Massive fluctuations in available disk space during a week

Vista Ultimate 32-bit SP2.

I have noticed that during the course of an average week, the amount of
available disk space on both my C: and D: drives varies by up to 15GB even
though no significant activity in the form of manipulating files or
installing programs is taking place. It might be 20GB available one night
and then magically it's up to 35GB in the morning. The pattern is usually
that it will reach a high and then gradually do down each day until it jumps
back to the maximum all of a sudden.

What could be causing this? I do not have System Protection turned on so
the space is not being used for System Restore. The C: and D: "drives" are
actually partitions on the same physical disk.

--
And loving it,

-Qu0ll (Rare, not extinct)
_________________________________________________

[Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me]

Qu0ll wrote:
> Vista Ultimate 32-bit SP2.
>
> I have noticed that during the course of an average week, the amount of
> available disk space on both my C: and D: drives varies by up to 15GB
> even though no significant activity in the form of manipulating files or
> installing programs is taking place. It might be 20GB available one
> night and then magically it's up to 35GB in the morning. The pattern is
> usually that it will reach a high and then gradually do down each day
> until it jumps back to the maximum all of a sudden.
>
> What could be causing this? I do not have System Protection turned on
> so the space is not being used for System Restore. The C: and D:
> "drives" are actually partitions on the same physical disk.
>

http://windirstat.sourceforge.net/ will probably tell you exactly _where_
the 15gB is going to. _Why_ is up to you...

"John McGaw" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Qu0ll wrote:
>> Vista Ultimate 32-bit SP2.
>>
>> I have noticed that during the course of an average week, the amount of
>> available disk space on both my C: and D: drives varies by up to 15GB
>> even though no significant activity in the form of manipulating files or
>> installing programs is taking place. It might be 20GB available one
>> night and then magically it's up to 35GB in the morning. The pattern is
>> usually that it will reach a high and then gradually do down each day
>> until it jumps back to the maximum all of a sudden.
>>
>> What could be causing this? I do not have System Protection turned on so
>> the space is not being used for System Restore. The C: and D: "drives"
>> are actually partitions on the same physical disk.
>>
>
> http://windirstat.sourceforge.net/ will probably tell you exactly _where_
> the 15gB is going to. _Why_ is up to you...

I installed it but it doesn't tell me the answer. I have 100GB on my D:
partition. Explorer says there's only 17GB free at the moment and yet
WinDirStat states that the total allocation for that drive is just 68GB.
What's taking up the other space? Where have the other 15GB gone and why do
they suddenly become available later?

--
And loving it,

-Qu0ll (Rare, not extinct)
_________________________________________________

[Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me]

Qu0ll wrote:
> "John McGaw" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Qu0ll wrote:
>>> Vista Ultimate 32-bit SP2.
>>>
>>> I have noticed that during the course of an average week, the amount
>>> of available disk space on both my C: and D: drives varies by up to
>>> 15GB even though no significant activity in the form of manipulating
>>> files or installing programs is taking place. It might be 20GB
>>> available one night and then magically it's up to 35GB in the
>>> morning. The pattern is usually that it will reach a high and then
>>> gradually do down each day until it jumps back to the maximum all of
>>> a sudden.
>>>
>>> What could be causing this? I do not have System Protection turned
>>> on so the space is not being used for System Restore. The C: and D:
>>> "drives" are actually partitions on the same physical disk.
>>>
>>
>> http://windirstat.sourceforge.net/ will probably tell you exactly
>> _where_ the 15gB is going to. _Why_ is up to you...
>
> I installed it but it doesn't tell me the answer. I have 100GB on my D:
> partition. Explorer says there's only 17GB free at the moment and yet
> WinDirStat states that the total allocation for that drive is just 68GB.
> What's taking up the other space? Where have the other 15GB gone and
> why do they suddenly become available later?
>

Have you set the options to show "free space" and to show "unknown"? The
latter can be revealing. There is a description of what the computer
classifies that way in the FAQ although I'm not sure that it covers all the
bases.

"John McGaw" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Qu0ll wrote:
>> "John McGaw" <> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>> Qu0ll wrote:
>>>> Vista Ultimate 32-bit SP2.
>>>>
>>>> I have noticed that during the course of an average week, the amount of
>>>> available disk space on both my C: and D: drives varies by up to 15GB
>>>> even though no significant activity in the form of manipulating files
>>>> or installing programs is taking place. It might be 20GB available one
>>>> night and then magically it's up to 35GB in the morning. The pattern
>>>> is usually that it will reach a high and then gradually do down each
>>>> day until it jumps back to the maximum all of a sudden.
>>>>
>>>> What could be causing this? I do not have System Protection turned on
>>>> so the space is not being used for System Restore. The C: and D:
>>>> "drives" are actually partitions on the same physical disk.
>>>>
>>>
>>> http://windirstat.sourceforge.net/ will probably tell you exactly
>>> _where_ the 15gB is going to. _Why_ is up to you...
>>
>> I installed it but it doesn't tell me the answer. I have 100GB on my D:
>> partition. Explorer says there's only 17GB free at the moment and yet
>> WinDirStat states that the total allocation for that drive is just 68GB.
>> What's taking up the other space? Where have the other 15GB gone and why
>> do they suddenly become available later?
>>
> Have you set the options to show "free space" and to show "unknown"? The
> latter can be revealing. There is a description of what the computer
> classifies that way in the FAQ although I'm not sure that it covers all
> the bases.

Setting those options has revealed 18GB of "Unknown" which appears to be the
missing space. What could that be? I just noticed that when I deleted a
couple of large (ca. 500MB) files, the Unknown increased by 2GB! What's
going on?

--
And loving it,

-Qu0ll (Rare, not extinct)
_________________________________________________

[Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me]