Hard Drive Space problem...

[Kevin]

My HDD has a BIG problem with how much space it thinks it
has...Its a 60 GB hard drive (supposed to be atleast,
when I format it the most I get is about 55-56 GB) But
after installing, uninstalling, moving files here and
there, etc. etc. My HDD doesnt give me an accurate
estimate of how much space im using and how much I have
left. When selecting all files on my C:\ drive, it tells
me im using about 16.7 GB -- But when I right click on my
Local Disk (C and then choose properties, it tells me
im using about 30 GB. This doesnt make any sense to me, I
have defragmented, done system clean up and everything.
Does anyone have any ideas to where I can fix this
problem? If pictures make it easier, I have included
them, just follow the link. Thank you

http://label2021.greatnow.com/temp/hddspace.html


Kev

 

[Alex Marshall]

Those files and folders you selected are not the only thing taking up space
though. With NTFS partitions a portion of the disk is reserved for the MFT
(master file table). This is where all of the information about the files
and folders on your system is stored. This space will become available for
your use only if the rest of the free space on the disk is used up. Nothing
to worry about, your disk is working normally.

 

[Kevin]

It takes 14GB to store simple information about the files
and folders on my hdd? Well I sure hope your right, its
annoying for it to tell me half of my hdd is used when it
isnt. THank you for your help!


Kev

 

[Alex Marshall]

Not all of that space is not being used, it is only reserved for future use
by the MFT (for when more files and folders are added). I'm guessing the
reason is so that there will always be enough room for MFT to grow and since
this space is contiguous it will not become fragmented as it does. Mine is
currently reserving around 17GB of space.

 

[Kevin J. Nielsen]

I don't believe that, unless you are using some freaky operating system. I
have two 80 GB hard drives and both of them show me accurately what space is
being used, none of them have any space reserved for MFT.

Of course you have to take into account the size of the allocation unit,
if you formatted your hard using fat 32 then each allocation unit is 32 KB
in size, this means that every file, no matter how small uses one allocation
unit, and some files more than one if the file is larger than 32 KB. If you
have 1000 files of 1 byte each, it will use up 32000 KB of hard drive space.

When you right click on the C: drive it tells you the total disk space used.
When you highlight the files it tells you the actual size of the files.

If you have XP then it tells you the actual size and the actual size on disk
(when you highlight files and click properties)

If you were to create multiple partitions on the hard drive you could make
each partition smaller and thus you would have smaller allocation units. I
think fat 32 will make 4 KB allocation units on partitions that are 8 GB or
less, which will conserve much disk space if you have many small files.

The best thing to do if you have a lot of small files is to zip them up and
store them as zip files and XP allows you to access them just like any other
file.

Kevin

 

[frankie]

its actually right, the size of your hard drive is 55 gb
but its something to do with how the bytes are converted
into giga bytes someone else can probably explain better
than me but its something just over 1,000,000 bytes make
a giga byte so when you multiply it it comes out less
gb's than you would think,
hope that explains it in a manner

 

[Alex Marshall]

I did not say it was using that much space, that is just the amount being
reserved. When you select all the files and folders in Windows Explorer,
this does not include the mft zone which is hidden. I don't know if the
reserved space is reported as free or used though, I just thought that might
be one possibility. I doubt he is losing 14gb to slack space though. Mine is
the same way so I assume it is normal in any case.

 

[Alex Nichol]

My HDD has a BIG problem with how much space it thinks it
has...Its a 60 GB hard drive (supposed to be atleast,
when I format it the most I get is about 55-56 GB) But
after installing, uninstalling, moving files here and
there, etc. etc. My HDD doesnt give me an accurate
estimate of how much space im using and how much I have
left. When selecting all files on my C:\ drive, it tells
me im using about 16.7 GB -- But when I right click on my
Local Disk (C and then choose properties, it tells me
im using about 30 GB.

Two things - the 60 GB will be decimal Billion. File and partition
sizes are done in a corresponding binary measure -
1G = 1024M; M = 1024K; K = 1024 so you get a factor of 1.073 odd,
Hence the 55.8

Second there are a *lot* of files that are occupying space but which you
can't see. At Control Panel - Folder Options have View set to show
Hidden files, and *not* Hide Protected mode ones. Also this will be an
NTFS drive and so when My Computer tells you the free space it is also
allowing for the space reserved for the file system tables (MFT Area)

 

[Ken Blake]

In

My HDD has a BIG problem with how much space it thinks it
has...Its a 60 GB hard drive (supposed to be atleast,
when I format it the most I get is about 55-56 GB)

All hard drive manufacturers, in a deceptive attempt to make
their drives seem larger than they are, define 1GB as
1,000,000,000 bytes, while the rest of the computer world,
including Windows, defines it as 1024 x 1024 x 1024
(1,073,741,824) bytes. Do the arithmetic yourself, and you'll see
that 56GB is roughly 60 billion bytes.

