Space on D-drive running low

Hi Jay ( and whitelighter )
The images from disk management show that D: is full.
153.85 GB partition - 10MB free
I assume that you have been able to read this now Jay ?

Whitelighter - this is your problem. ( assuming that disk management is reporting correctly )

If something if filling the drive this needs investigating ( Jay's last post )
If you can account for the drive being full it may be possible to grab some of the space from C:
Alternatively you could move some of the data to an external drive or DVD(s)

 

Well I think something is seriously messed up. I opened Windows Explorer and clicked on Computer but it gets stuck when it tries to display the contents. I tried several times. I hope I don't have to take it in - the guy always charges too much, but I'm afraid if I let this go on much longer it'll damage the pc. Is there anything else I might try?

 

You may have a problem ...... but there is very little chance of you damaging the computer by trying what is suggested here.

Switch the machine off.
Switch on again and constantly tap F8 about once per second.
This will take you to Advanced Bootup Options.

Select "Last Known Good Configuration"
See if "Computer" opens up now.

If not ..... shut down again and this time select "Safe Mode" from the list.
Try that.

Let us know the results.

 

I tried starting it in "Last Known Configuration". For a second I thought it worked because the Computer window showed the D-drive was empty, but then I started getting the same error message as before. I tried Safe Mode but couldn't connect to the internet. Now it's back to regular mode and the D-drive again appears to only have 10.2 mb of 153 gb available, but at least now the Computer window loads with no difficulty.

 

KenB suggested what to do in Post 21.
Why aren't you doing what is suggested to most likely fix your problem?
It isn't going to fix itself.

 

Well I've tried to do everything people suggested. I thought I explained that I can't account for the D-drive being full but maybe I wasn't clear. It does appear though that I may have overlooked the suggestion in post 20 to go to the WD Support site, so I apologize for wasting anyone's time. I went just now there but am not sure which download to use - SATA & SASUS?

A window has also just opened up with an option to clean system files but I wanted to check with an expert first before I do this since I don't want to mess anything up.

I've tried to read the posts carefully but I'll make doubly certain from now on.

 

OK - do you have an external hard drive ?
Failing that - DVDs ?

If so - move some of the files that you have on D: drive over to the external drive / DVDs and create some space on D:

DO NOT save anything to D: yet.

Report back what the free space is on D: now.
Then monitor it for a few days.
If the free space is getting less then something is writing to the D: partition automatically - filling it up.

Let us know how you get on with this

 

Can you advise which of these things displayed in the d-drive window (image attached) to move to a dvd? I don't have an external hard-drive. Sorry to keep dragging this out. I'm just afraid I'll screw it up. The Output folder is empty so I wouldn't think it'd be taking up any space.

Also, should I tell it to go ahead and clean up the system files too if that window pops up again?

 

I think that I see the problem. That would be the WindowsImageBackup folder. The existence of that folder says to me that you have your system set to do automatic image backups in incremental mode. Of course it could just be one full image but I'm betting that it is set for auto backups which would mean incremental. This will keep making backups until it runs out of drive space and then it will delete the oldest to make another.


Personally I do not like incremental for a couple of reasons. First as may be shown in this case, it will eat up drive space. Second, the backup ends up comprised of a bunch of files increasing the chances of a failure when doing a restore.

Also, in the case of a drive failure your backup is also gone. An image should be made to a drive that has no other purpose and should not be the same physical drive as the OS and data.


If you right click on the WindowsImageBackup folder what does it report as to size? You very well may need to enable the viewing of hidden and protected files/folders to get a true reading. I'm betting that it is around or over 100gig. This would also explain the difference is sizes shown between disk management and properties.

I applaud that you are doing images but am sad to say that you are going about it the wrong way.... If I'm right about the rest of this post we can work on how you can better do your image backups.

 

Nicely spotted Jay - I lay odds that you are right and that WindowsImage is eating up the space

 

Thanks. Wouldn't it be nice if you could allocate a specific amount of drive space to use for images like you can with restore points?

 

Ok, I think it's fixed (knock-on-wood). Sorry for the delay. I'm too drained to go into the details, except just to say that jaylach's last post put me on the right track.

I'd like to thank eveyone who put alot of effort into helping me with this exasperating issue.

However, I must say I was a bit put off by the super moderator's
comment a few posts up - I wonder what charm school he went to?

 

That's good news.
What post Number are you referring to?

 

When you feel up to it I would love to hear the details.

 

That is good to hear