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Windows XP SP3 Incorrectly Reports Hard Drive as Almost Full

Discussion in 'Windows OS' started by almcneil, Aug 17, 2008.

  1. almcneil Newcomer, in training Posts: 1,547

    Techies,

    I have a sticky problem I'm trying to fix. A customer has had spyware and I successfully remove it. I'm back again, and this may be corruption left over from the spyware, but his internal hard drive is being reported as 99% full. I checked the sizes of this folders and combined they are 45 GB. His drive is 149 GB. Windows shows C: as being 147 GB. He's has Windows XP SP3. I ran a chkdsk /f but that didn't do anything. Cheked files and fodler settings and made sure that hidden files/folders are displayed. Still Windows says C: is 99% full.

    Any suggestions? I'm thinking of using a data recovery tool that might repair his file system. This is likelt related to the spyware I recently removed from his system.
  2. kimsland Ex-TechSpotter Posts: 18,353

    It sounds as though it is full !
    Are you viewing Hidden and System Files in Folder Options?

    Also run CCleaner
  3. almcneil Newcomer, in training Posts: 1,547

    Still having this problem with a customer. Windows XP reports his hard drive as 99% full. I have hidden files and folders visible. I add up the folder sizes and it's 44GB while his disk size is 145BG. That leaves 101GB unaccounted.

    He had big spyware which I removed. I think while he had the spyware, while he copied and deleted files, the spyware interefered with the file table updating. It didn't mark the sectors as free again even though the file entries were deleted. Not sure how to fix this. The only solution is to backup his folders, reformat and re-install. Neither of us like that option. So if anyone has a suggestion, I'd appreciate it.

    TIA
  4. som1dies2nite Newcomer, in training Posts: 52

    Did you run a search for files over 300kb and see what appears? What spyware or trojan did it have?
  5. kimsland Ex-TechSpotter Posts: 18,353

    Download FULLDISK it will show you where all the big files are