Losing Hard Drive Space

I seriously don't understand what is going on. I just reformatted my computer a week or so ago because of big virus problem. I actually decided to reformat once I saw my hard drive space going away, and I decided that was most definitely a bad thing. It was going away while I was logged on windows though.

Now, after the format, I don't have one virus or anything thankfully. But HD space is still disappearing. It's not going away while I'm on Windows though, it's dissapearing every time I shut down and turn it on again at a rate of 400mb every time. Any idea what is going on? I have one 250gb HD in 2 partitions. Only the C:\ is losing space. It was at 36gb left the other day, then to 35, and a few hours ago it was at 34.4gb. Now it's at 34gb even.

I've done some checks too.. C:\ shows I've used 52gb so far. But Documents and Settings + Windows + Program Files + NVIDIA only add up to 49gb, which means I should have about 37gb left, not 34gb... and it was at 37gb right after I formatted.

EDIT: looks like it is dropping even when I don't just shut down, here are some pics...

2:20am tonight
http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/6558/220am8206pt4.jpg

2:22am tonight
http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/4996/222am8206oj1.jpg

Do you have System Restore on and does it have maximum limitation set? It might be that it's creating continous restore points. Possibly a bug in it too.

This sounds more likely a software problem rather than hard disk leak. If you can, create an image or simply try same windows CD on different HDD installed exactly same way and see if the problem persists

I'd put my money on System Restore, especially since it's happening at each shut-down.

Either set a limit or turn it off completely. It should solve the issue. If it doesn't, you can always run the Hard Drive diags that your manufacturer provides free for download.

Yep, System Restore it probably is.

Any tips on fixing it and/or getting back the space I've lost? I set system restore to 3gb instead of 10gb but that doesn't bring back what I've lost.

Any tips on fixing it and/or getting back the space I've lost? I set system restore to 3gb instead of 10gb but that doesn't bring back what I've lost.
Disable it completely, then you can re-enable it to start with a fresh cache with no restore points. After that, you'll slowly "lose" 3 gb, but I guess that's what you chose.

*stop downloading porns*
1) save whatever u need in a cd
2) reformat
3) install windows Vista.
4) happy brithday!

So, did the space stop dropping after disabling SysRes? Just curious if it was the problem :>

Aside from System Restore (I recommend disabling entirely), your Internet cache and Paging File Memory eat up a lot of disk space, as well as DLL Prefetches. Recycle Bin too. God Bless Bill Fukken Gates. With a large HDD, you don't really need to worry about conserving disk space. But you may want to clear Internet cache each time you close your browser.

Without any of these changes, your free space should have gradually settled in to about where you posted the images above.

So, did the space stop dropping after disabling SysRes? Just curious if it was the problem :>

Yeah, it did, thankfuly. Glad I don't have to go through with a 3rd reformat in about 3 weeks time. Guess everything got cleaned up after the last format.