# Hard Drive Almost Full But Shouldn't Be



## jerryw242 (Nov 16, 2009)

My ancient (2003) PC, which I am replacing very soon, has only a 20 gig hard drive.  I don't save many files, and was cruising along nicely at about 15 gigs used until about two months ago, figuring I could make it to the upcoming Xmas sale prices.

Suddenly, however, I am down to below 1 gig.  My habits didn't change.  As a matter of fact, I've been steadily shedding documents and applications, or moving them to disks hoping that would  help.  It hasn't, I am down to about 500 megs and certain applications are starting to abort, with messages that they need more free space to operate.

One thing I've noticed is that lately certain Norton routines (aleupdate, etc.) are eating up a lot of memory when I check out Task Manager.  Also, when I reboot, I get a message that "XPcom:EventReceiver" is shutting down.  I don't have XP; I'm poking along with Windows 2000.  Also, even though I shut down my internet connection before I go to sleep, I sometimes wake up to find that my computer has rebooted itself about 3:00 am with a "Windows Update,"  and the machine is really f---ed up.  I have to use Go Back to proceed.

Any ideas?  Thanks, I know that in computer time, this is a call for help from virtually another century, but I'd appreciate it.

Jerry W, NYC


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## linkin (Nov 16, 2009)

delete all your system restore files, they take uo loads of space. run a defrag too.


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## starlitjoker (Nov 16, 2009)

well heres some bad news... 
although it could be temp/system files which can be taken care of by a defrag.. or a system clean..... it could also be this id save the documents and reformat from another external HDD

www.computerforum.com/163824-new-virus-stores-porn-your-computer.html


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## larryq22 (Nov 18, 2009)

i agree with linkedin ... run a disk cleanup.  after it scans the hdd and displays what to delete, choose the "options" tab.  there will be a choice to "delete system restore files".  choose it, ok, ok, and you will free up quite a bit of space.


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## linkin (Nov 18, 2009)

I'd also recommend clearing your temp folder. boot into safe mode first, then:

Start > Run and type %temp%

you can delete everything in that folder, it will not affect anything.


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## Springy182 (Nov 18, 2009)

jerryw242 said:


> My ancient (2003) PC, which I am replacing very soon, has only a 20 gig hard drive.  I don't save many files, and was cruising along nicely at about 15 gigs used until about two months ago, figuring I could make it to the upcoming Xmas sale prices.
> 
> Suddenly, however, I am down to below 1 gig.  My habits didn't change.  As a matter of fact, I've been steadily shedding documents and applications, or moving them to disks hoping that would  help.  It hasn't, I am down to about 500 megs and certain applications are starting to abort, with messages that they need more free space to operate.
> 
> ...



Run CCleaner, it should do a fair amount of cleanup from the sounds of it.


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## tlarkin (Nov 18, 2009)

It could be user specific too.  Turn on viewing invisible files in your explorer options.  Then look at \Documents and Settings\your_user_name\local

Look for any folder in there that is huge and delete it.  Sometimes temp/log files can go crazy and write over and over again until they make files that are gigs in size.


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