Disc storage space gone poof! What happened?

Disc storage space gone poof! What happened?

My external HDD is broken so I tried deleting files on my laptop to make enough room to install AoE3 with expansions and mods.

I got to 5.5 Gbytes free disc space last night. I was planning on installing AoE3 next. Then, in the morning when I look how much space is left it only says 1.19 Gbytes! What happened?

I checked for temporary files I deleted last night to see if some how magically they had been replaced overnight, and the temporary files folders containing the several Gbytes of temporary files I deleted last night were all empty.

Any hints? Is it possible that the RAM stick can double as flash memory for files when the HDD space is low and the computer will put files on the RAM stick automatically and then automatically remove them from the RAM stick when enough HDD space is available?

To be specific, there was 5.5 Gbytes free space last night and then I turned off the computer and when I rebooted in the morning it said 1.19 Gbytes free space.

Have you got System Restore enabled? Restore points are approximately the size you describe, and Windows does create them without prompting you if you haven't got the feature switched off...


peugeot407

Thanks!

I just realized that I've been running ERUNT to create restore points and forgot I was running it.

In 'C:/Windows/ERNT/' I found 4.58 Gbytes and deleted the files.

So while restore points are useful if something happens, its better for computers with larger local HDD like 250 Gbytes or more. I only have 75 Gbytes. My laptop is from 2005, and has 3.5 Gbytes RAM, which is good for 2005 and is better than my last laptop from 2011.