SOLVED !!! Local Drive reads FULL

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well…

I know I’ve submitted a lot of weird support requests over the years…but this one takes the cake.

I’m working on music for a client on my DAW (an ADK Core 2), which sports two drives…a C for the OS & Apps & a D for audio data. I figure it’s time for a defrag on both drives, which I do about once a week. But before I do, since I’m a little pressed for time, I do a quick check on the drive’s free vs. used space; & discover this:

I’m thinking…this is impossible…I just did a full drive backup w/ Paragon last week; & I’m certain I had about 75% free space on the local drive…about 40GB’s used, on a 160GB Seagate.

So I open Diskeeper, my defrag app, to have a look; & discover this:

The blue, green & yellow areas are unfragmented files & folders…& red is supposed to be ‘fragmented’ files/folders…but it’s the entire remainder of the drive. So I perform a defrag; & it finishes in the normal amount of time. I go back & work on audio; & also open a few other apps & work in those…& the machine is operating at it’s normal speed & efficiency.

So I ran the Windows error checking utility on that drive; & checked the boxes to repair system errors & scan for bad sectors; & started to watch TV. I guess it ran for about 45 minutes; & then rebooted…to the normal desktop.

So I guess my two questions are:

1) Since a Check Disk log didn’t pop up, where do I find it ?

2) What the H*** is going on ???

Thanks much,

mark4man
ADK Pro Audio Core 2 | Intel DP35DP MoBo/Chipset | Intel Q6600 Quad Core CPU | 4 GB SuperTalent DDR2-800 CL5 RAM | Seagate 160 GB SATA II Primary HD | Western Digital 320 GB SATA II Audio HD | Lynx Aurora8 ~ AES16 | Universal Audio UAD-1 | SONAR PE 7.0.1 | WaveLab 5.0.1 | NI Komplete5

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1) Since a Check Disk log didn’t pop up, where do I find it ?

Wow, I don’t know the answer (yet) to why or what the problem is, but to answer one of your questions. My Computer, right-click and select Manage. You will see an item for Event Viewer. If you open it up, look under Application for an entry in the right pane called Winlogon. Double clicking that will show you the results of the Chkdsk run.

Another question: after the stuff you did and the reboot to the normal desktop, did you run the defragger again to see if all that RED is still there?

I’m still mulling over what the h*** could have caused it in the first place.

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well…

I know I’ve submitted a lot of weird support requests over the years…but this one takes the cake.

I’m working on music for a client on my DAW (an ADK Core 2), which sports two drives…a C for the OS & Apps & a D for audio data. I figure it’s time for a defrag on both drives, which I do about once a week. But before I do, since I’m a little pressed for time, I do a quick check on the drive’s free vs. used space; & discover this:

I’m thinking…this is impossible…I just did a full drive backup w/ Paragon last week; & I’m certain I had about 75% free space on the local drive…about 40GB’s used, on a 160GB Seagate.

So I open Diskeeper, my defrag app, to have a look; & discover this:

The blue, green & yellow areas are unfragmented files & folders…& red is supposed to be ‘fragmented’ files/folders…but it’s the entire remainder of the drive. So I perform a defrag; & it finishes in the normal amount of time. I go back & work on audio; & also open a few other apps & work in those…& the machine is operating at it’s normal speed & efficiency.

So I ran the Windows error checking utility on that drive; & checked the boxes to repair system errors & scan for bad sectors; & started to watch TV. I guess it ran for about 45 minutes; & then rebooted…to the normal desktop.

So I guess my two questions are:

1) Since a Check Disk log didn’t pop up, where do I find it ?

2) What the H*** is going on ???

Thanks much,

mark4man
ADK Pro Audio Core 2 | Intel DP35DP MoBo/Chipset | Intel Q6600 Quad Core CPU | 4 GB SuperTalent DDR2-800 CL5 RAM | Seagate 160 GB SATA II Primary HD | Western Digital 320 GB SATA II Audio HD | Lynx Aurora8 ~ AES16 | Universal Audio UAD-1 | SONAR PE 7.0.1 | WaveLab 5.0.1 | NI Komplete5

Use a tool such as SpaceSniffer, find lost disk space the easy way. to discover what is using the space. No install needed just run it.

Joe

--Joe

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thanks, guys…

can always rely on good info here…will try these tools & get back.

thanks again,

mf

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Good luck, I had the same problem with an NTFS drive several months ago. I tried everything anyone mentioned and nothing worked.

In the end I bought a portable western digital USB hard drive and saved everything I could. Then I reformatted C and reinstalled from scratch – took a while to get everything back to my comfort level, but that was all that worked.

A friend looked at some of the maps and prints I had and suggested that the free space settings in ntfs were hosed and together we could not find any utilities to correct them.

I detailed most of what I did in a thread here – don’t have the thread data, but if some one can find it – it at least details everything I tried.

