Is my laptop deleting files? :(

[JSB_01]

I have a HP dv6700 laptop. My hard drive is pretty full because I haven't gotten around to taking files off. The other day I had 10GB of hard drive space left, and I've had it down to 9GB and the bar was red warning me I was running out of room. Now I have 14.5GB available, and I haven't deleted anything. Is my computer deleting files or something? I'm pretty sure that's not the case, but I don't know what's up!

 

[JSB_01]

You know, BearDaddy, I thought about that after I posted. Is it normal to gain 4GB after a defrag? It's late and I'm going to check my settings tomorrow, but I hope you're right!

 

[trinket]

Maybe you ran the "Disk Cleanup Utility"? It compresses old files. However, it typically does analysis and asks you to confirm though.

 

[Corny]

defrag does NOT compress files or frees disk space.

there are some windows "assistants" which might delete your temporary internet files and empty the trash bin - but usually they are quite vocal and you should have noticed when one of them ran.

sometimes a scandisk or checkdisk can discover leftovers from corrupt files and delete them, but more than a few MB is quite unusual. maybe some FAT entries were wrong and were corrected - that can gain you a lot more disk space. but this can only happen with FAT formated harddisks - which are kinda uncommon today.

 

[JSB_01]

Thanks for the help guys! I did find out my computer was defragmented last Wednesday, but I'm sure the extra 4.5GB appeared after that. Hmmm.....I guess the mystery continues!

 

[star-warrior]

Maybe the crud was just temporary 'swap' files, and/or temp. internet browsing detritus.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

what may have happened...although i think it's unlikely to have freed up that much space is that as time goes forward it will delete old "restore points" so that could be one reason you've gained space if you hadn't done anything.