Lost all of my HDD space out of nowhere?

TheRock88

TheRock88

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So I turned on my laptop and just happened to look at how much HDD space I have left and I still had 15 GB left. Booted up Steam (which didnt download any updates) to see if my friends were on and left my laptop for like 5 minutes to go get something to eat. Came back and there was a little warning message on the bottom right of my screen saying I was really low on HDD space. Thought WTF and went to check My Computer and now it says I only have 145 MB. Rebooted my computer thinking it would go back to normal but nope (it jumped up to 1 GB though).

My friend (who has the exact same laptop I have) said he had the same thing happen to him too a few weeks ago and couldnt find a solution for it. Anyone have any ideas how it could deplete the HDD space that fast? The only applications I had open was Firefox, Steam, and Raptr if that matters.

 
TheRock88 said:
So I turned on my laptop and just happened to look at how much HDD space I have left and I still had 15 GB left. Booted up Steam (which didnt download any updates) to see if my friends were on and left my laptop for like 5 minutes to go get something to eat. Came back and there was a little warning message on the bottom right of my screen saying I was really low on HDD space. Thought WTF and went to check My Computer and now it says I only have 145 MB. Rebooted my computer thinking it would go back to normal but nope (it jumped up to 1 GB though).

My friend (who has the exact same laptop I have) said he had the same thing happen to him too a few weeks ago and couldnt find a solution for it. Anyone have any ideas how it could deplete the HDD space that fast? The only applications I had open was Firefox, Steam, and Raptr if that matters.
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You're not running FRAPS or another recording sw are you? I've read posts where folks accidentally hit record and come back a bit later with the same WTF situation you have. Just a thought....

 
Nope, no recording programs. Closest thing I have to one is a slingbox but I have been using it for over 3-4 months now and havent had any problems with it.

 
Were you downloading any steam games?  maybe a downloaded finished and you had one or more in que, which would reserve memory for the game. That's what happened to me once. Took me a while to figure that shit out.

 
I checked the download queue and only 2 games were in there. CS Global Offensive (downloaded about a 200 MB update) and TF2 (about a 40 MB update). It didnt ask me to restart Steam so there werent any Steam program updates.

Also I forgot to mention that the HD that lost the space is a SSD if that makes any difference.

 
I'd be running some Antivirus and Spyware removers ASAP. Sounds like you got something that doesn't like you very much hanging out in your machine. It happens from time to time on my download only machine, used to be worse with Limewire and Napster, not so much anymore.

 
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Windows system restore store backup shadow copies of your HDD periodically. You can either disable it completely or you can wipe some of the older ones by running a defragment software.

 
Ah totally forgot about this topic.

Thanks for the suggestions everybody. Something very weird happened. So I loaded up Steam the other day (havent used it since I lost all that HDD space) and when I checked My Computer, my HDD started to slowly regain all the HD space that was missing. By the time Steam finished dl whatever it was downloading, I ended up getting back my 15GB plus a few extra hundred MBs.

 
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