Why is my hard drive full?

The hard drive of my laptop is permanently 100% full, even though only a few kbit / s data is transferred and the laptop is not used but only runs in idle mode. What can that be and what can you do about it?

If it is an older model, this could happen through the operating system alone, especially if it is an HDD

But unfortunately more detailed information is not given.

HDD? That is normal. Can be fixed by changing to an SSD.

The virus scanner looks for problems.
The operating system installs a major update in the background.
The hard drive is defective and is trying to restore a lost sector.

Examine this with the TaskManager, the ResourceMonitor (Taskmanager → more details → Performance → (below) open Resource Monitor, then search for affected disk activities), and with CrystalDiskInfo or CHKDSK in the Command Window.

If this is an HDD, switching to an SSD would massively speed up access.

Installing an SSD doesn't fix the cause of the problem.

You probably have the vulnerable Windows in use and recently your computer was still on the move.

It is highly likely that a stranger uses your computer as a file storage, for mass spam distribution or as a bitcoin generator.

If the usual virus scanners can't help and Autostarts.exe (from Microsoft) can't prevent the malware from starting, reinstalling the operating system is the next step.

The cause is pretty much irrelevant with an SSD. HDDs are simply not suitable for multitasking to today's extent, which is why they are very quickly used up in something like this.

It was over 3 years ago that the computer was on the move, and the device is also over 10 years old 😬

So it's a Fujitsu Lifebook, over 10 years old, was shipped with Win 7 and has had this problem for many years. However, the hard drive is only about 5 years old. Do you need any other information? 🙈

In the meantime, I also have two Fujitsu laptops that are over 10 years old, because Windows only caused problems (and was extremely slow), I also installed the free and excellently equipped Linux Mint Cinnamon for both.

LibreOffice, Thunderbird, secure browser FF, VLC and many other important programs are available free of charge as a full version with Linux, many other programs are in the free AppShop from Mint.

Both computers are now running smoothly. It is a big advantage if not every installed program has full access to all computer resources - with Linux there's no such wild growth thanks to the open source license.

True, the SSD is a lot faster - but we shouldn't expect miracles, especially if a Windows is involved.

Did that help you after you cloned the old disk to SSD, or is your answer more theoretical?

Frankly, I didn't clone them, but my old HDD was very often fully utilized, although individual programs are never over 0.1mb / s. I didn't consider viruses and the like.

Thanks for the info. When Windows is reinstalled, everything is fast again (even on a magnetic hard drive), because all the free programs and other downloads that always start invisibly in the background and go away eat performance. No control is possible with Windows freeware.

If your old record is still lying around: I install the free, virus-proof and well-equipped mint on the old records. I gave a friend such a record because his Windows was unusable - that was the solution, since all required programs with Linux Mint are included, free of charge and free of pests. He has not needed Windows since then.

If our Windows wakes up, it is enough to install the mint disk, connect the Windows disk via a USB housing and Linux can access all Windows files (only if Windows was shut down correctly).