Take a look at our
ThinkPads.com HOME PAGE
For those who might want to contribute to the blog, start here: Editors Alley Topic
Then contact Bill with a Private Message

Rapidly running out of disk space.

Windows 7 on ThinkPads
Post Reply
Message
Author
killer
ThinkPadder
ThinkPadder
Posts: 1483
Joined: Mon May 28, 2007 5:26 am
Location: West Sussex, UK

Rapidly running out of disk space.

#1 Post by killer » Fri May 01, 2015 12:21 pm

On my T540p running Win 7 64 I have 444GB of hard disk space. A few days ago I only had about 70GB of free space. So I shifted a lot of files to a network HDD, deleted loads of old stuff, and managed to have over 80GB free. Today I have 26.8GB free. Hardly anything has been added by me since I had over 80GB free.
I did a search using the argument size:gigantic and there are a few files of 600Mb showing but nothing exceptional.
All music files and most photos are on the network HDD.
I ran Malwarebytes. No malware found.
I ran MSSE scan. Nothing found.

What could be causing this?
T540p Win 7 Pro 64

X1 Carbon Win 7 Pro 64 for my wife.

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

Dogs must be carried on the escalator. Where can I find a dog?

brchan
ThinkPadder
ThinkPadder
Posts: 1345
Joined: Sun Jun 01, 2014 11:43 am
Location: West Lafayette, Indiana

Re: Rapidly running out of disk space.

#2 Post by brchan » Fri May 01, 2015 12:26 pm

Are you running any backup software? If they are set to take snapshots of the drive, then they can eat up a lot of space.
Current Thinkpads: W530 (functional classic keyboard mod), X301, T61, T60, T43, A31p, T23, 600X, 770
Other: mk5 Toughbook cf-19, mk1 Toughbook cf-53

Hans Gruber
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 817
Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2005 6:18 am
Location: Seattle, WA

Re: Rapidly running out of disk space.

#3 Post by Hans Gruber » Fri May 01, 2015 2:27 pm

Instead of trouble shooting the problem, add a 1TB HDD in either the primary or secondary slot. If that drive fills up, trouble shoot.
:beer: T43p,T61,X200,X200s,x201,T500,W500,T510,T410,T410s,T420s,T430,T430s :parrot:

rkawakami
Admin
Admin
Posts: 10327
Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2006 1:26 am
Location: San Jose, CA 95120 USA
Contact:

Re: Rapidly running out of disk space.

#4 Post by rkawakami » Fri May 01, 2015 3:56 pm

The old DOS-user in me would take a "snapshot" of the entire disk at one point in time, wait for a day or two and then take another snapshot.

Open a DOS window, cd to C:\ and type: dir/a/s > c:\full_disk_listing_before.txt

Let some time pass then: dir/a/s > c:\full_disk_listing_after.txt

To compare the two listings: fc /l /w full_disk_listing_before.txt full_disk_listing_after.txt

There may be a Windows utility that does the same thing.

edit: Note that if you use a browser during that interval, then the files that are cached will be different. To avoid/minimize this, purge your browser(s) cache before running the dir command.
Ray Kawakami
X22 X24 X31 X41 X41T X60 X60s X61 X61s X200 X200s X300 X301 Z60m Z61t Z61p 560 560Z 600 600E 600X T21 T22 T23 T41 T60p T410 T420 T520 W500 W520 R50 A21p A22p A31 A31p
NOTE: All links to PC-Doctor software hosted by me are dead. Files removed 8/28/12 by manufacturer's demand.

killer
ThinkPadder
ThinkPadder
Posts: 1483
Joined: Mon May 28, 2007 5:26 am
Location: West Sussex, UK

Re: Rapidly running out of disk space.

#5 Post by killer » Fri May 01, 2015 4:02 pm

I went to the pub this evening ... well, it is Friday night ... and the local Windows guru said to try "treesize" free version. I did, and it showed that Rescue & Recovery was the culprit.
Having deleted all but the base recovery file form R&R gave me 191GB of free space.
I don't remember R&R doing this in the past in its previous forms.
Lesson learnt ... when your system is stable delete the R&R files, do a new backup and away you go.

8)
T540p Win 7 Pro 64

X1 Carbon Win 7 Pro 64 for my wife.

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

Dogs must be carried on the escalator. Where can I find a dog?

rkawakami
Admin
Admin
Posts: 10327
Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2006 1:26 am
Location: San Jose, CA 95120 USA
Contact:

Re: Rapidly running out of disk space.

