Removing files and apps reduces space on hard drive?

[Kevinator]

Please help me. I am desperate and frustrated to no end. My XP root drive keeps losing space to the point of completely running out. I have spent the last 3 days deleting files and removing applications. The weird thing is, the more I remove and delete, the less space I have on my hard drive. For example, I stayed up until 3:00 AM last night and was able to free up 2 GB of space out of 80 GB (for the third time). When I woke up this morning there was 0 space on the hard drive (for the third time). I guess if I want to gain hard drive space I'll need to add files and apps instead of removing them. I have scoured the internet and tried everything I can think of.

Here are some things I have done:

- Deleted everything available using Windows disk cleanup
- Compressed old files using Windows disk cleanup
- Turned off and deleted system restore points
- Deleted many files
- Removed many programs
- Changed web browser cache locations to the secondary hard drive
- Turned off the internet connection so applications can't auto update
- Deleted the uninstall files in the Windows folder (the ones that start and end with “$”)
- Scanned for viruses with Norton

My computer just barely runs right now. When there is this little amount of space, I click something, then wait 5 or 10 minutes for the click to take effect. There are also many things I am unable to do, such as back up the hard drive to an external drive, and remove large programs. I am afraid to restart the computer for fear of it not being able to boot up. If this is technology, I want to be a caveman. I am going 2 steps forward and 4 steps back.

I would greatly appreciate any ideas.
Thank you,
Kevin
 

[Linux711]

I guess if I want to gain hard drive space I'll need to add files and apps instead of removing

Completely illogical.

Use this program to help you find the files that are using the most space on the C: drive.
http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/

Use CCleaner to delete temp.
http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

Do you have another drive/partition in your comp? If not, you should probably think about purchasing another hard drive and cloning your data onto the new drive.

[Kevinator]

Linux711, thank you very much for responding, but as I mentioned before, with 0 hard drive space I cannot install new programs and I cannot backup the drive. I have tried. I have a duel docking station and several hard drives, but even when I had 2GB of space Nero Backitup would not let me backup.

EDIT: You gave me an idea though. I will check if those apps you mentioned can be portable. If not, I will look for similar apps that are portable, and try to run them from my flash drive.

Thanks again.

[Prospirity]

logical or not, I have the exact same issue.

I had the same ironic thought do i need to add files in order to get more space lol

Look, this is not a matter of hwo to clear stuff. I know the amount of free space I had on my drive before this started. I was hovering around 90-100 GIG of free space. The I started removing unused program, lots of old unused files etc

THE MORE I REMOVE FILES, the LESS space I have left on drive. I a now down to only 9 gig free space.

I have run ccleaner
I use Avira for virus protection and the latest scan did not find anything suspicious
I am running Malwarebytes now but it's been scanning for almost 12 hours now. It has detected some malware so I will see if it is one of those and report back.

But if anyone has a factual evidence of this issue and a solution please come forward
thanks

[Allan]

First, in the future please start your own thread - do not post your problem in someone else's thread. Thanks.

Second, Please follow the instructions in the following link and post your logs in the thread you create (NOT in this thread):
http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,46313.0.html