Is XP doing this on disk space used at each boot up?

[TheOne2]

I've been noticing that my hard drive space at each boot up increases by about 4 MB. So if I boot up 3x a day that 12 MB of space used.

Here's what I am running on my XP machine for protection with all programs with latest definitions or updates:

Zone Alarm Firewall (auto)
AVG Free Antivirus (run one or twice a week)
Spyblaster (manually run after boot up)
Spyware Guard (auto)
Ad Aware Personal (run before shut down each time)
WinPatrol (auto)
Use Firefox and/or Netscape browsers
I also ran CWSHREDDER this week.

I also use several different disk cleaner like CCLEANER and HDCLEANER before I shut down. This way I clean up temp files, caches, cookies, MRUs, etc.

I only have 2 Restore points.

And after more searching I thought maybe the event message logs were increasing the disk space. Several thousands log messages but after deleting , it didn't even make a dent in dropping any MBs.

I did run a check disk last Friday and no errors or at least nothing said I had any problems. I also did a defrag too.

So for the last week or so that I've been monitoring, I've noticed between 2 - 4 MB added to space used at each boot up.

I've used HDCLEANER treedir space manager to see what the space used is. I've been looking at 3 folders (the rest are pretty much static) since they are the largest and probably where files, logs, etc may have been added or modified. They are:
Documents and Settings
Program Files
Windows

The last 3 days, the stats are:

D & S 78.10 MB
P F 703.10 MB
W 1272.25 MB
Total 2053.45 MB

D & S 76.85 MB
P F 703.95 MB
W 1272.52 MB
Total 2053.32 MB

D & S 76.95 MB
P F 703.95 MB
W 1272.76 MB
Total 2053.66 MB

So it's only within less than 1 MB difference. Yet now it is 12 MB more on harddrive for just those 3 days.

Right after boot up today, I've checked and space gone up 4 MB. Check the 3 folders and the difference between now and yesterday after shutdown was maybe about 50 KB.

One thing I did noticed was while machine is still "starting up" (before programs in system tray are shown), I would try to check disk space used on the C drive and notice the number. And as the start up finishes, then I would notice the C drive disk space up 4 MB. (The only thing on my system tray is Zone alarm, WinPatrol, AVG antivirus, spyware guard, volume and sounds).

Anyone have any ideas?

Also does this happen each time you boot up XP?
If this is what everyone experiences, then I'll won't bother trying to track down these additional MBs at each boot up.

Can anyone try this test for me? When you shutdown for the day, note the space used by right clicking C drive; then properties and writing down the number on space used. Then when you boot up (assuming when you boot up no definitions or updates are automatically installed), do the same thing and note the number on spaced used and see what you get.

Thanks for all help.

[vidster]

Hello TheOne2
I 'think' what you are seeing is the windows OS opening different services and performing certain tasks. There is always a lot of resource intensive activity when you first start your computer. This can carry on for several minutes depending on your hardware set up and what programs you have installed.
I doubt there is a program that can take and keep 4MB of memory from your Hard Drive.

[TheOne2]

Thanks for your reply.

But the thing is assuming nothing have changed too much, my hard drive space goes up 4 MB each time I boot up. I would also imagine the extra disk space usage will be released by XP after shutting down. Plus I ran several disk cleaner to delete "junk/temp" files.

For instance, here's what I've seen some far:
Bootup 1: 6447 MB
Bootup 2: 6451 MB
Bootup 3: 6455 MB
Bootup 4: 6466 MB (after installing WinPatrol and stuff)
Bootup 5: 6470 MB
This bootup: 6474 MB disk space used.

If you can get back to me your hard drive disk space usage with the before shutdown and on next boot up, that may tell me something.