Please Help: Whats eating my HDD

This thread is about the Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 SATA 1TB. Click here to see full specs

I was using Nero 7 to burn videos to CD. Worked perfectly! Viewed perfectly.

Used Nero 7 to burn photos to CD, Wrote the files to "My Documents" but not to CD's.

Now something is taking up 63.9 GB of my HDD and I cannot find it. I use Avast Anti virus software Professional Version 4.8
System is Pentium Dual Core CPU, 4GB ram
The Operating system is Microsoft Windows XP - Professional Version 2002.
Software is Microsoft Office 2003.

Since the above happened the PC will not boot from cd, returns the following message: "Boot from CD/DVD -Cannot boot from CD-CODE 1

I have tried to copy MS Windows XP to USB and will not find the USB drive. Computer has never been on Internet. Its only a couple of months old.

I do not know what to do, so hope that somebody out here does. Currently have a $5,000 doorstop!

aussiecuttlefish
http://club.cdfreaks.com/images/smilies/4/bowdown.gif

Does the computer boot up?

The 63.9gb is probably mostly system restore files. That's why you can't find them. You can change the amount of hard drive that sytem restore is allowed to use.

Right click "My Computer" and click on properties, then click on the system restore tab. Click on the drive(s) in question and move the slider to whatever you want.

As far as not booting from a CD, are you using a bootable CD?

Wanna know what files are taking up space on the disk? Try a program like Sequoiaview to find out.

Is your Nero set up to delete temp files after burning your CD's ?
I would look in the Nero folder or the My Document area for temp files

Maybe try using a cleaner
ccleaner is good

These often cause more problems than there were before.

This is the more likely reason, Nero likes doing this.

Yes the computer boots up after a fashion. It hangs in the first 5 seconds and has to have reset button pressed several times before a successful boot can be achieved.

The Unknown problem is eating more of the HDD, currently 72.9GB.
aussiecuttlefish

Try hooking it up as a slave drive in another computer, Look at the C drive for log files that are huge or lots of.

The other option would be to use a live CD like BartPE or a Linux disc in order to have a look at huge files.

Michael

If you want to see whats taking up your space in HDD try this freeware software. SpaceMonger

Only if the OP can get it to boot from a CD, ( which is questionable right now ) that is why I suggested a Slave hook up.

If you have access to another computer it would be best.
That way if the restore or whatever it is that is creating more files ( everytime they try to boot up and fail,and eating up more HDD space) will not be in play.

Bad,Dirty CD or CD Player/Reader going out.

----------
System Restore is using 1,278MB of space I have reduced this to 128MB of space.

The CD I was using at the time was Windows XP Pro Operating System, so yes I assume it is a bootable Disk.

When the computer there is no icon for the CD Rom !

From Setup there it is possible to set the computer to read CD Rom first, but the computer doesn't actually recognise nor read the CD Rom and goes straight into start-up mode.
aussiecuttlefish

You might be evil, BUT ...

SequoiaView would have to be the best little program that I have EVER used!!!

The space on the computer is:

C. pagefile.sys
All Files
File 1.49GB
Dir: 65.7 GB
39.6% of map
3.96% of Disk


Hope this of assistance for you
Thank You
Aussiecuttlefish

I think that the Burner was set to delete temp files after burning.

I have however uninstalled the program since this problem first started. I uninstalled ALL unnecessary programs when trying to ascertain what was taking up the space.

Now I know that was futile, as I no longer have the CD Rom icon inside "My Computer" to re-install the programs.

aussiecuttlefish

I use "Registry Cleaner Pro"

aussiecuttlefish

I am not familiar with Sequoiaview to tell what Dir is that is using up 65.7 GB of space.
So your computer does not see the CD-Rom drive anymore or it does not list it?

Have you tried putting in a cd and is it accessible while the computer is up? Is it old and going out ?
What type of CD-Rom drive is it and how is it hooked up? SATA or IDE

If you can get the CD-Rom drive working you might be better off doing a clean re-install of your computer system from the sounds of it.

Answer: The pc doesn't see the CD drive at startup or when operating. There is no icon in "My Computer"
The computer is relatively a new system, which was built specifically for me.
Will go check on drive and it runs on IDE
When the CD Rom was last working I did a complete re-install which included formatting the drive but it didn't wipe that section of the drive.
Current Stats of the drive using SequoiaView is:
Problem file 1.49GB
Dir: 336GB
36.7% (percent) of Map
36.7% (percent) of the disk
This file is increasing in size and taking up 1/3 of a 1TB drive
aussiecuttlefish

Yes the computer boots up after a fashion. Several tries each time as it hangs at the first screen and have to keep pressing RESET button

aussiecuttlefish

And the solution is...?

Using SequoiaView the questionable file is

C:\Pagefile.sys
File is 1.49GB
Dir 336GB
36.7% (percent) of map
36.7% (percent) of Disk

This file is progressively consuming my HDD. It currently is 1/3 of a 1TB drive

aussiecuttlefish

Using SpaceMonger:
Shows one file in PINK on the right hand side of the screen

Stats for SpaceMonger are:
65% (percent) Free
668GB Free
Files Total 19,169
Folders Total 2,078

Hope this is a help
aussiecuttlefish

This was a hard one to do!

Didn't realise that I had to change the pins in the back of the drive to make it into a "SLAVE".

Then couldn't look at C drive coz that's the master! Eventually worked it out though.

Can not SEE anything of the file that is taking up this slab of drive.

Although thru using SequoiaView
Stats for HDD are:
C:\pagefile.sys
File 1.49GB
Dir 336 GB
36.7% (percent) of Map
36.7% (percent) of Disk

This file is progressively getting larger and is taking up over 1/3 of a 1TB drive

Cheers aussiecuttlefish