatar for flagstar

Just one aspect of running Windows XP - it requires a nominal 20% of total hard disk space as user reserved free space to assist efficient processing - Windows will work if encroached upon but performance will suffer

I don't think xp will take that much free space unless you've install on a very limited space. Normally Windows XP alone take about 2GB of space without any third-party program installed and 1.5x space value of RAM for pagefile. If RAM is 1GB, pagefile value would be 1.5GB. So at least 3.5GB would be used for Windows only, leaving the rest free space for personal use and customization.

If 6GB was too small for XP, use nLite XP that was design for small HDD but less performance like netbook etc.

Member Avatar for wmc1956

The strange thing is that after I did the format and reinstall windows and the virus protector there was over a gb left. Then all of a sudden a few days later it was down to about 450mb.

Member Avatar for jingda

So have you found out what happen to the space. Maybe some big files are clogging it up?

Member Avatar for flagstar

If you can, check through WinDirStat like Jingda recommended in previous post to find out which file makes that huge trash on your free space but you don't need to post here.

Check folders except WINDOWS and pagefile.sys to find out where it could clog...

or use CCleaner to clean up for you. If you've been using Chrome or going to heavy based websites or window updates, it might contribute to clog free space...

commented: Yo, buddy +9
Member Avatar for jingda

You might also want to do a scan first. Try Malwarebytes or your antivirus program. Malware could possibly take up your disk space but not that much but no harm checking.

commented: hi... i don't think it's a malware but worth checking anyway +5
Member Avatar for tigerbright

Not wanting to harp on the subject but using a 6GB hdd running late release applications with net access is a loosing battle if optimal performance relative to mainboard device support is desired
A late release and compatible model hdd should wake up processing noticeably as well as removing capacity concerns

Member Avatar for tigerbright

Hi , your drive is a dog to start off with and as storage is used up , it gets slower and slower due to various factors - as i suggested upgrade to later model larger disk drive that is supported.

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