But
after installing, uninstalling, moving files here and
there, etc. etc. My HDD doesnt give me an accurate
estimate of how much space im using and how much I have
left. When selecting all files on my C:\ drive, it tells
me im using about 16.7 GB -- But when I right click on my
Local Disk (C and then choose properties, it tells me
im using about 30 GB. This doesnt make any sense to me,

The difference is probably hidden files that you're not seeing
because you haven't turned off the default to not show them.

 

[frankie]

spot on Ken i knew someone could explain it better than
me
so he's a thing for you to puzzel over,i had a couple of
video files over 2GB(well over actually)and was told when
i tried to delete them that the recycle bin cannot hold
more than 2gb so did i want to permanently delete these
files which i said yes and hey presto they are
gone.......... but so is the space on my hard drive they
were taking up!!! any help really appreciated cos i've
lost about 20Gb of my hard drive which is only 60gb to
start with

 

[Kevin J. Nielsen]

Try running scandisk. sometimes your fat (file allocation table) is not
updated correctly and it still thinks the files are still there. Running
scandisk should correct this.

Kevin

 

[Alex Nichol]

All hard drive manufacturers, in a deceptive attempt to make
their drives seem larger than they are, define 1GB as
1,000,000,000 bytes, while the rest of the computer world,
including Windows, defines it as 1024 x 1024 x 1024

I'm just going to emphasise that Giga is the International Standard
prefix for 10^^9 - or billion. As set by International treaty. As as M
for Mega (million) and k for Kilo (thousand). The the computer world
should not be trying to pretend otherwise. Admittedly drive makers
could usefully be consistent with other uses, but it is NOT they who are
out of step.

 

[Alex Marshall]

I'm just going to emphasise that Giga is the International Standard
prefix for 10^^9 - or billion. As set by International treaty. As as M
for Mega (million) and k for Kilo (thousand). The the computer world
should not be trying to pretend otherwise. Admittedly drive makers
could usefully be consistent with other uses, but it is NOT they who are
out of step.

That is true for the decimal system, but not for binary which is the system
computers use. The computer world is and has always been correct.

http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html

 

[Ken Blake]

In

I'm just going to emphasise that Giga is the International Standard
prefix for 10^^9 - or billion. As set by International treaty. As as
M for Mega (million) and k for Kilo (thousand). The the computer
world should not be trying to pretend otherwise. Admittedly drive
makers could usefully be consistent with other uses, but it is NOT
they who are out of step.

Yes, I'm well aware of the International Standard. By standards,
you are correct that the hard drive manufacturers are correct and
it's Microsoft who is wrong.

Nevertheless, the 1024x1024x1024 usage is so well established in
the computer field, and has been for so long, that as far as I'm
concerned, anyone who uses the giga- prefix (or kilo-, mega-,
etc.) in any other sense when talking about computer things is
either ignorant of the established (but, as you say,
non-standard) usage, or deceptively trying to make something for
sale sound bigger than it is.

I agree with you that it would be better if Microsoft and rest of
the computer world would stop using terms in a non-standard
manner. But since I see *no* chance of that happening any time
soon, anyone who uses these terms any other way is, from a
practical standpoint, the one who is wrong.

I call the amount of RAM that I have on this computer 512MB.
Surely you wouldn't insist on using the international standard
and call it 537MB, would you? If you did so, it would be at the
risk of confusing everyone else.

 

[Alex Nichol]

Yes, I'm well aware of the International Standard. By standards,
you are correct that the hard drive manufacturers are correct and
it's Microsoft who is wrong.

Nevertheless, the 1024x1024x1024 usage is so well established in
the computer field, and has been for so long, that as far as I'm
concerned, anyone who uses the giga- prefix (or kilo-, mega-,
etc.) in any other sense when talking about computer things is
either ignorant of the established (but, as you say,

Bear in mind CPU speeds, and Wireless networking frequencies. . .

 

[Ken Blake]

In

Bear in mind CPU speeds, and Wireless networking frequencies. .

..


Yes, you're clearly right that there are exceptions.