Author Topic: Cache? Or...?  (Read 3386 times)

Onasaki

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Cache? Or...?
« on: December 18, 2014, 11:53:26 AM »
So, I'm beginning to notice a very odd, very troubling pattern with my Harddrive space and POTM...

It seems every time I play POTM, my harddrive space slowly decreases by 2-3 gigabytes per session. Is there someway I can clear the cache, or prevent this happening entirely?

I run Vista, and have a 450 gig harddrive, with currently 200some gigs left on it (based on some changes I made to the shadowstorage and the creation of restore points).

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RedwizardD

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Re: Cache? Or...?
« Reply #1 on: December 18, 2014, 12:09:55 PM »
Are you taking a lot of screenshots or something similar? Everything should be getting saved server-side unless you export your character or take alot of screenshots frequently.

Onasaki

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Re: Cache? Or...?
« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2014, 07:36:23 PM »
I don't do any of that.

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Arael

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Re: Cache? Or...?
« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2014, 03:22:36 AM »
Are you using Software like Fraps?

Do these GB free when you reboot?

Onasaki

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Re: Cache? Or...?
« Reply #4 on: December 19, 2014, 09:17:05 AM »
I don't use any kind of software like that. And i haven't reset. So i'll do that, and take a peek. If the GB free up when I reset, I'll let you know.

I'm not entirely sure if it's POTM, it might be NWN somehow. But I don't know. I'm monitoring it. I just wish there was a way to get like, a worded log of things being added and removed to my C: drive.

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Bad_Bud

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Re: Cache? Or...?
« Reply #5 on: December 19, 2014, 09:46:43 AM »
In windows 7 / 8 you can roughly see this, if you open Task Manager, click on the Performance tab, then Open Resource Monitor. The Disk tab on that shows roughly all your hard disk activity. You would want to leave it running while you play and check it periodically.

Onasaki

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Re: Cache? Or...?
« Reply #6 on: December 21, 2014, 03:54:33 AM »
I'm down by 10 gigs now. Every time I play POTM. It's downloading something, somwhere, and I can't seem to find it.

I'm also on Windows Vista, so I don't have that option.

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Arael

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Re: Cache? Or...?
« Reply #7 on: December 21, 2014, 04:19:22 AM »
One thing that comes in my mind.

Search for most recent created files, it will appear a long list but you might notice something.

Onasaki

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Re: Cache? Or...?
« Reply #8 on: December 21, 2014, 04:21:06 AM »
Edit: Scratch that. I figured it out.

Most of the stuff created today, is cache stuff. Nothing to do with POTM... but it feels like every single time I run POTM I lose harddrive space.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2014, 04:43:35 AM by Onasaki »

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Bluebomber4evr

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Re: Cache? Or...?
« Reply #9 on: December 21, 2014, 01:22:21 PM »
The way the game runs, it often "unpacks" files found in a module or hak file into a folder in the NWN directory called "temp", which is then emptied when you stop playing. This may be what is decreasing your hard drive space when you play the game.

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Onasaki

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Re: Cache? Or...?
« Reply #10 on: December 22, 2014, 07:47:24 AM »
I don't see a 'temp' folder... so I think I'm just grasping at straws at this point. This wasn't a problem until like, super recently, in the last... three or four weeks.

I'm half-tempted to c-format my computer at this point. 'Cause I'm just slowly losing Harddrive space for no reason.

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Ranjere

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Re: Cache? Or...?
« Reply #11 on: December 22, 2014, 12:22:18 PM »
Could it be running a backup on your main drive and not a partition?

Merry Munchkin

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Re: Cache? Or...?
« Reply #12 on: December 22, 2014, 01:59:57 PM »
You may want to do some serious spring cleaning of your hard drive.  There are a lot of random updates that happen in the background, and sometimes earlier versions of programs/addons don't uninstall automatically.  If you have been updating software recently, you might have some leftovers clogging up your hard drive.  You might want to do to install/uninstall programs, and nuke anything you don't use anymore.  For example, you might check Java -- it periodically updates on my Vista machine, and there is a cleanup tool on its website that helps you get rid of older versions.  On other thing - if you have been installing new software recently, windows creates a new restore point every time, which can hog some disk space.  Restore points generally last a month or so, depending on your settings, so it should not be a long term problem.  The only other thing I can think of is that you have a bot or something on your system that is not spotted by your A/V software.  You might try getting a antirootkit program to do a deep dive into your system and clean stuff out.


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Merry Munchkin

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Re: Cache? Or...?
« Reply #13 on: December 22, 2014, 02:20:19 PM »
One other thing I just thought of -- are you using the "hibernate" function in Vista?  This differs from the "sleep" function slightly.  In "sleep" your activity data is saved to RAM (which is why your system boots faster than from a cold boot), but the amount of that cached info is limited by your available RAM, but you lose it all if you cut power to your system.  "Hibernate" performs the same general function as "sleep", but it saves your activity to your hard drive instead.  As a consequence, if you are using "hibernate", your computer is essentially creating a mirror image of your current activity in order to pick up exactly where you left off when you closed up shop for the day.  This could be a LOT of data, depending on what you were doing.

You can play with the sleep and hibernate settings in your power management program in Windows.


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Onasaki

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Re: Cache? Or...?
« Reply #14 on: December 23, 2014, 11:05:21 AM »
Hrm. Yeah, I've been told it's probably restore points and such. Could you link me to a good Rootkit thinger? I'll worry about the Java thing.

I don't use hibernate, no, so I could probably remove that. Closest I use is like, screensaver.

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Merry Munchkin

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Re: Cache? Or...?
« Reply #15 on: December 23, 2014, 05:05:40 PM »
Hrm. Yeah, I've been told it's probably restore points and such. Could you link me to a good Rootkit thinger? I'll worry about the Java thing.

I don't use hibernate, no, so I could probably remove that. Closest I use is like, screensaver.

I am a big fan of Malwarebytes, because it doesn't require that you uninstall or disable any other A/V software you already use.  They have a free rootkit that is in beta, but it seems to work for me just fine.

https://www.malwarebytes.org/downloads/


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Onasaki

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Re: Cache? Or...?
« Reply #16 on: December 24, 2014, 11:27:59 AM »
So, I ran the root-kit finder, it found two things. I also got Malwarebytes as well, because I apparently didn't have it. I also did the javascript uninstall previous version thinger...

I still seem to be slowly losing harddrive space... And might require some way to delete system volume data. Those seem to be the ones that kinda... grow on me.  They also take the most space on my computer.
« Last Edit: December 24, 2014, 11:46:32 AM by Onasaki »

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Onasaki

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Re: Cache? Or...?
« Reply #17 on: December 24, 2014, 06:34:23 PM »
As far as I know, I think with some help from friends, I figured out my problem. And may have cured it.

We'll see how it goes in the next few days. If all goes well, and I don't start losing harddrive space again, then I thank Merry Munchkin, and everyone else who helped me out in this thread!

Merry Winter Holiday!

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