disk space dissapearing

every time i open windows explorer, there is less and less free space on my hard drive. i haven't downloaded anything and i've already scanned for spyware, defraged the disks, and cleaned it up. i also even checked my folders and they're the same as they were before this happened. 4 days ago i had 102GB free and now i'm down to 84GB. any ideas why?

You mentioned spyware, but did you also scan for viruses?
How old is the Hard Drive? What brand is it?
Does it ever get unusually hot?
Have you tried scheduling a full Check Disk (both boxes checked) from Windows, then rebooting so it can do it? It will take a long time (Phases 4 and 5 go for a while) but it's very thorough.

yea is did a full spyware and virus scan and the disk scan that takes a very long time. its a seagate hard drive thats about 2 months old and it stays pretty cool. just another question, how much memory do the system and hidden files take up all together?

Try using Cleanup! as referenced in this thread
Speeding Up Your Computer 101

You can download it here
http://www.stevengould.org/index.php...d=29&Itemid=70