SSD space disappearing?

I really hope someone can help me here guys;

I have come across the most bizzare problem; it appears my SSD space (16GB) on the Acer Aspire One (had for about 6 months) is literally disappearing... Of course I have checked my downloaded files and nothing big is there (all I keep are a few pictures now and then). I just use the netbook mostly for surfing. At the moment I only have 170 MB left (yes you read right!), so where has the other 15 GB gone! :shock: I really hope someone can help fast because I of course know any day now the system will refuse to boot up when point zero is reached on the SSD....

 

I would start from CCleaner... http://www.ccleaner.com/

 

Hello there;

I forgot to add; it is a linux linpus; so i was unaware these got viruses/trojans/worms etc....

 

In that case I would start from clearing temporary files and kind of backups etc. which you do not need. For Linux you do not have trojans, viruses and worms...

 

First things first, clear your trash bin.

 

Indeed I have made sure to do that. I have zero trash and have even moved all the files I had downloaded (just a few pictures) onto the USB all now safe and backed up. It ONLY happens (the SSD space goes down) when I web surf for some strange reason. I cleared all files (cookies etc) from the firefox browser so I am thinking is there something that is being backed-up that I need to delete. Of course I do not know how to delete back-ups (I know they were called system restores on the Windows machine I once had before getting rid of it). My cousin (who has the same device without SSD however) reckons it could be an actual failure with the SSD; but I have not come across this problem when I searched this forum. I hope you can help further.

 

Go into preferences an decrease your history to 2 or 3 days. If it is set at default which is usually 30 or more days.

 

You might be looking in the wrong direction. Firefox may not be the primary problem. I had a similar problem and I found out it was not Firefox but Thunderbird that was the culprit. If you are using Thunderbird AND not automatically compact your folders, the size of the Thunderbird folder will go into the giga-giga-giga bites!!
Check with a file manager the size of your Thunderbird folder. If this appears to be in the Giga bites, try the following: (if you use Thunderbird)
1. Open Thunderbird
2. Go to "Tools"
3. Go to "Options"
4. Go to "Advanced"
5. Go to the "Network and disk space tab"
6. Go to the "Disk space" section and tick the box "Compact the folders if it will save over 100kb"
7. Click OK and close Thunderbird.
8. Restart Thunderbird.

It might help It did it for me.

 

Hi guys;

I have done everything suggested so far but still no luck :cry: Does anyone have any other suggestions? Otherwise I will of course have to make a trip to PC World on the weekend to claim a replacement as I have a one year warranty. However I would rather keep this model; since they no longer make them...Hope you can help further.

Thanks.

 

In the worst case scenario you can write down the sizes of the (most common) folders. Look for unusual large folders and look in the sub-folders, you might find the problem.
As a last resort: Copy the original image back and compare the folder sizes. Now you know where to look. From there you can narrow it down by repeating the process with the sub-folders.
I know, probably a last resort, a painstaking task, but I am afraid I am running out of ideas too...... :?

 

Hello there;

OK tried that but there are no large files on the system. I wonder; is there a possibility of just deleting everything and re-booting the system as new as it came (after-all I have nothing on the drive). There is of course the CD that came with it; I wonder if that would do the trick? Any further help would be appreciated.

Thank You.

 

If you were in WIndows, I would tell you that its your System Restore that keeps adding large restore points on your HD, but I dont know if they have something similar in Linux or not.

 

Hello there;

Finally some progress. Indeed as posted by one user the issue is with the cache in FireFox. I tried a test and reduced the cache to 0 MB under preferences advanced network and so far having surfed the websites the issue has now stopped. No longer is the SDD being 'eaten'. However that still makes about 14 GB missing so does anyone actually technically know where that has gone? I can see no way of actually deleting it and when I do delete the cache it merely does nothing to free up space. I am wondering if it is related to the software of the FireFox and whether I need to un-install or update the FireFox and that may get rid of the cache; but as you can probably tell this is rather technical and is just my theory. I hope someone can help.

Thank You.

 

Restoring your system using the CD will most probably solve your problem, but if you do not change they way you work you will face the same problem sooner or later again. (provided that the problem is a result of your own behavior)
For the next time it is always a good idea to create an image of a fresh good working system.
Once you have fine-tuned your system with all the software on it, you create an image with some free software like http://damien.guibouret.free.fr/en/index.html (also Linux) and copy it to your USB stick.
From then on it is very simple and easy to just copy your entire system back with the same image software.
It will save you a hell lot of time installing a new system and software in the future. (15 minutes for a total reinstall)

 

Yeah; I think there has been some software problem here. The Linux is basic; there is no additional software (it is for amateurs basically; a simplified cut down-linux). The cache is what has been doing it (now that it is zero it is fine). You said you had the same problem; so when you rectified it did you get your space back from the drive? I am also thinking it may have something to do with system updates (going back to some software incompatibility).

 

There's an excellent interview with the guy from AnandTech on SSD technology this week at

www.tekzilla.com

It was news to me, but apparently SSDs don't erase deleted data cleanly the way HDD drives do, and there is a buildup over time that reduces available disk space especially with intensive read/write use. Manufacturers are working on it, and apparently Windows 7 has a new "Trim" command to help SSDs but it's a real problem. I can imagine it would start to impact these small SSDs pretty quickly.