Is there a computer doctor in the house?

[mkenuk]

My desktop PC, like me, is getting on in years and is showing signs of age. Like most computers, the hard drive is split in two - C and D. C drive is where the operating system (Windows X) is stored.

The problem is that it seems to be running out of space. The amount of 'free space' on the drive is shrinking by the day. A few days ago, for example, there was '14.12 GB free of 97.1 GB'. Now there is '9.12 free of 97.1 GB' and the bar under the icon has turned red, instead of the usual blue. (The figure was 9.32 GB a few hours ago).  I've not, as far as I know, downloaded anything and stored it on the C drive.

I've moved everything I can from the C drive to the D, which has lots of free space; I've done the usual 'disk cleaning' thing (it comes up with a few Mb of temporary files which can be deleted, nowhere near as much as is apparently being added to it.

Question. What is being added to my C hard drive (almost 0.75 GB a day, I reckon) and - more importantly - what can I do to clear more space on the C drive? I notice that one of the options is to 'compress the files on the drive to save space'. Is that a real option? Or will the computer then work so slowly and erratically as to virtually make it unusable.

Any suggestions will be gratefully received and tried.

MK

[Les303]

Get all of those moths out of your wallet & buy a new one.

[mkenuk]

I did, Les, I bought a new laptop a few months ago, when I realized that the PC was 'in the autumn of its years'. I'd still like to keep it going as long as possible, however.

MK

[bobbi]

You may have some malware. A small free programme called Malwarebytes will tell you if you have a problem. Don't bother paying for the upgrade. It's generally easy enough to delete any dodgy programmes it finds by yourself.

[mkenuk]

Thanks for that, Bobbi. I'll remember the name of the programme you suggest.

I have in fact worked out the source of the problem. I recently renewed my subscription to my virus scan program. (I won't mention which one, but it is one of the best known ones.) Unnoticed by me until a few days ago, the newly-installed version of the program (which should occupy a couple of hundred Megabytes on the hard drive) had expanded like a cancer to about 65 Gigabytes. (from 97.1 GB on my 'C' drive) It's almost as though the virus scanner itself was infected with a virus! Whatever, it made the computer virtually unusable.

I've managed to uninstall the program, and I've installed their free trial program as a temporary measure. I've contacted the company via email, and they have responded quickly. They've given me a toll-free number to call here in Thailand, which I will do later in the day - offices aren't open yet. This will allow me to speak to one of their engineers, who (hopefully) can get things working properly again

I'll let you know how I get on.

MK

[whisky]

The amount of 'free space' on the drive is shrinking by the day. A few days ago, for example, there was '14.12 GB free of 97.1 GB'. Now there is '9.12 free of 97.1 GB' and the bar under the icon has turned red, instead of the usual blue. (The figure was 9.32 GB a few hours ago).  I've not, as far as I know, downloaded anything and stored it on the C drive.

Sadly this is a 'feature' of windows systems.
I experienced the exact same problem, a couple of years ago.
I researched it at the time.

There is a Windows system file ( I cannot recall the name right now ) that grows each day.
It does keep track of lots of system updates and info.
It continues to grow until it overwhelms your computer.

You can't just delete it, then your computer crashes.

I recall the 2 options were;

1
Back up your data.
Clean everything and start a fresh windows installation.

2
Get a newer computer.
With the expectation of experiencing this again in a few years.

Michael
 

[Calilasseia]

Check the size of the file "pagefile.sys". This is the virtual memory page, that allows multiple applications to run on your computer. Problem is, if any of those applications are a memory hog, pagefile.sys balloons in size accordingly.

Open Task manager, click on the tab marked "Performance", then click on the button marked "Resource Monitor...". It'll show you which processes are using lots of physical memory as well as virtual memory (the graph for this latter quantity is labelled "Commit Charge"). One typical memory hog is the process associated with Windows Update, usually listed as "wuauclt.exe" or similar. That one can chew up several gigabytes if you're not careful. If you need to curtail it, run "Services.msc", locate the Windows Update service, and click "Stop the service". Then, set it to manual updates only, and update only when there's a critical security issue to address. Otherwise, Windows Update will clutter your hard drive with gigabytes of worthless updates that don't actually do anything really useful on your computer.

Oh, and if you want an antivirus that's much more lightweight, go for Avast. My installation only uses 900 MB of space, not 65 gigabytes! It's a free download to boot.