low disk space problem

[Littleover]

My laptop keeps telling that I have very low disk space left on c drive. I can do the clearup recommended but half an hour later it will flash up again, sometimes gaining 100mb.

I can't delete anymore programs as we are down to the ones that came with the laptop, is this a virus?

Anyone else had this? Found a lot of (ahem....) images on temporary internet files but these were of houses that neither of us had looked at as well as porn (which one of us might have looked at). Don't fully understand how these files are created.

Help?

[niceguy2]

Temporary Internet files are created when you visit websites so the computer doesn't always have to download them again whenever you visit the site. So pictures will have been displayed in one way or another. Sometimes you may not notice these as they could have been an advert or something.

I doubt this is a virus causing the low disk space, more likely it's full.

What I'd recommend is downloading Treesize Free and letting it scan your disk. This should then allow you to easily see what's eating up space.

For me it's usually videos or programs I've downloaded which I've forgotten about but also an insane amount of photos I've got now since I bought a DSLR camera. Obviously your mileage may vary.

[Littleover]

Thanks I'll try this, I have done the Vaio diskscan and it lists stuff by size and frequency of use. When I start to delete programs I have never or hardly used it advises me not to, might take it to the local laptop shop if it's no better.

[BadgersPaws]

Don't just delete programs from a Windows PC using Windows Explorer, they should be properly uninstalled using either an uninstaller that might appear in the start menu for the program or from the Add/Remove programs bit of the control panel.

I'd personally use Windows Explorer and right click on each folder in the root of c:\ and see what the reported size is, that can be very handy to work out where the space is going.

In particular I'm curious about the size of %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Windows\Installer compared to the size of your disk drive. %SYSTEMDRIVE% will depend on your machine but is probably C:

Can you also clarify which version of Windows you're using? XP? Vista? 7?

[shodatin]

Have just paid crazy money for expert to sort this problem for me, knowing disc could not possibly have been filled by me - seems AVG was opening files and used half total space. Can't explain this further, but it's something I suggest you check. Good luck.