# Minute-to-minute change in free space on my hard-drive **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 30, 2001, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minute-to-minute-change-in-free-space-on-my-hard-drive/84597 "2001-09-30T05:30:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minute-to-minute-change-in-free-space-on-my-hard-drive/84597/1 "2001-09-30T05:30:25Z")
I’m just curious. Everything works fine, but … Why does the amount of free space on my hard drive seem to change by the moment even when I’ve done downloaded nothing, opened no new programs, etc. If I check to see what’s available on my C drive, and then check again a minute later, the values are significantly different. And, the amount of free space seems to only decrease each time I check, eg. 103 mB then a minute later to 87 mB, then to 73 mB. I don’t know if it’s relevant, but I’m using a Pentium II 233 operating on Win95. Just curious. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minute-to-minute-change-in-free-space-on-my-hard-drive/84597/2 "2001-09-30T05:32:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by KarlGauss \* > \*\*… I’ve done downloaded nothing … \*\* Oh my God. Where did that “done” come from? ---
**Author:** ![kinoons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a698b9/32.png) [@kinoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kinoons)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minute-to-minute-change-in-free-space-on-my-hard-drive/84597/3 "2001-09-30T07:17:41Z")
my guess would be the windows swap file – basically its the space that windows takes and streaches out in during use…