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Hard Drive is running out of free psace for no reason and 4 gigs is missing in general

I have an Exchnage server that is running out of free space on C: for no reason.  The infostore is located on D:.  Cleared all the log files that I know of.  Also, when you check the sizes of all the folders roughy 4 gigs is missing.  ???  I have ran chkdsk and defragmented and I have checked the array (raid 5) and all looks good.  I'm monitoring all the files but can't find the change.  I deleted off 400MB a few hours ago and I only had 250 free after the delete.  I have rebooted but how do I reclaim or even find my free space.  Hoping for a miracle.
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laskovd
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Hello jdoguncc,
Few issues:
1. Antivirus installed? Updated?
2. Backups of Exchange - performed? Any recent config changes?
3. Have You tried to search C: drive for files created\modified in last week? possibly You'll find the "growing problem" there.
4. Any additional roles for this server?
5. Event viewer logs ?
Thx
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jdoguncc

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The paging file is eating up the 4 gigs, but I still can't figure out what eats the remaing free space.
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Hi jdoguncc,

I've always found that "SpaceMonger" helps to determine where disk space has gone. The free version (1.4) can be downloaded here: http://www.sixty-five.cc/sm/v1x.php

When you run the tool, click "Open" and then point it to your C: drive. It will take some time to examine your hard drive but will then show you a graphical view of hard drive usage which should prove helpful in finding the culprit.

Please let me know if I can help any more.

Cheers,
Daniel
In addition - "Show hidden\system files" option enabled?
http://www.lwcomputing.com/tips/static/bootdrivesize.asp

I'M STILL IN NEED OF MORE SPACE! (a.k.a. LET'S GO HUNTING!) Contents

Ok, so you've done all this and you STILL find you are using more space than seems reasonable. I have on rare occasions seen instances where Windows misreports partition information. This could be caused by several things:

    * Corruption in the file system (make a backup if possible, then run chkdsk on the c: drive).
    * Root Kit infections - these nasty bugs intercept normal requests for Windows functions and provides the information you requested - hiding themselves from the list. Some COULD use significant amounts of data. (These can be very difficult to get rid of, even with supposedly effective root kit tools. As Mark Russinovich recommended in one of his Windows IT Pro articles, if you have a root kit, you might simply be better off reinstalling if you want to be absolutely certain you remove it.
    * Alternate Data Streams - used with Services for Macintosh and other functions, the contents of alternate data streams for files is not typically included in requests for disk usage. A clever person could hide significant amounts of data in alternate data streams. For more information on Alternate Data Streams, I would suggest you review this web page, Windows Alternate Data Streams.
    * Something else entirely - I don't remember the cause or even if we figured ou the cause, but I have seen one instance where someone was simply unable to identifiy what was eating up space

There are a couple of tools you can use to track down what and where your space is used on your server. My favorite tool is the Windows 2000 Resource Kit utility, DIRUSE.
Check out leews suggestions, one the most accomplished experts on this site:

http://www.lwcomputing.com/tips/static/bootdrivesize.asp
Download and run this on your server. It will tell you exactly what is eating up your space.
http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml

K
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