Member Avatar for moxin

I know this sounds funny but I can't find what took all My HD space. I am running win xp with a 60 gig HD. I was trying to switch a mpg file to a svcd file using a program called XMEG. Everything was going fine until I got the little popup box at the lower right of my screen telling me I was running out of HD space. I now only have about 5 gigs (and thats after I deleted a bunch of stuff from my HD). I looked everywhere for what I would think would be a large easy to find file, but I've had no luck in it! Is there anyone out there who knows where my poor poor HD space went? I miss him so!!!!!!!!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by VDPD2005

Dani AI

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Good catch by — when a conversion suddenly chews up tens of gigabytes the usual suspects are not just the video app itself but things Windows and security tools keep out of sight. The likely causes to check (and how to fix them) are below.

  • Empty the Recycle Bin, then run Disk Cleanup (Accessories → System Tools → Disk Cleanup). Use the More Options tab to remove old System Restore points.
  • Show hidden and protected files (Explorer → Tools → Folder Options → View) and check for large pagefile.sys or hiberfil.sys. If you don’t use hibernate, disable it in Power Options to remove hiberfil.sys. Adjust virtual memory settings if pagefile.sys is unusually large.
  • Clear temporary folders: %TEMP%, C:\Windows\Temp, and browser caches. Many encoders write huge temp files there while converting. For big jobs, set the encoder’s temp/output folder to another drive or an external disk.
  • Check your AV (Norton) Vault/Quarantine/Protected-files area — security suites sometimes keep backup copies or quarantined files that can be gigabytes in size. Since recovered space by removing Norton-controlled items, open the Norton UI and look for Quarantine/Vault/Recovery settings and set a sensible maximum or schedule automatic purging. Don’t delete items you might need to restore without first confirming what they are.
  • Use a disk-usage viewer to find the actual folders taking the space (as suggested). Alternatives to try are WinDirStat or TreeSize Free; they quickly show the biggest folders so you don’t have to guess.

A final tip: before mass deleting anything, sort candidates by size and date so you don’t lose recent work. If this came from a conversion, next time monitor free space while the job runs or convert to an external drive to avoid surprises.

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Member Avatar for moxin

Again nevermind, I fixed it myself! Thx for nothing! Again!!! All I did was delete norton protected files and i got all my hd space back. I would have figured that one of the techies would have got it but i guess not!

Member Avatar for crunchie

Maybe if you were that smart you would have set the protected files size when you installed Norton!!

Member Avatar for moxin

I never once said I was that smart...if I did please show me where!

Member Avatar for TheOgre

Again nevermind, I fixed it myself! Thx for nothing! Again!!!

Sometimes it takes longer than 24 hours for someone to read your post, especially on a weekend.

And just a FYI, in order to use the word "again" means you have to have stated something previously, which you didn't. As in, again nevermind. You didn't say you fixed it until AFTER that comment.

And just a note, if you want to get pissed for nobody seeing your post and responding, that's fine. Just keep that in mind the next time you ask for help and wonder why nobody responds...

Member Avatar for moxin

Sometimes it takes longer than 24 hours for someone to read your post, especially on a weekend.

And just a FYI, in order to use the word "again" means you have to have stated something previously, which you didn't. As in, again nevermind. You didn't say you fixed it until AFTER that comment.

And just a note, if you want to get pissed for nobody seeing your post and responding, that's fine. Just keep that in mind the next time you ask for help and wonder why nobody responds...

thx for the heads up bucky

Member Avatar for VDPD2005

and just a little add-on theres a program that tells you what percent folders/files are taking up in your harddrive. It can also use bars and graphs if u want it to.

Get it here: http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/

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