windows Hard Drive space not reading right?

[Legend04]

Okay, I don't know if this is a hardware or software problem.

 

My friends laptop is running Vista and he's had it for a little over a year now. He's not exactly computer savvy, (he had over 2GB just sitting in both his recycle bin and temporary internet files for months) but his computer is having a really weird problem.

 

He decided to start cleaning up the space, defragging and uninstalling unused programs. He definitely freed up more than 10GB, but his computer only reads that it freed up 2GB. And with every restart, it changes drastically. From 6GB to 300MB. I seriously have no idea.

 

Any ideas? I can give more background info if needed.

[hobbit]

I've heard of a trojan that eats up your hard drive space. If it is that trojan, most likely it will be in .dll folder and you would have to figure out which one it is and delete it. Even if you run a scan it probably wouldn't show up since scanners don't check your .dll's. Don't remember why though. If your unsure which .dll to delete, just reinstall Vista.

Wait for Dare, Medic, Narug0 or Dixus to give you some answers first though, since they know more about comps then me.

[PHANTASM]

hyberfil can also be a hard drive hog in both Vista and XP. It can store a few GBs depending on what is on your RAM when you turn your computer off. It saves everything in your RAM to the hard drive and would be a different size each time you turn it on and off. If you have a huge RAM this could be your problem.

 

It's just an idea, I don't want to debate it with anyone

 

Here's some details about how to turn it off:

 

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/23741-can-i-delete-hiberfil-sys.html

[SPL><T]

Hey, try cleanin it out with this program,,just DL and install it,,it cleans out unused, temps and Registry. . .Pretty effective if you dont feel like doin a Format !!!

 

 

http://www.ccleaner.com/

[hobbit]

Hey, try cleanin it out with this program,,just DL and install it,,it cleans out unused, temps and Registry. . .Pretty effective if you dont feel like doin a Format !!!

 

 

http://www.ccleaner.com/

RE (Registry Easy) is better imo, as long as you can find a serial for it for free (or you were albe to crack it). I got a free serail so im good, and it shouldnt be hard to find one around anyway.

[Duckie]

Yeah.. sounds more like a virus or corrupted operating system than it sounds like a problem with files sitting in the recycling bin. I have stuff in my bin from LONG ago. And the recycling bin is just a folder anyway. Every once in a blue moon, cpus should be reformatted and the OS should be cleaned out with a fresh install. Sounds like it might be about that time.

[SPL><T]

Agreed Duckie , ,A full Format and fresh install works wonders ! ! And Legend, your Friends computer will run Soooooooooo much faster afterwards !!

[Legend04]

Thanks for all the replies guys!

 

I did CCleaner before I posted this thread; it cleared a lotttt of space, but it didn't fix it. He doesn't have a Vista install disk, so reinstalling isn't going to happen

 

I'm not very clear on formatting. What does it do exactly? Delete everything from the hard disk?

[PHANTASM]

Thanks for all the replies guys!

 

I did CCleaner before I posted this thread; it cleared a lotttt of space, but it didn't fix it. He doesn't have a Vista install disk, so reinstalling isn't going to happen

 

I'm not very clear on formatting. What does it do exactly? Delete everything from the hard disk?

 

Reformatting wipes all the data so you may want to move everything to an external hard drive or back it up on blank DVDs if you have a lot of files (most of us do).

 

Yep, without the install disk you can't reformat. But if you can get another copy, or get an iso online, you could reinstall Vista with your current license and still be in compliance. You could probably get an iso of XP quite easily online.

 

If you don't have the reinstall disc then you probably don't have the drivers and you will have quite a nightmare trying to get everything working again. You won't be able to access the internet in order to download the drivers since your netword card probably needs a driver too.