HDD? Harddrive... (and whats the last D for)?
"Hard Disk Drive" ^.^
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question548.htm
And I quote:
"So let's imagine that you install a new application onto an empty hard disk. Because the disk is empty, the computer can store the files of the application into sequential sectors on sequential rings. This is an efficient way to place data on a hard disk.
As you use a disk, however, this efficient technique becomes harder for a disk. What happens is that the disk fills up. Then you erase files to reclaim space. These files that you delete are scattered all over the surface of the disk. When you load a new application or a large file onto the disk, it ends up being stored in hundreds or thousands of these scattered pockets of space. Now when the computer tries to load the scattered pieces, the disk's arm has to move all over the surface and it takes forever.
The idea behind the disk defragmenter is to move all the files around so that every file is stored on sequential sectors on sequential rings of the disk. In addition, a good defragmenter may also try to optimize things even more, for example by placing all applications "close" to the operating system on the disk to minimize movement when an application loads. When done well on older disks, defragmenting can significantly increase the speed of file loading. On a new disk that has never filled up or had any significant number of file deletions, it will have almost no effect because everything is stored sequentially already.
As you might imagine, the process of indivdually picking up and moving thousands of files on a relatively slow hard disk is not a quick process -- it normally takes hours. "
Do a scandisk, reboot then upon rebooting it should truncate or delete files etc. allowing you to reclaim you lost space, another great tool to use which gets rid of crap and garbage (Similar to disk clean-up but more power full and faster), and can also do registry repairs, is CCleaner, or Crap Cleaner grab it from:
http://www.ccleaner.com/
You can also disable start-up items, instead of using that clunky msconfig, Which in turns stops from programs loading when windows starts, Saving ram, Less tasks which equates to faster booting of windows, And better performance all round.
I for instance Don't have a virus scanner, Or anything loading up when Windows Starts, And because of it I find my ram Usage to be about 98Mb. With all my start-up items enabled, It chews 640Mb. (And there is a huge difference in performance!)
Other ways of gaining some hard drive space:
(For Windows XP users).
Disable System Restore. To do so, Do the following.
1) Start
2) Control Panel
3) System
4) System Restore tab
5) Select "Turn Off System Restore"
Or if you would like it enabled, you can still edit on how much HDD space its allowed to use.
Disable Hibernation. To do it, do the following.
1) Start
2) Control Panel
3) Power Options
4) Click on hibernation
5) un-check "Enable Hibernation"
If you don't use this feature, you may as well turn it off anyway.
