Files deleted but drive not emptied

[gsn]

I have a WDC USB 80 gig hard drive for Retrospect backups. I had a
directory with about 50 gigs of backup files that I wanted to delete.
(Switching to Ghost.) I selected the 50 or so files, clicked on the
right mouse button and selected "Delete." They were deleted. Only a
handful showed up in the Recycle Bin. I emptied the Recycle Bin and
they were deleted. None of the files I selected are now visible inside
that directory, but when I run Properties on that M:\ drive icon, it
does not reflect that I have deleted anything. It still shows the drive
to be nearly full when it should be only a quarter full at this point.

I ran chdsk on M: and converted it to NTFS for Ghost. No change in the
capacity pie chart in Properties. I tried unmounting and re-mounting
the drive to no avail. I thought that those files that could not fit
into the Recycle Bin are automatically deleted. Have the files in fact
been deleted? Is the file system just slow to update its records as to
the percentage of file space used? What did I do wrong? How can I fix
this, short of re-formatting M:? I looked in C:\RCECYCLER and found
nothing there.

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

How much of those files might have been protected by System Restore? Executables, and etc.? If the System Volume information folder is there (usually hidden), it could contain quite a number of files, since once you deleted them System Restore made a copy for restoration purposes.

 

[chris]

As for only a hand full of files showing up in the recycle bin, it is
normal for files which are large not to do so. On deleting a large
file, you should get a message saying that it will be permanently
deleted (e.g. no recycle bin).

I don't know why windows would not show the disk as having more free
space. It should do so right away after the files are deleted. Are
you sure the files were as big as you thought? You might take a look
the sizes of the individual files left on the disk just to make sure
that you deleted as much as you expected. If stuff is still screwed up
formatting is not a bad idea. Also, try running a disk cleanup and
defrag on the drive. That might help.

If all of these options are exausted I would try using knoppix to take
a look at the drive and see if it agrees with what windows is saying.
Knoppix, in case you don't know, is a version of linux which can be run
entirely off of a cd. You can download the iso image for free from
sourceforge, just remember to burn it as an iso, and not just a data
disk.

 

[gsn]

Doug, how can I view the System Volume information? I just tried defrag
and it wouldnt let me do it as it said I had less than 5% of the drive
free and it needs 15%, confirming that the drive is indeed full even
though it looks nearly empty Do you mean the System Restore drive D:
that I have? How do I delete files from System Restore?

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

You need to change your Folder Options to show hidden files and folder, and show system files, in order to see the System_Volume_Information folder on the D: drive. You will also need to change the Permissions to allow your username full access.

XP PRO: In Windows Explorer, go to Tools, Folder Options, View and uncheck Use Simple File Sharing. Now, when you right click on a drive, folder or file (on an NTFS partition) and select Properties, you'll see a Security tab. Here you can assign or deny permissions based on user name or user group membership.

XP Home: By default, you can only make files and folders under My Documents "private". This is done by right clicking a folder or file and selecting Properties, Sharing. To change the permissions on other folders, you need to boot the computer to Safe Mode and log in on the built in Administrator account. In this mode, you'll see the Security tab in Properties, and you can assign permissions based on user name or group membership.

HOW TO: Set, View, Change, or Remove File and Folder Permissions in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308418

HOW TO: Set, View, Change, or Remove Special Permissions for Files and Folders
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;308419

HOW TO: Disable Simplified Sharing and Password-Protect a Shared Folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;307874

To clean up anything that's being held by System Restore, right click My Computer and select Properties, System Restore. Highlight the drive in question and click Settings. Check Turn off System Restore on this drive and apply the change. Any restore point files on that drive should be automatically deleted.

 

[gsn]

Doug, System Restore reports that the status of the M: drive is
"Offline" while the status for my other drives is "Suspended." What
does that mean?

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

I've never seen System Restore state "Offline" for a drive. Its either "Turned Off" or "Monitoring". Reboot the computer and see what it says.

 

[gsn]

I rebooted and saw "Monitoring" for all drives. I then turned off
System Restore for that drive and IT WORKED! I now have the proper
amount of file space. Thank you. That was it. I turned System Restore
back on for drive M: right after that.

 

[Frank]

I have a WDC USB 80 gig hard drive for Retrospect backups. I had a
directory with about 50 gigs of backup files that I wanted to delete.
(Switching to Ghost.) I selected the 50 or so files, clicked on the
right mouse button and selected "Delete." They were deleted. Only a
handful showed up in the Recycle Bin. I emptied the Recycle Bin and
they were deleted. None of the files I selected are now visible inside
that directory, but when I run Properties on that M:\ drive icon, it
does not reflect that I have deleted anything. It still shows the drive
to be nearly full when it should be only a quarter full at this point.

I ran chdsk on M: and converted it to NTFS for Ghost. No change in the
capacity pie chart in Properties. I tried unmounting and re-mounting
the drive to no avail. I thought that those files that could not fit
into the Recycle Bin are automatically deleted. Have the files in fact
been deleted? Is the file system just slow to update its records as to
the percentage of file space used? What did I do wrong? How can I fix
this, short of re-formatting M:? I looked in C:\RCECYCLER and found
nothing there.

Any help greatly appreciated.

WD has utilities posted for download on their site to return your USB
drive to a pristine state. You are dealing with one of the reasons that
a backup USB drive performs better with FAT32. There are work arounds
for this behavior, but it is easier to just redo the drive. Also system
restore should be turned off - reboot - then turned back on if you want.

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

You're welcome