# Help me find the reason I have no HD space!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-the-reason-i-have-no-hd-space/391839
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 12, 2007, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-the-reason-i-have-no-hd-space/391839 "2007-02-12T12:55:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-the-reason-i-have-no-hd-space/391839/1 "2007-02-12T12:55:08Z")
Okay. I am generally pretty knowledgeable about computers. I fixed them for years while in college as a job. But I’ve got a weird thing in Windows at the moment. My windows partition (on an iMac) has 14 total GB of space, of which nearly all is used (minus a few hundred MB free). Yet, when I open up C: and highlight the entire contents of the drive and click properties, it only says that all the files on my HD take up 8GB. I’m thinking that this isn’t including some files, but I have hidden files visible…
This partition has limited uses for me so I have a good idea of what I have on the computer. All of the sizes of the pertinent directories seem right. Windows, for whatever reason clocks in around 2GB. Somewhat high, I thought, but again, it’s not 3.11 Program Files is around the same size and My Documents too. The rest of the 8GB is in random stuff scattered around that I’m aware of…Anyone have any idea where this extra 6 GB is getting used up? I didn’t think that Windows includes Virtual Memory as used space, not that I’d have 6GB of that anyway
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### Author:  [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-the-reason-i-have-no-hd-space/391839/2 "2007-02-12T14:07:26Z")
Make sure you check “show protected system files” in your view options.
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### Author:  [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-the-reason-i-have-no-hd-space/391839/3 "2007-02-12T14:23:30Z")
:smack: :smack: :smack: :smack:
How did I miss that? I guess at one point, it seems that this option was in the same place that the hidden files visibility option was. Turns out I’ve got about 1.7 GB of system restore points…very annoying, since I don’t care what happens to this partition…
Also, my virtual memory was at an insanely high 4 Gb. I remember setting it high for some game a long time ago…
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### Author:  [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-the-reason-i-have-no-hd-space/391839/4 "2007-02-12T16:09:09Z")
Lots and lots of stored up temp files, maybe? I cleared out over 2,500 of them here, about 4 gigs worth, a couple of weeks ago.
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### Author:  [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-the-reason-i-have-no-hd-space/391839/5 "2007-02-12T18:38:41Z")
Get yourself a copy of Treesize Pro. It will profile your data exactly.
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### Author:  [@SeaCanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaCanary)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-the-reason-i-have-no-hd-space/391839/6 "2007-02-12T19:00:48Z")
Have you checked your recycle bin?
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### Author:  [@Cleophus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleophus)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-the-reason-i-have-no-hd-space/391839/7 "2007-02-12T19:22:25Z")
You can adjust the System Restore properties by right-clicking on “My Computer” and selecting the “System Restore” tab. You can adjust the amount of HD space System Restore reserves or turn it off entirely.