Free space not returned to hard drive after deleting files

[Ken Reynolds]

I have a 120gig hard drive as drive D dedicated to
keeping captured video files prior to editing.
I am finding that when I delete a file, which is usually
quite large, only a small portion of its size is returned
to the hard drive as free space.
For instance, I delete a 70gig file and find the free
space has only increased by about 20gig.
Even if a delete all files on the drive I am still short
at least 40gig resulting in me having to continually
format the drive.
On the question of formatting. How come when I format,
given it is a 120gig drive, the free space is always only
111gig?
I run Windows XP Professional and the drive formatted as
NTFC.

 

[Jim H]

-----Original Message-----
I have a 120gig hard drive as drive D dedicated to
keeping captured video files prior to editing.
I am finding that when I delete a file, which is usually
quite large, only a small portion of its size is returned
to the hard drive as free space.
For instance, I delete a 70gig file and find the free
space has only increased by about 20gig.
Even if a delete all files on the drive I am still short
at least 40gig resulting in me having to continually
format the drive.
On the question of formatting. How come when I format,
given it is a 120gig drive, the free space is always only
111gig?
I run Windows XP Professional and the drive formatted as
NTFC.
.

Two possiblilties come to mind. The first is that the
recycle bin may be involved, in which case the file is not
really deleted. However 70GB is a bit large for that.
The second is that there are 2 ways to determine disk
capacity. The manufacturers use 1,000,000,000 bytes for a
GB, while Microsoft uses 2**30 = 1,073,741,824 bytes.
120,000,000,000 / 2**30 = 111,758,709,000 approximately.

Jim

 

[Darrell Gorter[MSFT]]

Hello Ken,
Try running cleanmgr.exe and select the D drive. Let it attempt to remove
the files after you delete them It looks at some hidden files and folders
that may be taking up space
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
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| From: "Ken Reynolds" <[email protected]>
| Sender: "Ken Reynolds" <[email protected]>
| Subject: Free space not returned to hard drive after deleting files
| Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2003 01:20:44 -0700
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| I have a 120gig hard drive as drive D dedicated to
| keeping captured video files prior to editing.
| I am finding that when I delete a file, which is usually
| quite large, only a small portion of its size is returned
| to the hard drive as free space.
| For instance, I delete a 70gig file and find the free
| space has only increased by about 20gig.
| Even if a delete all files on the drive I am still short
| at least 40gig resulting in me having to continually
| format the drive.
| On the question of formatting. How come when I format,
| given it is a 120gig drive, the free space is always only
| 111gig?
| I run Windows XP Professional and the drive formatted as
| NTFC.
|