hard drive space issues

[Guest]

I have a relatively new IBM laptop, (got it in may) and I am pretty skilled
with a computer. Under "properties" for my hard drive (C://) it says that my
used space is 57.1 gigabytes. Knowing this to be a little fishy, I took all
the root folders on my c drive and added up the space on the big ones (and
yes, I made sure it showed hidden folders and files). I ended up with 26
gigabytes with all the big folders, and the other miscellaneous stuff could
not have made it more that 30 gigs. Where is my space going? I am very sure
that the properties say 57.1 gigs used and 16.7 gigs free. I do not have
anything that would add about thirty gigs on my hard drive. Why is the
reported space for the drive so much different from what I'm adding up?
Thank you.

 

[DL]

Hidden recovery partition?
Youve run disk clean up
Try some thing like Tree Size Pro, for a more in depth view

 

[Ivar]

Imagine the scene! On your computer you have loads of illegal downloads,
child porn and secret government files. You get word that the CIA, FBI and
KGB are coming to raid your house. So you delete all the files, format the
hard drives and reinstall your OS and programs, You're safe now, they wont
find nuffin when they search your computer. Then your arrested, put to death
and take you away to be tortured because of all that stuff they found and
retrieved on your PC, they found everything!
How? it's all still there, hidden away in the darkest corners of your hard
drive waiting to be found by those who know how to do it. It's got to be
stored somewhere, that's where your missing space is

Try this: Look at the Free space properties of the hard drive, copy a lage
folder, see that free space has decreased by the size of whats copied,
delete the copied folder, look at free space again and you will see tht it
has not increased by the same amount. Where has your free space gone? it's
gone nowhere, You folder has been compressed, hidden and stored in your
missing free space. But Winders don't tell you that :-(

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Imagine the scene! On your computer you have loads of illegal
downloads, child porn and secret government files. You get word
that the CIA, FBI and KGB are coming to raid your house. So you
delete all the files, format the hard drives and reinstall your OS
and programs, You're safe now, they wont find nuffin when they
search your computer. Then your arrested, put to death and take you
away to be tortured because of all that stuff they found and
retrieved on your PC, they found everything! How? it's all still there,
hidden away in the darkest corners of
your hard drive waiting to be found by those who know how to do it.
It's got to be stored somewhere, that's where your missing space is

Try this: Look at the Free space properties of the hard drive, copy
a lage folder, see that free space has decreased by the size of
whats copied, delete the copied folder, look at free space again
and you will see tht it has not increased by the same amount. Where
has your free space gone? it's gone nowhere, You folder has been
compressed, hidden and stored in your missing free space. But
Winders don't tell you that :-(

Personal experience?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I have a relatively new IBM laptop, (got it in may) and I am pretty
skilled with a computer. Under "properties" for my hard drive
(C://) it says that my used space is 57.1 gigabytes. Knowing this
to be a little fishy, I took all the root folders on my c drive and
added up the space on the big ones (and yes, I made sure it showed
hidden folders and files). I ended up with 26 gigabytes with all
the big folders, and the other miscellaneous stuff could not have
made it more that 30 gigs. Where is my space going? I am very
sure that the properties say 57.1 gigs used and 16.7 gigs free. I
do not have anything that would add about thirty gigs on my hard
drive. Why is the reported space for the drive so much different
from what I'm adding up? Thank you.

Find out what might be using the space..

Do you have hidden and system files visible?
How's your system restore settings?
Used Disk Cleanup?
Is hibernate turned on and do you use that feature?
Uninstalled unnecessary applications lately?

Other ways to free up space..

SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

DX Hog Hunt
http://www.dvxp.com/en/Downloads.aspx

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed..

http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but yuor
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:

- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest 5% or
higher.
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have a relatively new IBM laptop, (got it in may) and I am pretty
skilled with a computer. Under "properties" for my hard drive (C://)
it says that my used space is 57.1 gigabytes. Knowing this to be a
little fishy, I took all the root folders on my c drive and added up
the space on the big ones (and yes, I made sure it showed hidden
folders and files). I ended up with 26 gigabytes with all the big
folders, and the other miscellaneous stuff could not have made it
more that 30 gigs. Where is my space going? I am very sure that the
properties say 57.1 gigs used and 16.7 gigs free. I do not have
anything that would add about thirty gigs on my hard drive. Why is
the reported space for the drive so much different from what I'm
adding up? Thank you.

In My Computer, click Tools | Folder Options and go the View tab. Check the
radio button "Show hidden files and folders" and check the box "Display the
contents of system folders." Click OK.

Now you'll be able to see everything and should check again.

 

[Scott]

Charugan wrote>

I have a relatively new IBM laptop, (got it in may) and I am pretty skilled
with a computer. Under "properties" for my hard drive (C://) it says that my
used space is 57.1 gigabytes. Knowing this to be a little fishy, I took all
the root folders on my c drive and added up the space on the big ones (and
yes, I made sure it showed hidden folders and files). I ended up with 26
gigabytes with all the big folders, and the other miscellaneous stuff could
not have made it more that 30 gigs. Where is my space going? I am very sure
that the properties say 57.1 gigs used and 16.7 gigs free. I do not have
anything that would add about thirty gigs on my hard drive. Why is the
reported space for the drive so much different from what I'm adding up?
Thank you.

In addition to the other suggestions made, you schedule a chkdsk to
check the hard drive. I've seen disk errors where free space was marked
as allocated. Usually not as much as you are seeing, but it can't hurt
to try.

 

[Ivar]

Personal experience?

Not really, but I have used file retrieval software that restores deleted
files from a formatted hard drive.
To my suprise they really do work, when I looked deeper in to it I found the
reason why the hard drives get smaller and smaller with use.