Had 50 GB's of free space. Just got a notification that I'm running low on space (3 MB free).

P

Papasmurf89

Member
So, I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this so I apologize if it isn't; feel free to move it if you'd like mods. So I previously had 50 GB's of free space on my laptop. I just got a notification that I'm running low on space and when I look now I have only 3 MB free. What gives? I didn't download anything big so I'm not sure what it could be. Anyway that I can find out what's taking up 50 GB so that I can delete it?

Thanks.
 
I try to run Malwarebytes fairly frequently but it's definitely been a week or two since I've done it. I'll go ahead and run a scan now. If that doesn't turn up anything, I'll give Windirstat a try.

Edit: I might've gone through a Windows update? Hard to remember. I think I did now that you mention it. A windows update that takes up 50 GB though? Anyway that I could get some of that space back (if that is what it is)? Space is already kind of limited on my laptop.

Malwarebytes detected no threats.
 
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Hi John,

I ran Windirstat. Neat program. Is there anyway for me to post the report? The option in the program itself is grayed out and it's not letting me take a screenshot.

One thing I did notice is that 62 GB's are taken up by "pia_manager". Not sure exactly what this is but I use Private Internet Access (VPN) so I'm assuming it's that. Basically all of that space is consumed in a log folder. Is this necessary? Anyway to open up some of this space?

Thanks.
 
You can just with use windows snipping tool(providing its windows 10)to take a screenshot of the program or press alt-prtscn then open paint, press ctrl-v which pastes the image into paint, then save the image and upload the file back here.
Papasmurf89 said:
Is this necessary? Anyway to open up some of this space?
Click to expand...
I'm not familiar with vpn software. I would need to see the diagram to see what being used.
 
You can check that vpn folder to see when the data was created. If it's newly created then most likely thats the culprit. When was the last time you checked you had 50gb free?

Also looks like you got 63.5gb of text documents(which I think is quite high for text documents) and 63.2 gb of a pak file whatever that is.
 
I can tell you right now PIA is a piece of crap. Two main reasons why:


1) When I ran it their ruby.exe thrashed on my HDD and my HDD was an SSD. Not cool.

2) They allow port forwarding and that is a big no, no in terms of keeping your true IP secret. They've claimed to have fixed that somehow, but I've read it's still a vulnerability.


I use a VPN myself from VPN.ac. They are based in Romania so they are not subject to Internet laws like the U.S. and other countries. Another great VPN (though I've never tried it) is ProtonVPN. They are based in Switzerland and they too are not subject to Internet privacy crap laws and such. Another country that's similar is Iceland. Those are the three countries I know of where you should buy a VPN from.

F it. I'll just copy/paste my own forum post about how to chose a VPN from my own site.



"With VPN's being all the rage now a days, especially with something like Kodi, it's easy to understand why people want to protect their privacy. When looking for a VPN you should consider the following four criteria. E-mail the VPN you have an interest in and ask them the following questions:

1) Do you allow port forwarding?

If they allow port forwarding then scrap that VPN. With port forwarding on in a VPN your true IP can be exposed.

2) What country are you based in?

If the VPN you are interested in is not in a country that is Internet privacy friendly then scrap that VPN. Three countries that I know are Internet privacy friendly are Romania, Iceland and Switzerland. There are others, but I'm not sure what they are.

3) Do you use DNS leak protection?

If the VPN you are interested in doesn't offer DNS leak protection then scrap that VPN. You can test DNS leaks at this website: https://www.dnsleaktest.com/

You should see a result that doesn't match the DNS you use all the time like your ISP's DNS or third party DNS you may use like Google or OpenDNS.

4) Do you keep any logs?

All VPNs keep a log in some form or another. Some VPNs state they don't keep logs at all, but rather just keep a time stamp of access only. Some VPNs just log your bandwidth usage. If the VPN that you're interested in keeps logs beyond those two points then I would not consider that VPN.

Those are the four main criteria in choosing a good VPN. Now you need to concern yourself with WebRTC. It's hard to turn off in a smart device, but fairly easy to do in a computer. Read here: https://browserleaks.com/webrtc#webrtc-disable "



Those VPN logs probably can be deleted. You may need to hold the shift key while you delete it. You can ask the PIA forums to be sure, but no log should grow that much, EVER!

Now when Google indexes this thread it will trigger many spam bots to post here with their VPN BS. VPNs are a big thing now a days. Buyer beware.
 
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