Hard drive filling up from unknown source

[Puma44]

I've got an SSD as my "C" drive running windows 7.  It has been filling up with data from an unknown source and is just about full.  I do the Microsoft updates that are required.  I do a frequent disk cleanup which typically yields about 500-600 mb of space.  All of my photos and videos are stored on a separate drive.  I have not added any additional software that would account for the loss of space.

Any ideas about where the mystery data is coming from and what I can do to stop it from occurring?  Thanks in advance. 

[Bizman]

Failed Windows updates... I once saw a 80 GB disk almost full. 70 GB was in the Update folder, downloaded but failed to install, redownloading after every boot.

If that's the case, take a look at this: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/307546-windows-updates-remove-outdated-updates-windows-7-a.html

[Chalenge]

If you are using Premiere to make videos it has a media cache on your C drive that will act just like you mentioned.

[ImADot]

Are you a Beta/Gamma player in Elite Dangerous? I just found this on their forum:

Recently noticed that my C-drive was getting fuller and fuller and I couldn't work out why.
Eventually I discovered that with every instance of patching/updating Elite Dangerous, the installation of 'Microsoft C++ 2012 Redistributable (x86) - 11.0.6103' triggered the creation of a new restore point. For some reason my system was configured such that 50% of the drive was available for restore point storage, so with all the Elite upgrades/patches over the last month or so my drive had rapidly filled.
I have now configured things so that only 15% of my C-drive is available for restore point storage.
Anyway, just thought I'd mention this in case anyone else was noticing their HDs filling up! [/qoute]

[100Coogn]

I've got an SSD as my "C" drive running windows 7.  It has been filling up with data from an unknown source and is just about full.  I do the Microsoft updates that are required.  I do a frequent disk cleanup which typically yields about 500-600 mb of space.  All of my photos and videos are stored on a separate drive.  I have not added any additional software that would account for the loss of space.

Any ideas about where the mystery data is coming from and what I can do to stop it from occurring?  Thanks in advance. 

When you do a disk clean-up, there is also a selection that says 'More Options' 
Have you tried that?  It will delete any shadow copies as well as all but your most recent restore point.
If your system has been running good and you haven't had to use System Restore, I would choose that clean-up option.



Coogan

[steely07]

Great advice above, just another thing, grab a copy of treesize from here : http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/

It will tell you what is using all the space.

Salute

Steely

[Puma44]

Great advice above, just another thing, grab a copy of treesize from here : http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/

It will tell you what is using all the space.

Salute

Steely

This turned out to be the key.  As it turns out, the half dozen movies I've got on my IPAD have chosen to save themselves on my C drive, courtesy of ITunes.  They no longer live on my C drive and I now have a healthy amount of free space on my hard drive.

When I do the disk cleanup, the More Options is exercised also.

When researching use of an SSD, I found that movie play or editing is bad because of the rewrite activity.  So, I've avoided doing so.  

Failed Windows updates... I once saw a 80 GB disk almost full. 70 GB was in the Update folder, downloaded but failed to install, redownloading after every boot.

If that's the case, take a look at this: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/307546-windows-updates-remove-outdated-updates-windows-7-a.html

I attempted to download the windows add on but, got a message that it was already on the computer.

Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions gents!  I appreciate the help and expertise.  

[SilverZ06]

I attempted to download the windows add on but, got a message that it was already on the computer.

Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions gents!  I appreciate the help and expertise.   

To get to this you need to search "disk cleanup" in the start menu, right-click on it, and run it as administrator. Then you will see the option to remove old updates. 

[Puma44]

Thanks Silver!  I didn't know that.   

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Unless your SSD is a prehistoric one there's no need to limit your usage. Just use it like you would use any drive. The modern drives can take a huge punishment as seen in the 2 petabyte thread.

[steely07]

Glad you got it sorted

[Bizman]

I attempted to download the windows add on but, got a message that it was already on the computer.

Apparently it has been among the regular updates, I got the same message on mine. Anyway, that means you have the option in the cleanmanager to clean windows update.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

System restore and shadow copies tend to eat up huge amounts of disk space along with archived service packs etc. I usually disable restore from the get-go since I haven't yet found the need for it. The few cases where I've tried it I ended up reinstalling in the end anyway.

[Puma44]

Unless your SSD is a prehistoric one there's no need to limit your usage. Just use it like you would use any drive. The modern drives can take a huge punishment as seen in the 2 petabyte thread.

Mine is about 3-4 years old.  I don't know if that counts as prehistoric. 

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Mine is about 3-4 years old.  I don't know if that counts as prehistoric. 

In SSD history that begins to be already on the old side - but still if it's a normal 128Gb or bigger drive from a 'regular' manufacturer like Corsair, OCZ, Samsung, Intel, Kingston etc. you should be just fine with it. If you have had it basically full for a long time those memory blocks have not 'worn' at all. So if you clean the drive from cruft you have gigabytes of completely fresh cells at your disposal along with the overprovisioning gigabytes which are always stored to replace possible single broken cells.