A very good explanation is found here:

http://directedge.us/node/37

Thanks for the information. I do understand that several GBs are taken up with different programs, that's not my problem. It's after all those have been installed that I am talking about. I have checked and every day I lose another gigabyte. Last night I looked and I had lost 4 GBs. I checked my internet history and there is nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing has been downloaded or installed. I don't understand how looking at a website or answering email can take up so much hard drive space. My nephew has been on Facebook but only looked at it. The day I bought my computer I had 428 GB, at the end of the week I was down to 405 GB with only Micxrosoft Office and Acrobat Reader being downloaded. The next week I was down to 390 iwht nothing being downloaded or installed. I've cleaned out all the temp files so it's not hiding there. Thank you for giving me the website address, I will read the article again and see if I missed something.

How often do you clean out your cache or defrag your computer?

Everytime you acces the internet, information is stored in your computer (images, cookies, dataforms, history, etc)

Everytime you turn on & off the computer... this information is stored as well

Have you tried a free progam name CCleaner?

Yes, I have CCleaner and ran that. Also I do a disk cleanup every week. My last one was yesterday. It did not have much in there but I ran it anyway. Sorry to take up so much of your time but this is puzzling me. My computer is only two and 1/2 weeks old.

No need to apolized Jafakf, this is what we are here for... We just need to weed things out and put our heads together to come up with a solution.

We like puzzles too!!

Oh and by the way... welcome to the board and to have you here!

We would really appreciate your input of this board host in comparision to the other

Thank you!

ok... regarding to your problem... I will get back to you

Thank you. I feel like I am going nuts! LOL! I have explained the problem to Compaq Computers tech and he keeps giving me the same pat answer - to empty the recycling bin and do a disk cleanup - even though I have told him I have already done so. I don't think they ever read the entire email.

As far as other board, this is the first one I have ever been on. I received such wonderful help and everyone was so nice that I didn't need to look elsewhere. On the old forum, i have posted several times asking for help for something my boss or someone else at work had done. I especially like the Sticky notes. That has helped me ward off problems and helped keep our computers running smoothly. Thanks for looking into my problem. It is baffling me. Is there a little faucet inside that needs to be turned off because it's spouring out all my gigabytes? LOL!

Love the giraffe.

Windows automatically creates registry backup files every 24 hours. These files can be rather large. If you are running Vista, then Shadow Copy also is at work. It is used by NTBackup and the Volume Shadow Copy service to backup files. In Windows Vista, it is used by Windows Vista's backup utility, System Restore and the Previous Versions feature, taking up about 15% of your disk space. But, some systems have no limit set, so they can get filled with restore points. You need to check this to see what it is set at.

Losing a little bit here and there can be due to just about anything. Losing a lot in a short time isn't normal, and you need to look for the cause. Once, I had AVG Anti-virus erroneously generating a very large file several times a day until all but about 15% of my hard drive was left. I couldn't get it to stop, even after completely uninstalling it and reinstalling it, so that's when I switched to Avast. Look around on your hard drive and see if you can spot something that looks unusual. Look at the files that get created by "date modified" and see if there is anything unusual in C:\Windows\System32, C:\Program Files\ "folders in Program Files", C:\Documents and Settings\"your username", etc. You can get the most recent files created to appear at the top of each folder by clicking "date modified" to get them arranged in order of newest date to oldest date created/modified.

Other than what's mentioned in the article I pointed you to above, not sure what your problem could be other than the temp files and the Shadow Copy stuff that is done everyday. Try turning the Shadow Copy Service off temporarily and see if that stops any of that from happening.

Update: Here's where one person found a solution to this problem:

http://www.vistaheads.com/forums/microsoft-public-windows-vista-hardware-assessment/214344-losing-hard-drive-space-vista.html

Here's a suggestion I found on a Vista forum:

Start - Accessories - System Tools - Disk Cleanup - Select your current Hard Drive (Should be default C: )

After it's done calculating, a new window will pop out, click on "More Options" tab at top, then you will see the section of "System Restore and Shadow Copies", then click on "Clean Up..." and confirm "Delete"

Caution: Do NOT click on "OK" to close the window, Click on "Cancel"

And now go and check your disk space and see if you have gained more space or not.

Here's another suggestion on another forum:

After much searching i found out that if i shut down Automatic restore point or whatever and did one last Disk Cleanup that i got all my missing GB back and im not losing anymore.

From what is being said in the 2 suggestions I found from other help forums, this suggests to me that System Restore (and Shadow Copy on Vista Machines) may be creating rather large files daily that are reducing available space significantly. Since you are using a 15% allocation of disk space by default in Vista for this function (that's 64.2GB of hard drive on your hard dirve that you have allocated for this function), you will experience daily losses of available space until the allocated space is used up. Then, all restore points except the most recent are deleted, the available space increases back to somewhere close to where you started, and the cycle starts over. You don't want to permanently disable this, just reduce the size of the allocated space once you verify that is where your loss is coming from. See the link below, which will tell you how to do that, and how much you need to allocate.

http://www.instantfundas.com/2007/11/9-places-where-you-could-lose-hard-disk.html

I know you have already done some of what is suggested in the above link, but look it over anyway, particularly the paragraphs involving the System Restore space allocation and the Recycle Bin space allocation. You don't need all the space allocated for these, and that can be changed.

Since your computer is new, I assume you have Vista. System Restore and Shadow Copy are most likely your problem if there is nothing else that is generating files (like viruses or other malware, AOL, or some application.

If nothing above helps:

Who is your ISP, and what Anti-virus program are you using?

Have you gone through Tut#4 weekly steps? When was the last time you did a defrag? Have you checked for viruses, spyware and other malware (Tut #6)?

Windows systems ship with very outdated OS's and the first order of business the computer usually attends to is updating. Depending upon the date of the OS image burn in, these files can take up a lot of space. Each of them is also accompanied with a program that enables the uninstallation of the update if it conflicts with your hardware or other programs. I have never had to actually uninstall a security update and would consider changing almost anything else on a Windows system than to leave a vulnerability unpatched.

The uninstallers for Windows updates are "hidden" files, and are buried within the C:\Windows folder. I would suggest running about a week with an update before deleting the uninstaller. You can find them by opening any file and clicking "tools", then "folder options". This will open a dialog box with tabs at the top. Click the "view" tab and check the selection for "show hidden files and folders". Also uncheck the selection "hide protected operating system files". Click apply and open the C:\Windows folder.

These files are contained in folders all having $Ntuninstall in front of the name of the update or service pack. It is safe to delete the folders without opening them, as Windows will create new ones for each future update. I check for these files monthly and delete any that I find.

This won't get back all of the disk space taken up by the updates and service packs (which are particularly large) but it certainly does help.

Thanks everyone! Sorry I am just getting back but I took a few days off work. Guess the stress of this was getting to me. LOL! Just kidding. Will try your suggestions and get back with you. Thanks again for all your help! What a blessing to have somewhere to go for computer advise.