Disk usage

[Andre De Clercq]

My portable PC has a 20 GB HDD. If I sum up all files and folders I end up
at about 5 GB of disk usage. The disk shows however about 12 GB of used
space. After defragmentation I get about 7 GB (estimated) remaining
fragmanted files which apparently can not be defragmented. Somebody knows
what is causing this? I recently "repair installed" the XPSP2 OS
succesfully. Could this cause this strange situation? Thanks for any advise.

 

[R. McCarty]

When you say "Sum Up" are you using Windows Explorer to tally up
the content ? To see 100% of the content you need to modify the View
options to the following:
Show Hidden Files and Folders (Checked)
Hide extensions for Known File Types (Unchecked)
Hide protected operating System Files (Unchecked)
Open Explorer, Click Tools, Folder Options, View (TAB) scroll to the
Category "Hidden Files and Folders".

Size on disk will always be greater than the simple size value due to
cluster "Slack Space" (Small files in a cluster leave empty space - so if
you have a 1 Kbyte file in a 4 Kbyte cluster 3 Kbytes will be empty)

If you believe the size reported is incorrect, do a cursory Chkdsk X: on
the drive. If errors are detected it will recommend a more comprehensive
Chkdsk with the /F (Fix) qualifier - However, Do not do a /F unless the
drive's content is backed up.
Chkdsk can be done from a Command Prompt
Click Start, Run (Type) Cmd [Enter]