Hard Drive Free Space

[Guest]

I have a 200 Gb second HDD for storage only. I was down to 50 Gb of free
space so I deleted 50 Gb of files. The files have gone but no space has been
freed up. I installed Norton System Works and ran disc optomise - no change.
I defragmented the drive - no change. I ran the error check but it made no
difference.
They all say 200 Gb hard drive with 50 Gb free space. I downloaded a free
program called treesize, this showed my file size as 100 Gb and free space as
50 Gb.
So I have lost 50 Gb of free space and if I delete more files I still will
still not gain free space.
If I go to my computer and right click on the drive icon it gives me the
option to format, will this wipe my drive clean ?
If so how do you decide allocation size and what format option should be
ticked ?

 

[Guest]

If you have installed Norton System Works, it probobly installed 2nd recycle
bin called "Norton Protected Files".
Just right click on the Recycle Bin and chose to Empty Norton Protected Files.

It works like this:
When you delete a file it goes to the recycle bin that you can delete later.
But if you delete a file without sending it to the recycle bin (SHIFT+DEL)
then it automaticly send to the second recycle bin (Norton Protected Files).
It's function is to let you restore deleted files that were deleted without
beeing sent to the recycle bin.

You can disable this option by rightclicking on the 'Recycle Bin' |
'Properties' | 'Norton Protection' and remove the checkbox "Enable
protection" on all drives.

 

[Guest]

Thank you Alex.

You've stopped me pulling my hair out, and I have not got much to spare.

Tom