Tom

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ok…

1) SpaceSniffer would not run…got this error:

2) Results of Event Viewer…(only because I sure as heck can’t decipher them):

don’t see anything relative to Check Disk here, either

3) Interesting take on the drive itself going whacky…didn’t weigh heavy on my considerations…possibility, tho.

thanks again,

mf

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Since Dr. Watson seems to be involved here, you might want to take a look at the Dr. Watson Log files located at WindowsDrwatsonWatsonxxx.wlg and see if that gives you any insight.

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Since Dr. Watson seems to be involved here, you might want to take a look at the Dr. Watson Log files located at WindowsDrwatsonWatsonxxx.wlg and see if that gives you any insight

thanks…that was back on the 30th…but I’ll do it.

where is the ChkDsk log, anyway ???

thanks again,

mf

btw…also wondering why SpaceSniffer wouldn’t run…that’s odd.

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thanks…that was back on the 30th…but I’ll do it.

where is the ChkDsk log, anyway ???

thanks again,

mf

btw…also wondering why SpaceSniffer wouldn’t run…that’s odd.

See Uderzo Software for the Spacesniffer author’s e-mail address.

See the Winlogon entry in the Application event log for the CHKDSK results.

Joe

--Joe

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Try TreeSize Free.
Tells you all you need to know about what’s using hard disk space.

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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thanks BATcher…

everybody else…there is NO ‘Winlogon’ in my Event Viewer…or anything that remotely resembles a chkdsk log. What you’re seeing in my screenshot is what it is…not sure what you’re asking me to do…running out of options…ready to pull out the sledge hammer, or worse yet…just plain quit trying to make music. never had anything but bad luck & weird problems w/ IBM-based PCs & Windows OS’s. maybe it’s time for a mac.

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thanks BATcher…

Only thank me when you’ve tried it, and worked out what is using the space!

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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thanks BATcher…

everybody else…there is NO ‘Winlogon’ in my Event Viewer…or anything that remotely resembles a chkdsk log. What you’re seeing in my screenshot is what it is…not sure what you’re asking me to do…running out of options…ready to pull out the sledge hammer, or worse yet…just plain quit trying to make music. never had anything but bad luck & weird problems w/ IBM-based PCs & Windows OS’s. maybe it’s time for a mac.

CHKDSK will only run at boot time on a drive that has files in use. Are you sure you are requesting it to be run at boot time?

Joe

--Joe

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YEEEEEEAAAAHHHH…!!!

MAN O MAN…!!!…what a happy f***in’ day this is…ranTreeSize…& look at this:

Windows WAS NOT lying to me…there really WAS that much usage…in the Temp Folder, under OWNER.

Now…something I learned to do a long time ago was to send three important folders to the desktop…’Cookies’, ‘Temporary Internet Files’ & ‘Temp’…to purge on my own from time to time. Turns out the Temp folder on the Desktop on this machine was from ‘Default User’.

So now…after purging 126 GB’s from that folder…the drive looks like this:

wait a minute…IS the Temp Folder under ‘Default User’ the correct one for purging…??? AND…so…why wasn’t this one (under OWNER) being taken care of with Windows Disk Cleanup (or…even by my CCleaner utility, from Piriform) ??? Isn’t it strange that this folder (C:Documents and SettingsOwnerLocal SettingsTemp) would be so full ? Now I’m wondering about all this.

(but I’m still very happy…thanks everyone & thanks BATcher…I’m throwing a beef barbecue for you, man…all the red meat you can eat!) This is great.

thanks again,

mf

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Glad you got that sorted out. Strange problem, but, fortunately, preventable.

You should run the DiskCleanup utility while logged in on each profile (I run it weekly) to be sure you get all the temp files and other junk cleared out. You should, in each profile also, go to Tools>Internet Options in Internet Explorer and click on the buttons to Delete Files & Delete Cookies. This will remove everything so you will have to sign into sites like the Lounge that require a stored cookie, but doing it assures you that ALL the junk is gone.

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yes Doc…I do that…thanks.

what I’m trying to figure out is WHY that folder wasn’t being purged by Disk Cleanup. That’s the main Temp folder in Windows.

mf

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yes Doc…I do that…thanks.

what I’m trying to figure out is WHY that folder wasn’t being purged by Disk Cleanup. That’s the main Temp folder in Windows.

mf

“Ours is not to question why….”, especially when it comes to computers. That’s why God made workarounds.

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what I’m trying to figure out is WHY that folder wasn’t being purged by Disk Cleanup. That’s the main Temp folder in Windows.

A possible explanation:
The Disk Cleanup tool’s list of temporary files (or more precise amount of bytes) only includes files older than a week (or files that haven’t been accessed in a week). That is, if selected it will only delete temporary files older than that.

BTW, finding unusually small or large files doesn’t need to involve third party software, one can search for size in Windows (but that doesn’t help if one has 2,000,000 files in the size of 50 kB occupying the temp folders, or if one want to compare different folders for some reason).

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