C-drive keeps filling up

Anonymous
2015-01-14T17:54:01+00:00

Here's a problem that I haven't been able to resolve for the last two months.  I've researched this problem on this forum and nothing been able to solve it yet.  My work computer's c-drive keeps filling up to capacity.  I have a 235 GB hard drive with very few programs loaded onto it and almost no picture or video files taking up space.  The computer is hooked up to a network here where I work, but nobody else has this problem.  Even if I'm able to free up several GB's of space, the c-drive will fill up in just a couple of days.  I think I might have a virus.  These are the measures I've tried to correct this issue:

  • Ran Disk Cleanup which freed up about 2 GB's initially.  After a couple of days, the c-drive filled back up again.  Subsequently, running Disk Cleanup only free's up a few MB's now.
  • Ran MalewareBytes, Eset online scanner, and Super-AntiSpyware programs to try to identify a virus, but neither of them can find anything other than cookies.  I've also run these programs in Safe Mode.
  • My Microsoft Security Essentials program had been removed, and I can't get it to re-install.  I even tried several work-arounds listed on this forum to install it, but I still get error messages when installing.
  • Tried the "Fix It" function
  • Tried System Restore but apparently that's been disabled too since there are no restore points to be found
  • Disabled the Hibernate function to free up several GB's, but the computer quickly filled-up within a couple of days.
  • Disabled the Backup function.
  • Deleted temp files from my user profile
  • I also run into problems trying to install the security updates from the Windows Update function.  I haven't been able to get the security updates to install for a couple of months now.

Anything thing I do that free's up space will only work temporarily.  The c-drive will continue to fill up in a matter of minutes or hours even if I'm away from my computer during that time.  

The strangest part is that if I right-click on the c-drive in My Computer, it will show that the 232 GB hard-drive is nearly or completely full (0 bytes).   If I open the c-drive, select all the files and folders in it and right-click, it only shows about 51 GB's of storage space used.  This does affect my computer greatly when trying to save or print even small files that only take up a few KB's.  Is there any other fix that I haven't tried yet?

I ran the WinDirStat utility but that doesn't show me anything other than the 51 GB's taking up storage space.  Also, my hard-drive is not partitioned.

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-01-15T17:19:12+00:00

    The strangest part is that if I right-click on the c-drive in My Computer, it will show that the 232 GB hard-drive is nearly or completely full (0 bytes).   If I open the c-drive, select all the files and folders in it and right-click, it only shows about 51 GB's of storage space used.  This does affect my computer greatly when trying to save or print even small files that only take up a few KB's.  Is there any other fix that I haven't tried yet.

    I checked the Folder Option settings and the Show hidden files, folders, and drives option is already turned on.

    I installed that tool and it doesn't show me anything different than the WinDirStat tool; about 51 GB's of space used.

        Since you indicated that you already have viewing hidden files enabled, the space must be going somewhere inassessable, which means that Treesize (and other similar tools) will be unable to report the space either.  Here are some possibilities I can think of:

    • The file system got corrupted, and is reporting the free space incorrectly.  Open an elevated Command Prompt (i.e. Run as Administrator), execute "chkdsk C: /f /v /x", agree to schedule for reboot, and then reboot your computer, and let it scan while it reboots.
    • The space is going in to a locked folder like "C:\System Volume Information" (this one is used for restore points).  Since System Restore couldn't find any restore points, I suggest clearing them entirely.  Perhaps it is malfunctioning.  To clear all restore points, open the System Control Panel applet (shortcut: press [Windows]+[Pause/Break]), click System Protection in the sidebar on the left, select C:, click [Configure], and click [Delete].
    • There is a rootkit that is subverting the file system, causing the folder containing the files not to appear in directory listings, thus making it invisible (and uncountable).  Process Monitor and Process Hacker should still be able to see the masked writing activity though, which could help you identify the folder.

        You could also try running Treesize as SYSTEM (that's more privileged than Administrator).  This should allow it to access some of those locked folders and count them too.  The steps for that are below:

    1. Download, install, and launch Process Hacker.
    2. Click Hacker -> Run As...
    3. Click [Browse] and select the executable for Treesize.
    4. Set User name to "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM"
    5. Set Type to "New credentials"
    6. Click [OK].  Treesize should appear on your screen.
    7. Scan C: again with it, and see if more space got counted this time.

        Hopefully this helps you get the issue resolved!

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-01-16T18:03:56+00:00

    Here is a picture of the scan I did as Administrator.  Now, it's only showing 21 GB's used, but note at the bottom where is shows only 440KB's of free space on the 232 GB drive.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-01-16T19:46:16+00:00

    Type Disk Management in the Search box above the Start button and click Create and format hard disk partitions. Please post an image of what you see.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-01-16T20:32:30+00:00

    Please try running TreeSize as Administrator again.  This time, wait for it to finish processing.  It was was still counting the Windows folder when you took that screenshot.  When it is done, none of the folders will have an hourglass icon next to them, and the last folder, Users, will not have a size of 0 Bytes.  If your HDD has a lot of files on it, scanning could take several minutes.

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-01-21T16:38:12+00:00

        Please try running TreeSize as Administrator again.  This time, wait for it to finish processing.  It was was still counting the Windows folder when you took that screenshot.  When it is done, none of the folders will have an hourglass icon next to them, and the last folder, Users, will not have a size of 0 Bytes.  If your HDD has a lot of files on it, scanning could take several minutes.

    Sorry for the delayed reply.  I ran it again as Administrator and it took about 48 hours for it to finish processing.  This time it found 118 GB's filling up a folder in the Windows > Service Profile s > Network Service > AppData > Local > Microsoft > Windows > Temporary Internet Files > Content.IE5 (see attached screenshot).  There are over 4 million files, and by what I can see when opening the folder, it's mostly made up of .js & .jpg files.

    I just tried to delete the contents of this folder and the computer has been stuck on the "Preparing to delete" phase for about the last hour.   I will keep you posted on whether or not I was able to delete the contents using the conventional method.  

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