Why does C: keep filling up?

[Skypix7]

I run Win2K, 2GB memory, tons of hard drive space. I created a 20GB partition for my C: drive and install most of my programs on the D: drive. Yet inexorably, C: keeps filling up with something...I even uninstalled my antivirus, which I had put on C:, and put it on D:, so the constant updates (daily) would fill up that drive.

No help: the daily attrition of free space on C: continues, and now I'm down to about 500MB, which is starting to interfere with my Photoshop speed and performance. I even had a blue screen of death, first ever on my very stable system, which eventually tracked down to an old Norton Ghost driver that was laying dormant, waiting to strike with a page fault, though I only had Ghost on for a couple days before I uninstalled it...two years ago! Weird, still haven't figured out that one.

Any ideas before I'm forced to reformat and reinstall all that crap?

Thanks
Jim

 

[SleepWalkerX]

SequoiaView?

 

[Ryuson99]

Clean out your temp files.

 

[Skypix7]

Thanks SleepWalkerX, looks interesting, I'll give it a try
Jim

 

[Skypix7]

Ryuson99, I've cleaned up every temp directory I could find, it doesn't help. also all *.bak files, *.bmp and other suggestions. I'm going to try the Sequoia, maybe that will give me some insight, because without adding any programs, I went from 5 GB free space down to the 500mb I have now. Maybe it's Windows constant security updates that are doing it, quite possible. but I'm up against the wall!

 

[Smilin]

I'll second that recommendation for sequoiaview. That program rocks.

One thing to check on: Find your "%systemroot%\system volume information" folder and take ownership+give yourself permissions. Then check how much space is being consumed in there. With out permissions to that folder (by default) you won't be able to see if space is being consumed there. The folder is used for system restore and as a temp space for VSS (which is leveraged when backup software is run among other things).

 

[JDMnAR1]

Are you serving any webs/FTP from your machine? By default IIS log files go in %systemroot%\System32\LogFiles, and they can chew up space in a hurry.

 

[MiniDoom]

 

[RebateMonger]

Hopefully, Skypix7's problem isn't like a client of mine, who accidentally opened up an FTP directory on their server to the Public. In no time, they had 35GB of unwanted files on their server. In addition, the unwanted files couldn't be erased using standard methods, since they contained "illegal" file names.

 

[Noema]

I'm not so sure about 2000, but XP tends to gobble tons of HDD space on my Windows partition due to system restore.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Noema
I'm not so sure about 2000, but XP tends to gobble tons of HDD space on my Windows partition due to system restore.

up to 12% if you max out the slider.

It's space well spent.

 

[Skypix7]

Sequoia does indeed rock. Within 10 minutes after I installed and ran it, I'd recovered 7GB of space on C.

Turns out old versions of Photoshop stored the File Browser cache files there...I'm using Photoshop CS now, but there were still 6.5 gigs of cache files and thumbnails from versions 6 and 7! They be gone, my system be acting like she old self again.

Thanks for all the suggestions, folks, but the cache files were definitely the culprit. I'll be redirecting my cache to a large storage drive pronto, believe me.

Jim

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: Smilin

It's space well spent.

Oh, I agree completely. It's just that in a 20GB partition like mine 2.2GB are a nice chunk, so although I keep system restore on all the time, I sometimes look at my drive and think 'Where's all my space?' and then remember about SR.

 

[corkyg]

Two main reasons. 1: Temporary Internet Files. You can empty them now and then. 2: Your page or swap file.

 

[networkman]

Is Hibernate turned on? That could potentially take up a bunch of space. Also, if you've got Microsoft's "Automatic Updates" enabled, you could go in to the root of the WINDOWS(or WINNT) folder and delete those $Uninstal folders if you're not concerned about rolling back updates.

Edit:

 

[Smilin]

THREAD IS OVER FOLKS, MOVE ALONG, NOTHING TO SEE HERE.





but seriously... He found the cause and mentioned it several posts ago. RTFT.

 

[Skypix7]

Yep, problem solved but y'all hang out at the water cooler long as you like, y'hear?

thanks again for all the great suggestions!

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Rather than moving the PS cache, why not optomize PS to reduce cache size?

Working with the File Browser

The File Browser allows you to view, sort, and process images. Photoshop CS also allows you to tag and sort images, search and edit metadata and keywords, and run batch processes. If you open a folder with numerous images in the File Browser, performance may slow while the File Browser creates a cache of thumbnails for the images in the folder. You can make the following changes to File Browser preferences settings to improve performance: turn off High Quality Previews; reduce the size of images processed by the File Browser; reduce the custom thumbnail size if you've set a larger size than the default; deselect Render Vector Files to prevent Photoshop from creating thumbnails of vector files; turn off background processing.

For more information about the File Browser, see the Photoshop User Guide or Online Help.

 

[RapidSnail]

CCleaner works great. I just cleared 5+ gigs of space.

 

[Skypix7]

Thanks for the suggestion..but I process sometimes 700 or more RAW images at a sitting, 8MP images, from which I select about 100 to ship to the magazine. I have to be able to see how good the shot is, which means I think that I need high quality previews, otherwise I don't know which shot of the four in a sequence for instance is the right one.

No sweat, I moved the cache to a 500GB hard drive, now I got lots o room. Also I will check out CCleaner, thanks Snail.

And...does anyone know a good defragger? The one in windows 2000 keeps finishing...or locking up...without actually doing a complete defrag.

thanks again!
Jim

 

[networkman]

I prefer Diskeeper, and not just for personal use. We use it at my work on all 35 servers.

 

[RapidSnail]

Originally posted by: Skypix7
Thanks for the suggestion..but I process sometimes 700 or more RAW images at a sitting, 8MP images, from which I select about 100 to ship to the magazine. I have to be able to see how good the shot is, which means I think that I need high quality previews, otherwise I don't know which shot of the four in a sequence for instance is the right one.

No sweat, I moved the cache to a 500GB hard drive, now I got lots o room. Also I will check out CCleaner, thanks Snail.

And...does anyone know a good defragger? The one in windows 2000 keeps finishing...or locking up...without actually doing a complete defrag.

thanks again!
Jim

Check out the Extended Best-ever Freeware Utilties List for a synopsis on the best free disk defragmenter. Also check out this thread for a huge list of free defraggers.

 

[Skypix7]

thanks Snail, great list of freebies! I'm working with the 30 day eval of perfectdisk, it seems pretty cool, thanks all.

 

[gwag]

photoshop is prety good about leaving large temp files behind some times, also if you have more free space on D change that to your photoshop scratch disk.

 

[Skypix7]

thanks gwag, yep, PS sure does leave some honkers lying around sometimes.

I have my scratch disk set to a 250 gig free space hard drive...my problems were with the C:, but now everything's humming along just fine again.