On my mother's Lenovo laptop, Windows XP claims that the hard drive is almost full. According to the properties window, 52.7 out of 55.2 GB is in use:
By deleting temp files from Internet Explorer, System Restore, Recycle bin, Windows Update, System Cleanup, I managed to free up about one GB. That's still > 50 GB in use, which still is a lot more than I expected. Hence, I gave good old WinDirStat a spin, and here's the output:
It might be hard to read here, but the first line says that the total amount of disk space in use on drive C is 24.3 GB. So Windows claims usage of 52.7 GB and WinDirStat can only account for 24.3 GB. Where is the other half of that disk space being used?
I hope someone has an answer, or some tricks or tips to do further research.
UPDATE: The laptop in question has an SSD hard drive. I am aware that these disk (at least the earlier ones) have a limited life-time. Could the symptoms described be caused by wear and tear on the SSD?
Best Answer
Lenovo installs a pretty useful application called "Rescue and Recovery" on most of it's systems. This applications performs full scheduled backups of your system to your hard drive, which you can access on boot by pressing the "ThinkVantage" quick-key on your keyboard.
Most probably the used space that windows is reporting incorrectly is the hidden portion of the disk that Lenovo's software is using up.
Search for Rescue and Recovery in "C:\Program Files\Lenovo\Rescue and Recovery" and start up the application to check for the backup regime that's running.
You SHOULD also be able to access the software from the Control Panel under "Lenovo's Enhanced Backup and Restore".
Good luck!