strange increase in the disk space cosumed

Hi.
I have installed Windows 98 on patition C:\ of my hard disk.the capacity of the partition is a little more then 3 GB..probably 3.44 GB..anyways,today i suddenly noticed a lot of increase in the disk space occupied when i received the message that I'm running out of space on Drive C and i should run the disk cleaner...blah blah blah.I ran that thing and got about 12 MB more space..and just then i received another message sayin that I've run out of space on Drive C...i checked the properties of C:\ and saw that i had only some 52.7 MB space on C..i checked the folder sizes to see what was causing the problem..and when i checked the size of C:\...at first it showed a little more than 200 MB..and then suddenly size started increasing..and then it stopped at 1.03 GB..my point is,Windows 98 takes only about 45-50 MB space..how come it occupied 1.03 GB?btw...just scanned C:\windows through AVG free edition(up to date) and no viruses were found.

you have the windows virus...............

just jokeing with you, i will do a little reaserch and get back with you.

and just to let you know, i don't reccomend your curent virus scanner.. try micafee or norton, i'm not saying you have a virus its just a suggestion..

may i ask what other things you have installed????

actually windows 98 takes more than just 50 megs...way more. Depending on its version and what computer it came with...it can take up to 1 gig on a fresh install...the usual i've seen is 600-700 megs. That depends on the features that they put on it...I.E. Dell will add its own **** to the install.

As for the space...check the size of each folder using Windows Explorer and see what folder is taking too much space. Get into that folder and find what other folders in there or files are taking the space.

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you have the windows virus...............

just jokeing with you, i will do a little reaserch and get back with you

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HAHAHAHAHA...not. Whats with that??? Post when you actually have done the research. No need to let the person know that you "will" be helping him soon...

al1 I know you like to play around with malware, run spybot and adaware and thecleaner just to eliminate those factors. Also, try more than one antivirus...housecall for example.

Vitual memory, Windows wants it and will take it.

i like cybr1d take on this but if nothing comes up on your adware or mallware scanner. have you converted your drive to FAT32. when i was googleing it i found alot on many problems with FAT16

I haven't touched windows 98 in a while. Does it have restore points? Those add up on xp if its set to make points too often.

no 9x doesn't have restore points but it does allow some settings to go back to factory default without deleting all your stuff using the "quick restore CD" in the corret manner.

i love win xp......

I would sugest you do a search on you C: drive for all files over lets say 100M. just to see if there is one file that is taking all the space or a number of them. If you get one file that is about 1.1 Gb it could be either a log file or it is, as was said above the virtual memory.
A couple of questions :
What is the disk space like when you first turn on your computer? I get the impression that at the start of your session their is plenty of space left but as you use it the space fills up.
Does it happen more often when you use any specific software or when you are on the internet for a while?

If there is one file that is taking all the space post the name here and I am sure someone will be able to tell you what it is.

Just a thought here.
Automated updates for windows can take up a lot of room it creates hidden directories in the windows directory with all the update configuration files and after a year or to if you don't remove them they can create a lot of clutter. But i cant remember if win98 had a automated update tool so this might be totally uninteresting.

Unplug the box from the net. Run scandisk and defrag the drive, keep it off the net. Run the box for a while and see if the same thing happens. If so, format/reinstall. No way should the HDD size fluctuate as much as yours seems to be doing.

BTW. Is the net connection BB?

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Automated updates for windows can take up a lot of room it creates hidden directories in the windows directory with all the update configuration files and after a year or to if you don't remove them they can create a lot of clutter. But i cant remember if win98 had a automated update tool so this might be totally uninteresting.

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It's not the same as in WinXP which keeps copies of everything. It's most likely his swap file getting out of hand.

There are some steps you can do to eliminate what it possibly could be.

1. Get rid of the excess files that you've downloaded (I don't know about others but when using a computer I download, install and keep all the zips even if I don't need them, pack rat that I am). Clean out the temp directory and other locations where files are kept (clean out IE cache).

