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I keep getting messages that my hard drive is almost full (its a 500gb). My son in law reckons that it is my Norton anti-virus that keeps on continually backing up my files. Can anyone help as I am pretty ignorant at understanding how computers work

Assuming you are on windows 7..

Hit the windows button

Select "control panel" then "backup and restore"

In the window that opens select "manage space"

Then select "view backups" click on the backups that you don't want (all but the most recent)

Click "Delete"

Are you sure? Click "yes"....

Older versions of windows may be slightly different, but similar.

You're gonna need to clear up some space for this to work, so first thing to do is open (My) Computer and right-click your C drive.

Select Properties, then click Disk Cleanup. Let it delete your temporary files.

Hopefully you have enough space to download Treesize Free from here

Install and run the program. It should tell you what's taking all the space. You have to drill down the levels by clicking the + sign to the left of the biggest directory.

A simple tutorial is here

Hopefully that should help you find it.

Also, do you have an extra drive listed in Computer that appears empty?

I would also get rid of that Norton anti-virus and get some free stuff I use Zone Alarm

Thank you very much for this. I'll give it a go. I am pretty sure it is Norton. Its backing up all my files in a back up folder. I think I should have them backed up in an external drive

indeed whats the use of having the backups on a disk if the disk fails

Spam removed - RichAndo

Further to Merlin 50's post.....

I too would get arid of Norton - it always seems to provide more problems than solutions. In addition to Zone alarm I would look at AVG also.

Good luck

i disagree with you both. Norton of old was terrible but it has vastly improved. try loading your pc up with either avg or za, then try with norton, a hell of a lot faster + so much more. macafe i hate, i have used norton, blackice, z-alarm pro, avg, webroot then in 2010 i move to kaspersky. 2011 i went back to the new improved top rated norton and am running the 2012 version now, fast and not one problem apart from it wanting to remove certain things it assumes arn't legit when they are. again, tell it once and that's it.

zone alarm has dropped right down in the protection ratings and avg slows the hell out of your system when run with zone alarm which a lot of people seem to do. some rant and rave over free opposed to paying for one, i prefer to pay.

if norton is doing backups tell it not to, simple as that but as above, you will probably find it's your os doing it. one thing i don't understand though, why people use just one hard rive, they partition it and make a c & d drive. if the drive goes faulty, you've lost everything. run the os on a smaller drive thus halving the chance of loosing everything in one go, it also stops the os drive being filled so quickly.

Try something like WinDirStat http://sourceforge.net/projects/windirstat/files/

Analyses the hard drive to see where all your disk space has gone and fives you a graphical representation. Really clever product.

Screenshots are here.... http://www.techsupportalert.com/files/i ... irStat.jpg

So in this example there's a big purple blob representing a load of space used on one particular thing. When you hover over with the mouse it would tell you exactly what that was.

I've used it in the past. I thought it was great.

Thanks

Rob

J what's the update on this? Has your solution been resolved?