What's eating up all the space in my hard drive? (G71RX05)

Okay so I only get 450-something gigs instead of 500GB, I get that. Then there's the bloatware and other stuff on the computer. Also, maybe 10-15Gb worth of games and other light downloads like some pictures, a browser and updates to Adobe and Windows. But what I don't get is why the amount of storage I have is depleting when I don't even use my laptop that much.

I just go online, browse a forum, go to a couple of blogs like Engadget, and then that's it. I play Spore every now and then. But huh? Just today, I had 362GB, and out of nowhere, just a few minutes ago I now have 360GB. Where did it all go? 2 gigs doesn't just disappear.

The only incident I can think of is that there was a moment earlier today and yesterday when the computer froze up and I had to force the computer to shut down, well maybe around 3-4 times because it has this weird thing with not being able to shut down after I close the lid and open it back up, but that's besides the point.

What's taking up all the storage in my hard drive? Help?

 

Well I don't have a G71Rx, buy I do have a G51, and mine had a 11+ GB hidden partition for recovery and express gate. Just for you to consider that. Also be sure to clean previous restore points, they take lots of space, go to computer and properties of you hard drive and in disk clean up in more options select the one that says restore points.

 

Try clear your browser's cache and perform a disk cleanup to free up some space.

 

it could be your system restore points taking up the space. i had 290GB free couple days ago and then yesterday it was at 278GB. this is all caused by system restore points being automatically saved on the hard drive. just do a disk clean up and just clean up your system restore points. hope this helps!

 

I agree on system restore points eating away your HDD space...same happened to me...try to do a disk clean...should help...other option, which is in a way a bit risky, is to disable the system restore...that will free up a massive amount of space.

 

Thanks for your quick responses guys. I had a feeling that could be it. Although, I'm not sure how to do a proper disk clean up exactly. Can someone provide me with basic instructions? Like where the folders are, or if there's a certain program I need to run, or what to delete, etc.?

I'd really appreciate it. Thank you very much.

 

ok open up my computer and right click on you C: Drive. goto properties and click on that.

from the click disk clean up.



then click on, files from all users.



when it comes up click on more options, and then under system restore and shadow copies, click clean up.



let it clean up and once done, just click ok and it should also clean up all the other junk on your hard drive.

hope this helps!

 

To limit the amount of space system restore uses, instead of always cleaning it up, see my Vista guide (link in sig), step M.

That's usually the biggest space eater, but Internet Explorer cache limits are also extremely generous.

Better use Firefox...

 

EDIT: E.B.E. hit it well.
Could be volume shadowcopy. Type this into the command line, instant space saving:

vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /On=C: /For=C: /MaxSize=8GB

You can change the MaxSize into anything you'd like. 8GB is enough for a few (around 5-ish in my experience) restore points. This is like a permanent fix to the disk cleanup thing.

 

Holy crap. I just did what you instructed, Chinnoobonic, although I added an extra step by checking this option to delete the "Hibernation.." something file which was 6 GB. And after the whole thing was done, my computer went from 354GB to 406GB. Thanks!

 

Just so you know, if you deleted the hibernation file, you won't be able to go into hibernation anymore.

The six GB that was being reserved on the hard drive is used by the computer to store whatever is on the RAM--which in the case of the G71gx, is 6GB--so the RAM can be turned off.

 

Theres also a folder in the Windows Vista folder called "winsxs"... Its using tons of GB's here, like, any new software you install, it grows =D

If you check this same folder in Windows XP, its just a few KB's... More info, ask Google-Sama...

 

If I can accidentally do that during the Disk Cleanup, then I may have, but it doesn't matter really. Because from what I can remember, people have been troubled by the G71's Hibernation feature (or rather, lack of one) even when it first came out so it shouldn't be a big deal. I don't put my computer on Hibernate ever anyway. Or were you referring to Sleep? If so, my computer doesn't really take kindly to going in and out of Sleep (if I do it too much it stays asleep sometimes and I can't wake it up), so I just took out that feature when closing the lid, and it only Sleeps every 15-20 minutes, and it's been fine since.

 

It has been 3 days since I last did the shadow copy cleanup, and I just did it again and freed 50gbs.

Also it's pretty stupid that on the G71, the shutdown button in the start menu is automatically set on sleep instead of shutdown. You have to go into the power settings to change it to shutdown...

 

Yeah I thought that as well. I just use the button on the top right of the keyboard though. The same button to turn on the computer. It's more convenient than any on-screen button. It's just weird that it actually turns into one if it's not on AC mode. Whatever though.

 

Hybernate is always a big file, system restore points can add up.

I guess if you do a lot of web surfing the offline files and cache and stuff can add up.