I need some. I have phantom Hard Drive Space!

[Guest]

I have windows installed on roughly a 17GB Partition (16.7GB), I am low on
disk space so I checked to see what all the files equaled in total disk space
on this partition. According to windows they only take up 10.7GB of hard disk
space. I only have a total of 3.33GB so something is going wrong, I've had
this problem before too and my friend Also has the same problem I believe.
What do we do to correct Windows and straighten out with a stern manner to
windows to tell it what is really there? Can anybody help? If so, Thanks in
advanced!


Best Regards,

Master Jedi

 

[Dave Patrick]

Consider that every file and directory listing (no matter what size) takes
up at least one cluster. Slack space is the area between the end of the file
and the end of the cluster. It can be calculated roughly by taking 1/2 of
the drive's allocation unit (cluster size) times the number of files, this
is the average wasted space. If you have a lot of small files then the
wasted space figure could be larger.

From a command prompt at the root of the drive in question;
chkdsk
to find out your cluster size (allocation unit)

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
|I have windows installed on roughly a 17GB Partition (16.7GB), I am low on
| disk space so I checked to see what all the files equaled in total disk
space
| on this partition. According to windows they only take up 10.7GB of hard
disk
| space. I only have a total of 3.33GB so something is going wrong, I've had
| this problem before too and my friend Also has the same problem I believe.
| What do we do to correct Windows and straighten out with a stern manner to
| windows to tell it what is really there? Can anybody help? If so, Thanks
in
| advanced!
|
|
| Best Regards,
|
| Master Jedi

 

[Squire]

XP only takes up 1.7 GB on the initial installation.

Check your decimal points.

 

[Guest]

How do I change the cluster size then? For NTFS?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I have windows installed on roughly a 17GB Partition (16.7GB), I am
low on disk space so I checked to see what all the files equaled in
total disk space on this partition. According to windows they only
take up 10.7GB of hard disk space. I only have a total of 3.33GB so
something is going wrong, I've had this problem before too and my
friend Also has the same problem I believe. What do we do to
correct Windows and straighten out with a stern manner to windows
to tell it what is really there? Can anybody help? If so, Thanks in
advanced!

Find out what might be using the space..

Do you have hidden and system files visible?
How's your system restore settings?
Used Disk Cleanup?
Is hibernate turned on and do you use that feature?
Uninstalled unnecessary applications lately?

Other ways to free up space..

SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

DX Hog Hunt
http://www.dvxp.com/en/Downloads.aspx

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed..

http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but yuor
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:

- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest 5% or
higher.
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

 

[Guest]

Thank You Shenan! I doubled my hard drive space to almost 7GB with DX Hog.
I'm sure I'll free up even more space after using CCleaner to get rid of tmps
and log and eve more space after deleting the update installs/backups. Thanks
a million!

Have a great weekend!
Master Jedi

PS: I'll be sure to perform these steps on my friends computer as well. He
doesnt like having less than 5GB left on his OSes partition. We were all like
where in the F did all the space go???!

 

[Dave Patrick]

Possibly Partition Magic or some equal tool but why bother? Large drives are
rather cheap these days.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| How do I change the cluster size then? For NTFS?

 

[meherlahashbaz]

I have windows installed on roughly a 17GB Partition (16.7GB), I am low on
disk space so I checked to see what all the files equaled in total disk space
on this partition. According to windows they only take up 10.7GB of hard disk
space. I only have a total of 3.33GB so something is going wrong, I've had
this problem before too and my friend Also has the same problem I believe.
What do we do to correct Windows and straighten out with a stern manner to
windows to tell it what is really there? Can anybody help? If so, Thanks in
advanced!


Best Regards,

Master Jedi

Afterthought, You should see a space of ~6.0 GB - you're
seeing 3. There's some extra space taken up by restore or
other, hidden data.

What you need to do is buy a new drive and use that as
either data or (gulp) system reinstall. By adding extra
space and offloading your data to the new drive, you gain
some performance back. You'll need to retrain your programs
to the new drive, if you put your data there. I run this way.
System on C, Page file on D, CD writing cache on E, Data on
F ( in some cases I even add partitions for audio and
video). I never put any data types on the system drive other
than what the program must have in the userdata/appdata
areas for proper function.