Hard Drive Capacity

[Guest]

Hi, when I click on Porperties of my C drive it shows used space 15.1, free
space 3.49. However I am only using around 12Gb of my hard drive. Somewhere
my drive is hiding 3.1Gb of space and i can't find it. I've defragmented,
empty recycle bin.

Can anyone help me?

 

[Gerry Cornell]

To investigate how you are using hard disk space you need to make sure
that you can see all files. Go to Start, Control Panel, Folder Options,
View, Advanced Settings and verify that the box before "Show hidden
files and folders" is checked and "Hide protected operating system files
" is unchecked. You may need to scroll down to see the second item. You
should also make certain that the box before "Hide extensions for known
file types" is not checked. Next in Windows Explorer make sure View,
Details is selected and then select View, Choose Details and check
before Name, Type, Total Size, and Free Space.

How large is your hard drive? Is it partitioned? How much free space on
each drive / partition. How is the drive formatted -FAT32 or NTFS. To
get this information whilst in Windows Explorer place the cursor on the
drive, right click and select Properties.

Some ways to find out what is using your hard disk space. On your hard
disk you will see various folders e.g. Windows. Whilst in Windows
Explorer place the cursor on the Windows folder, right click and select
Properties. You will see the size of the folder and all sub-folders and
files, the size on disk and the number of sub-folders and files. If you
list the various main folders and their size you will start to see how
your used disk space is made up. Within the main folders you
can find the larger individual files by using the Search facility within
Windows Explorer to look for files over 1 mb by selecting All files and
folders, What size is it etc. Make certain you also select More Advanced
Options and check Search System Folders, Search Hidden Files and
Folders, and Search Sub-Folders.

Now some ways to increase the available free space. Select Start, All
Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp, More Options, System
Restore and remove all but the latest restore points? Restore points can
be quite large Mine are currently 41 mb, although all except the latest
are compressed to 20 mb on disk. By the way System Restore Points are
hidden files which you will not see even after you have taken the
measures to show hidden files detailed above.

You can limit the disk space used by System Restore. Right click on the
My Computer icon on your Desktop and select, Properties, System Restore,
Settings. This will give you the amount of Disk Space allocated to
System Restore in terms of % of size of Drive and megabytes or
gigabytes. The default maximum is 12%, which is often excessive. You can
move the slider to the left to reduce the size of the allocation. Once
the allocated space is fully taken the oldest restore point is removed
when a new restore point is created ( or it should be ). If yours is set
to 12% it is 13 gb and I would reduce it to 6% i.e. 6.6 gb.

You should also use Disk CleanUp regularly to Empty your Recycle Bin and
Remove Temporary Internet Files. Whenever you remove redundant files you
should always run Disk Defragmenter by selecting Start, All Programs,
Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter.

Do you use Norton Utilities and Norton Protected Storage
Norton Protected Storage?
http://snipurl.com/j8g4


--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
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[Plato]

Hi, when I click on Porperties of my C drive it shows used space 15.1, free
space 3.49. However I am only using around 12Gb of my hard drive. Somewhere
my drive is hiding 3.1Gb of space and i can't find it. I've defragmented,
empty recycle bin.

The other files taking up space are hidden files.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Gerry, You've half solved my problem. The system restore was set at
12% and was holding 2.4Gb of space. I reset it for 5%.

To answer your questions(right clicking on C, properties) my file system is
NTFS, 18.6GB capacity, used space 13.8Gb, Free space 4.75.

I've also already tried showing hiddem files so that I can see everything.
I've then done a folder by folder count to reach 11.9Gb.(this is showing all
files)

So as you can see there is still some unaccounted memory that I can't find.

Also my recycle bin is empty, I defrag. last week, and my temp internet
files is also small. I'va also done disk clean up as well.

Any more suggestions?

 

[ANONYMOUS]

You will have lots of temp files and other installation files in this
folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Temp

This folder is normally hidden so you will need to unhide it first. You
need to delete everything from this folder. USERNAME stands for your
own USERNAME abd other users on the same system.

HTH

 

[Guest]

Thanks, i found 350Mb in here.

Can I delete everything in this temp folder and have no problems with my
system"?

 

[Ron Sommer]

What is the size of hiberfil.sys and pagefile.sys?
Mine are 500 MG and 728 MG.
Are you also showing system files?

 

[Guest]

I'm runnng XP and i don't have either one of those files.

 

[Ron Sommer]

They are hidden system files.
Did didn't answer if you are showing system files.
The files are in the root of C:.
Yes, you do have them and they are large files.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

You should have a pagefile.sys. Search My Computer.

You will have some Uninstall folders in your Windows folder typically:
$NtServicePackUninstall$ and $NtUninstallKB282010$

These files may be compressed or not compressed. If compressed the text
of the folder name appears in blue characters. If not compressed you can
compress them. Right click on folder and select Properties, General,
Advanced and check the box before Compress contents to save Disk Space.
On the General Tab you can see the amount gained by deducting the size
on disk from the size. Folder compression is only an option on a NTFS
formatted drive / partition.

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
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Stourport, Worcs, England
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[Gerry Cornell]

Ron

hiberfil.sys?

What if Hibernation is disabled in the BIOS? Also if it is not Enabled
in Power Options?

--


Regards.

Gerry

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Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
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[ANONYMOUS]

I have deleted everything and keep deleting once a month without any
side effects.

hth