Hard Drive Space Gone?

[Flipz]

You guys may or may not remember me, but i had an issue with windows a week or two ago. i believe my new issue may be related...

the First thing I tried when i got windows re-installed was try a recovery program. Easy Recovery Pro. not only did it not work, it diddn't even seem to try. once it tried to scan the hard drive, it would just close itself. i used Avast! antivirus to scan to make sure there wasnt any viruses on my system, and my system was clean.

So after a hard decision, i gave up trying to recover my files. after i installed a game (Unreal II: The Awakening), it emediately said that my disk space on drive C: was running low. It's an 80 GB Hard Drive! how could i be low on space so soon?
i looked in my C: drive and hovered over the folders to see how big they were (Windows, Program Files, Documents and Settings, etc)

all of them put together dosent even cross 10 GB of space. What could this mean other than there are alot of things on the hard drive that windows did not erase? i believe there may still be hope for my things. if not, then how do i remove that used space? are there any recovery programs you can recommend?

thanks again guys...

[Raptor]

it emediately said that my disk space on drive C: was running low. It's an 80 GB Hard Drive! how could i be low on space so soon?
i looked in my C: drive and hovered over the folders to see how big they were (Windows, Program Files, Documents and Settings, etc) all of them put together dosent even cross 10 GB of space.

i used Avast! antivirus to scan to make sure there wasnt any viruses on my system, and my system was clean.

You can never be certain on a compromised system:



Virus scanners
AVG Free
-- Anti virus scanner
Trend Micro Housecall
-- Online anti virus scanner.

Anti spy/malware
Microsoft Antispyware
-- Anti spyware scanner. Windows XP Home and Professional only.
Spybot Search & Destroy
-- Anti spyware scanner
Adaware SE Personal
-- Anti spyware scanner

Firewalls
Use both a hardware and software firewall.
Be advised as dual software firewalls may cause problems

ZoneAlarm Free
-- Free firewall - more user friendly
Sygate Personal
-- Free firewall - more configuration options

Removal tools
The following files are not substitutes for the ones described above.
They are either diagnostic tools or removal tools for malware of a certain kind

HijackThis
-- Manual malware remover. Post the HijackThis log generated only if requested!
McAfee Stinger
-- Virus removal tool. No substitute for a fully functional virus scanner!
CWshredder
-- CoolWebSearch removal tool. Widely known and persistant Hijacker.

(Unreal II: The Awakening)

You'll love the ending. The ending is better than the entire Unreal I single player experience.

[Flipz]

Avast covers all of the above links, because i've tried half of them already, and they came up with nothing. i'm at a loss now.
this might be because i chose to install windows XP on the old broken/existing one without reformatting, hoping i could later get those dang files back...

and i'm just getting started with Unreal,
i never even had time to finnish the first level.

[Computer_Commando]

...this might be because i chose to install windows XP on the old broken/existing one without reformatting, hoping i could later get those dang files back...

Probably is.  Look at Administrative Tools--Computer Management--Disk Management.  The "missing space" will be there.  Assign it a drive letter and you should be able to access your files.

[Flipz]

I looked in Disk Management, and i did not come across any "missing space"...

i recently found something else. one of the recovery programs i used a few days back appearently recovered a ton of really REALLY OLD files into my Documents and Settings Folder. files that were already backed up for a long LONG time. so i deleted them, that cleared half of my hard drive's free space O_o.

i guess that solves the problem? lol
sorry guys, false alarm i guess

thanks guys

[Mac]

I looked in Disk Management, and i did not come across any "missing space"...

i recently found something else. one of the recovery programs i used a few days back appearently recovered a ton of really REALLY OLD files into my Documents and Settings Folder. files that were already backed up for a long LONG time. so i deleted them, that cleared half of my hard drive's free space O_o.

i guess that solves the problem? lol
sorry guys, false alarm i guess

thanks guys

Now that you have all of that junk off the drive you could use Eraser to clean up the free-space.

Just run through the clean-up procedure below to see if you can make some more space on your drive.