Gateway laptop drives c,d. drives full

[Tjean]

Hello,
probably a virus....but drives say full and filels are empty. do I need new hard drive?

 

[johnbl]

generally,
- empty recycle bin
- delete internet browser temp files
- uninstall apps you don't need

There are other things you can do but that is a start.

 

[jnkweaver]

generally,
- empty recycle bin
- delete internet browser temp files
- uninstall apps you don't need

There are other things you can do but that is a start.

Then after that run Malwarebytes because your virus scenario is entirely possible

 

[johnbl]

Then after that run Malwarebytes because your virus scenario is entirely possible

no reason to expect a virus (yet)
-you might even want to delete your search index
there are bugs/issues that can really make your index file grow pretty large
(65 GB)
- there can be a bunch of memory dump files that should be deleted
- there are patch updates that can be discarded. Lots of things that will eat up your nice storage over time unless you actually try to clean them up.

it is pretty simple to run the windows cleanmgr.exe to clean up some space
It is part of the OS and is easy to run.
- maybe run this to remove old windows patches from SXS store.
dism /online /cleanup-image /spsuperseded [use elevated cmd (run as Administrator)]

-You can even remove adobe's use of your hard drive to cache websites ads.
(adobe makes you go to their site to turn off flash's use of your own hard drive)
-Reduce the up to 1 gb of space that JAVA uses to cache on your drive.
(control panel java app can turn this off)

lots of reasons your drive will be eaten up by rude apps that are not viruses.

 

[Tjean]

Thank You so much, My husband got over zealous and purchased a new harddrive. I appreciate your help Thanks again. Jeannie

 

[Brett928S2]

Best answer selected by Brett928S2.