Disk free space disapearing

If so much space gets used by new files, you should be able to monitor the disk activity and find the process doing it.

Go to Task Manager - Processes, click View and then Select Columns... Select I/O Writes and I/O Write Bytes and let the system run for a while. Click the each of the two new headings twice to sort the processes in descending order and you will be able to spot the process writing most bytes to the disk.

It is normal that the Local Security Authentication Server process lsass.exe is quite busy and writes to the hard drive.

The other approach is to try to identify where all the space goes. Is it in the internet temporary files? Is your machine connected to the net all the time? You can limit the space available to temporary files in IE Options.

Tried what you said. Processes writing to disk are system at a rate of 2-3 kb per minute and lsass at 100-200 bytes per minute.
Is this normal or is something goig on?
Thanks

When you reboot does all the unused spare reappear? if so it is just Windows running and not accurately correcting the disk space as it writes and deletes temp files.

As for the computer loosing restore points this is something that is fairly common with every version of Windows you loose settings on a shutdown for no reason at all. With XP it can range from the way that e-mail is received which is the most commonly seen thing as everyone notices immediately when their email browser changes to loosing restore points and everything in between.

But downloading the Seagate Disk Utility is always a god idea and constant testing of the HDD is always a good thing to do particularly if the machine is left constantly running.

Col

It could also be caused by a memory leak (pagefile).
goto control panel / system;
Advanced tab;
Performance settings;
Advanced tab;
Virtual Memory: change.
(make note of existing settings)
Select "custom size"
set this to the same size as your ram for minimum(512MB)and double (1024MB) for maximum.
click set;
and OK all the way out.
Reboot;
You will probally notice a performance hit, but if drive space stops disapearing, at least you'll know why, then it will be a matter of tracking the leaky software.
If no help, undo with same process and refer to note for original settings.
Hope this helps
Douglas

Temp Files in XP are found in c\Documents & Settings\User Name\Local Settings\Temp Files.

As the Local Settings is a hidden folder you'll have to change the default settings in the display window to show hidden files under the Tools option on the top tool bar and then click on folder Options and then View and tick show all folders.

There is also a Temp Folder in the Windows Folder that quite commonly gets filled up with junk and should be regularly cleaned out.

As for MS fixing things they are happy with the way things are working and Vista is so close to being released that I can not see them even attempting to cure the inbuilt problems that they have created in XP. After all they have had close to 5 years now and have not come any closer to getting XP to work the way that MS advertised it would originally prior to its release so I can not see them actually doing a major rewrite now.

Col

Did you run the AV in safemode? That can make a difference.

The other thing to look at is turning off system restore. It can go nuts sometimes.

Have you done a search, looking for all files created that day? Maybe that can point you in the right direction.

The only other thing I would do, is take that drive out and mount it as a slave and run your av scan on it.

Good luck!