#6 Post by rkawakami » Fri May 01, 2015 4:06 pm

Like I said, there's a Windows utility that can do this but it's fun using DOS! Hmmm... maybe not possible with DOS if R&R uses another partition to save the files. I'm not familiar with the ins-and-outs of R&R as I prefer to do my own backups.
Ray Kawakami
X22 X24 X31 X41 X41T X60 X60s X61 X61s X200 X200s X300 X301 Z60m Z61t Z61p 560 560Z 600 600E 600X T21 T22 T23 T41 T60p T410 T420 T520 W500 W520 R50 A21p A22p A31 A31p
NOTE: All links to PC-Doctor software hosted by me are dead. Files removed 8/28/12 by manufacturer's demand.

killer
ThinkPadder
ThinkPadder
Posts: 1483
Joined: Mon May 28, 2007 5:26 am
Location: West Sussex, UK

Re: Rapidly running out of disk space.

#7 Post by killer » Fri May 01, 2015 4:29 pm

Thanks Ray,

The largest file now is in Windows and is called CSC, nearly 100GB. After that comes Winsxs at 10GB which in the context of things is tiny.
A search on CSC warns about trying to mess with it as it can cause a complete failure.
I'm finding this all rather mind boggling. :roll:
T540p Win 7 Pro 64

X1 Carbon Win 7 Pro 64 for my wife.

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

Dogs must be carried on the escalator. Where can I find a dog?

RealBlackStuff
Admin Emeritus
Admin Emeritus
Posts: 23809
Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:17 am
Location: Loch Garman, Éire

Re: Rapidly running out of disk space.

#8 Post by RealBlackStuff » Fri May 01, 2015 8:18 pm

Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
.

killer
ThinkPadder
ThinkPadder
Posts: 1483
Joined: Mon May 28, 2007 5:26 am
Location: West Sussex, UK

Re: Rapidly running out of disk space.

#9 Post by killer » Sat May 02, 2015 4:51 pm

Thanks for the advice, RBS, but Win 7 64bit doesn't allow any of the stuff you suggested.
My real concern is Lenovo R&R which is still taking acres of HD space despite being on a separate partition.
I really fail to understand this and am thinking of ditching R&R in favour of an alternative.

Any suggestions?
T540p Win 7 Pro 64

X1 Carbon Win 7 Pro 64 for my wife.

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

Dogs must be carried on the escalator. Where can I find a dog?

rkawakami
Admin
Admin
Posts: 10327
Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2006 1:26 am
Location: San Jose, CA 95120 USA
Contact:

Re: Rapidly running out of disk space.

#10 Post by rkawakami » Sat May 02, 2015 6:57 pm

For my "mission critical" machines, which currently are three A31p systems, I clone the drives (when the mood strikes me; don't have a real schedule) using Ghost. I prefer doing it this way, rather than imaging, as I can simply swap the drives and be back to where I was when the cloned copy was made. Granted, it's not a system which allows me to have daily or weekly backups but I can live with it. For the important files that I need to be able to refer and/or update no matter where I am or what system I'm using, those are on Dropbox.

edit: I should say that for my main home A31p, it's a little bit of an extra challenge to backup. I'm booting from an Ultrabay-connected 320GB SATA drive in the right bay. The main HDD bay is empty although I'm thinking about putting one back in there some day. The left Ultrabay has a DVD writer. The system is always mounted to a port replicator and in turn, there's a external floppy drive attached using the floppy port (not USB). So, to backup I remove the DVD writer, put another Ultrabay SATA HDD adapter in with a 320GB drive and boot from a Ghost 2003 floppy. The other A31p systems are more "normal" in that I use an Ultrabay PATA HDD adapter to clone from the main drive. Those systems are also on port replicators or docking stations using the same type of floppy.
Ray Kawakami
X22 X24 X31 X41 X41T X60 X60s X61 X61s X200 X200s X300 X301 Z60m Z61t Z61p 560 560Z 600 600E 600X T21 T22 T23 T41 T60p T410 T420 T520 W500 W520 R50 A21p A22p A31 A31p
NOTE: All links to PC-Doctor software hosted by me are dead. Files removed 8/28/12 by manufacturer's demand.

killer
ThinkPadder
ThinkPadder
Posts: 1483
Joined: Mon May 28, 2007 5:26 am
Location: West Sussex, UK

Re: Rapidly running out of disk space.

#11 Post by killer » Fri May 15, 2015 3:44 pm

I think I have solved matters for the time being. All R&R stuff has been copied to my NAS drive. I then made sure I had an R&R recovery disk on CD. After uninstalling R&R and deleting anything on the C drive, I reinstalled R&R. Suddenly I have 262 GB of free space on my C drive. If I didn't have to pay for a replacement recovery service (like Acronis) then I'd dump R&R completely. Safety first though.
BTW, I discovered there was a fault with a hardware part while doing diagnostics. A chap from Lenovo came within 24 hours and replaced the faulty 16 GB SSD card. Thank heavens for 3 year warranty.
T540p Win 7 Pro 64

X1 Carbon Win 7 Pro 64 for my wife.

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

Dogs must be carried on the escalator. Where can I find a dog?

Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “Windows 7”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 24 guests