2. Boot into safe mode and scan there (some viruses will hide themselves from scanners so it can be a good way to detect)

3. Power off (note: NOT reboot) and leave off for about 10 minutes. Come back and start up. Check disk space. If it's smaller, that'd indicate swap file issues. You'd just need to set the swap file to a specific maximum size rather than letting the OS determine how much it needs. Go to Control Panel --> System --> Performance --> Virtual Memory. Click the button that says Let me specify my own settings. Set the minimum and maximum values. You'll probably need to reboot.

HTH

Hi,

Another thought is that you have "quickfind" or "quicksearch" enabled............unless you are regularly handling lots of documents and spreadsheets, you don't need it and this can easily gobble up as much as 10Gig..........well that's the biggest I have ever seen. I always disable it and delete its files.

When you loaded Win98 it will have dumped a load of .cab files on your HDD...........they are the compressed files containing the OS............if you have the CD you don't need them.

I would suggest that you do a Google search for "Xen" by Paul Brown. It is a general Windows tweaking and cleaning tool, it does a pretty good job of getting rid of "baggage"

If you are running a browser in Win 98 make sure to set days history to 0 and the cache file to something sensible.........use the options to clear cache & history.

As I said Xen is a good tool ...............particularly for lazy people like me :D

This lot is in addition to what you have already been told.

Cheers

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I would sugest you do a search on you C: drive for all files over lets say 100M. just to see if there is one file that is taking all the space or a number of them. If you get one file that is about 1.1 Gb it could be either a log file or it is, as was said above the virtual memory.

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This is where i would start.. while Virtual mem and some Updates (yes i have had win98 keep some updates ..usually IE-6 from what I have found).. will take up some space.. they don't suddenly run off and start consuming masses of hdd space..

The reason I would start here is especialy if you have a P2P prog runnig..a couple of machines in the last week.. 1 XP the other Win 98 both with WinMX had some files larger than 1Gb (the XP had 2 files of 8.4GB) Deleted these and the "Incomplete" files.. freedup a mass of hdd realestate, nearly half the drive in both cases..

If you have MS office (2k or earlier not sure about 2k2 or later) make sure that FastFind is disabled.. then delete all of its index files..

Xen.. All we need is a Ying & Yang.. and our puters will be verry mantra

jokes aside.. Xen is good.. ..

Sudden increases of HDD space, especially if the install is aged..
ask your self..

What new software..?
What softwre have i removed?
What system changes. (have I fiddled with the registry or enabled /disabled services(ok it is 98sry))?
If using a P2P prog.. could it have chucked a spaz..(see my earlier comments)
While I am careful and I have a good AV (AVG isn't that bad..pretty good compared).. did I make a mistake fiddling with those sus emails the other day?
and last-- is my installation of 98 just getting too darn old? chop and change proges and over time it just plain o'le stuffes up.. forget the grease and Oil.. new install


Cheers

my first idea...virtual memory. check "pagefile.sys", after enabling view of system and hidden files from the folder options. see how large that file is.

http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/

This is an awesome way to find your largest files. Use treesize.

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my first idea...virtual memory. check "pagefile.sys", after enabling view of system and hidden files from the folder options. see how large that file is.

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Win 98 don't have Pagefile.sys .. it does have a swap file win386.swp .. sizes between 35 and 120Mb are normal.. unles you have moved it (registry hack) it should be in the C:\windows folder..

For a clean OEm install of Win98 you are looking at 120 to 300Mb of hdd.. throw in office 2k and you can still fit the whole lot onto a CD and have realestate to spare.. As for Win XPensive a normal install is around 2Gb

More Questions..

..Are your "Program Files" and "My Documents" on the same partition as Windows..
..What Software are you running..

Some Imaging progs will chew massses of the swp file, but this should settle after a restart ..

oh yeh.. talking about restarts.. had any scandisk activity starting up lately? chech your c:\ for chk files.. have seen hundreds in there (mind win98/dos spits a dummy when the root folder reaches 512 files)

Note in my replies I am mentioning the whole of the windoze install not just the windows folder.... which are you talking about.. and most of my comments refer to Win98se

Cheers