computer help

[DirtyDeeds]

recently I had my hard drive replaced since it was damaged. I had either a 160 or 180-gig hard drive installed. Either way, it's huge, and more than I would ever need.

Anyway... despite this, and despite me only having my computer back for a couple months, "Low Disk Space" warnings keep popping up. This makes no sense. I have downloaded a few videos and some music files, but nothing as massive as to fill up that whole huge hard drive. I have even deleted most of my video files and a bunch of audio files. But the warnings are not going away. I don't understand.

Could anyone tell me what the problem probably is?

Thanks in advance.

[GET OFF AXLS BACK]

You might need to defrag the hard drive, got to control panel>adminastative tools>the computer management>then select disk defragmentor.And see if that help.

Disk fragmentor organises the hard drive to perform at the best way.

Hope that helps

[DirtyDeeds]

thank you. I'm trying it now. I hope it works. God I don't understand computers at all...

[GET OFF AXLS BACK]

Be patient as defraging a hard drive can take a while, its also worth noting that sometimes when you change or replace a hard drive it tells you your memory is full or nearly full when you have plenty of space.

[eRomano]

Defragging your hard drive won't help much in this case. Rearranging the files is not enough, you need to delete unnessary file. if that does not do it, you must do these:

1) Uninstall all illegal file sharing programs such as Kazaa.

2) Do a disk cleanup:

START -> PROGRAMS -> ACDESSORIES -> SYSTEM TOOLS -> DISK CLEANUP

3) Lower the temporary internet files directory, usually 20 megs is more than enough. Some computer vendors set this ta 10% of the hars drive wich is ridiculous:

In Internet Explorer: TOOLS -> INTERNET OPTIONS -> SETTINGS -> Now edit the amount of disk space to use at 20 MB

4) Have a legal copy of a antivirus program such as Norton Anti-Virus or McAfee Anti-Virus. Illegal copies do not update correctly and you have a chance of getting virusses anyways.

5) Install a Anti-Spyware program such as the free Microsoft Anti-Spyware

[DirtyDeeds]

I defragged and it took about 2 minutes, and I KNOW it should take more than that...

it also told me that I have 0% free space, and it required at least 15% free space to run the defragmenter, but I chose to run it anyway.

I mean, I seriously have more space than this. I would think at most, I was using up maybe 15% of my hard drive, not all of it.

Perhaps what you said is true... I replaced the hard drive, and I have tons of space left, but for some reason it thinks I have none. But this really sucks because it wn't let me run some things because of the supposed lack of space. I wonder what I should do.

[GET OFF AXLS BACK]

You heard the man

[DirtyDeeds]

Thanks, Eric. My temporary internet file thing was up to 675 MB.

I guess I'll have to say goodbye to my bitlord sharing thing.... man... I had only been getting bootleg stuff off it anyway... *sigh*

oh well, I shall give it all a try.

Thanks again.

[DirtyDeeds]

I got rid of bitlord, and now I have 13% free space. Still doesn't seem right. Now I need to get 2% more in order to properly defrag.... On the little graph thing it shows, it seemed like 70% of my files were fragmented.

[Rick]

I got rid of bitlord, and now I have 13% free space. Still doesn't seem right. Now I need to get 2% more in order to properly defrag.... On the little graph thing it shows, it seemed like 70% of my files were fragmented.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Have you been playing a pretty resource high intensity game/video editing?

Sometimes when i've been editing it doesn't clear the temp files like it should so I have to delete them manually.

R.

[DirtyDeeds]

no, I'm not a gamer, nor a video editer.

[eRomano]

Have you gone through steps #1 thru #5, especially #2?

[New Rose]

If you have put your harddrive in different sections you might want to erase stuff from one of them. For example I have installed Windows to C: and all my other stuff is in D:. Sometimes it complains to me about that too, but when I erase stuff from C: it disappears. And yes I left some space there too so I can put stuff there as well, I have not been removing windows files.

Try that, I dont know if it helps.

[highvoltage]

If you've been using BitLord, then I take it you've been downloading torrent files?

Some of those can be quite large. Talking many gigabytes here.

If you've ripped any DVD's to you computer or stored any home movies, they chew up through space very quickly, even on a 180 gig HDD.

To check how much space you've got left, go into "My Computer", Right Click on "Local Disk (C:) and check how much space is on it.

On second thoughts, i've just had a brainwave. If you've got a Hard Drive that large, it's likely that it's been partitioned (split) into two.

I'll post a screenshot to explain what I mean:

See how you've got the "Local Disk (C:)? Notice the F: next to it? My Hard Drive has been split into two, one half for the OS (Windows) and programs (The C:), whilst the other (The F:) is for media, and such. It's possible that you've only been using your C: which is maybe 40GB, whilst you've been ignoring the other half of your Hard Drive. It may not necesarily be named F:, depending on how many CD Drives you have, etc.

So yeah, have a look for that, and post a screenshot of your "My Computer" window if you're still stuck.

Edited August 10, 2005 by highvoltageacdc

[santana]

Yeah, do what High-V says. Your new drive might have been partitioned, as your operating system can not support its size. What operating system are you using?