Why does my hard drive space keep decreasing? I did a virus scan, no viruses. The spyware scan didn't find anything either, and I used to have like at least 50-something GB, and it still won't stop going down. And I haven't been downloading stuff except for pictures I find on the web. What is this? HELP!

All I can say is even pictures take up space on the drive. Other than that I would have to talk to my friend if I had that problem. I hope you figure it out.

Pictures can take up a lot of room depending upon their resolution. Have you cleaned your temporary folders lately? You could have some duplicate files on your computer also, if you watch youtube, there could be residue files from there, too.

Clear your browser's cache, that will probably help.

How do I clear my cache? And how do I find these residue files from YouTube? And where are the temporary folders?

Originally posted by AllentownDarkWater How do I clear my cache? And how do I find these residue files from YouTube? And where are the temporary folders?

My computer - > Chose disk you want to clean -> Right click -> Properties -> Disk cleanup button

Originally posted by yul

Originally posted by AllentownDarkWater How do I clear my cache? And how do I find these residue files from YouTube? And where are the temporary folders?

My computer - > Chose disk you want to clean -> Right click -> Properties -> Disk cleanup button

It's asking me which files to clean up. Which one do I pick? The two options are My Files and Files from all users on this computer.

Try this: Control Panel -- Free up disk space (under administrative tools -- (performance and maintenance, free up disk space if using XP) -- Then choose your files (selection should include: Temporary Internet Files, Temporary Files, Offline webpages, set up log, etc) -- choose what you think you don't need and anything that you can reload if needed.

You should also from the Control Panel go to Network and Internet then choose delete browsing history and cookies. These should two actions should clear up most junk.

Originally posted by amethyst Try this: Control Panel -- Free up disk space (under administrative tools -- (performance and maintenance, free up disk space if using XP) -- Then choose your files (selection should include: Temporary Internet Files, Temporary Files, Offline webpages, set up log, etc) -- choose what you think you don't need and anything that you can reload if needed.

I'm using XP, and I don't see a performance and maintenance option.

Ok - I'm on Windows 7 here, and can't remember the XP of how to do it. But from what people have said - that's the correct place to find it. When in doubt - go to the Control Panel and you should find it all there. But from what it sounds like, yes you do probably have a lot of temp files. Temp files have an extension of .tmp so if you delete all of those, you'll get rid of them. Just be aware that when you clean your cache and clear cookies, you may have to re-log into some sites that use cookies to remember you.

Performance and maintanence should be an option under the control panel. Working on memory, as the computer I'm now using is 7, I think it should be toward the bottom of the list or under the list. Sorry I can't be of more help right now, but it should be there.

There's no performance and maintenance option on XP. In your browser, under its Tools menu, you should see an options item. Select that and you should see something about clear cache or delete temporary files.

For XP 1. Go into My Computer 2. Right click the C:\ drive 3. Click Properties 4. On the General tab 5. Run the clean up button, check all options If this does not clear down the space you may have some software on your machine that is creating log files, possibly due to some error on your system. Log files are usually the cause of space meltdown if no virus or spyware can be found. Do a search on your computer for either most recently updated files or for files over 100 megs in size.

Just did it. It didn't really help.

Originally posted by Cep If this does not clear down the space you may have some software on your machine that is creating log files, possibly due to some error on your system. Log files are usually the cause of space meltdown if no virus or spyware can be found. Do a search on your computer for either most recently updated files or for files over 100 megs in size.

How do I do find log files? And how do I search for what files on the whole computer are the largest?

In XP, 1. Open My Computer 2. Right click the C:\ drive (or drive in question) 3. Click Search 4. Expand advanced options 5. Select All files and folders including hidden 6. Under Size select custom and type in 1000 7. Type *.* or *.log 8. Hit search