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.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-06-23T21:33:03+00:00

    The problem has been out there for about two years now. You can bet Microsoft has done something to create this problem so consumers will get off of Windows-7 computers. This problem is not on Win-10 only Win-7. The temporary cure is to clear the two temp folders and then the recycle bin. It will resurface in a month or two more

    C:\Windows\temp

    &

    C:"user login folder"\app data\local\temp.

    If app data & local do not show up go to control panel , files & folders and select show hidden folders

    Billy Robinson

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  2. LemP 74,985 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2018-06-24T01:39:46+00:00

    @BillyRobinson1

    There are a variety of reasons that hard drives fill up.

    In your case, you probably are suffering from the known bug described here: 

    http://www.computerworld.com/article/3112358/microsoft-windows/windows-7-log-file-compression-bug-can-fill-up-your-hard-drive.html

    If you have difficulty with stopping the Windows Modules Installer service, read through all of the posts here (not just the one checked as the "Answer")  https://superuser.com/questions/803842/why-is-cbs-log-file-size-20-gb

    Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that there isn't a bug.

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-06-24T23:47:19+00:00

    I'm paranoid because MS is in bed with the government.  Problem is solved.  APACHE.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-06-25T11:37:03+00:00

    That looks more like an issue caused BY paranoia rather than a cause OF paranoia

    Because A are they and B does it matter?

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-07-27T10:10:43+00:00

    Thank you very much!!!The system protection part helped!Got rid of 39 Gbs of crap!!

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