Incorrect Hard Drive Capacities Reported by Windows

[Ken]

When deleting large files (4GB - 19GB), Windows does not
report the additional free space, nor does it update
the 'used space'.

This happens on multiple drives. Small-file deletion
works properly.

Drives are 120 - 250GB in storage capacity, and the
computer is Pentium 4, 2.5GHz.

Thank you.

 

[Mike Williams [MVP]]

When deleting large files (4GB - 19GB), Windows does not
report the additional free space, nor does it update
the 'used space'.

This happens on multiple drives. Small-file deletion
works properly.

Drives are 120 - 250GB in storage capacity, and the
computer is Pentium 4, 2.5GHz.

Hmm. I just noticed today that applications keep trying to write to my 160GB
external drive even though it has run out of space. WMP9 in particular kept
thinking it had successfully ripped a number of tracks to that drive, but a
few minutes later the files either disappeared from their Explorer view, or
I was left with 1.5KB stubs for ~3MB WMA files. I was able to repro this
behaviour several times (while trying to figure out where the tracks had
gone or why they had been truncated) until I saw I was out of disk space.

Mike Williams - Office MVP
http://www.mvps.org/

Please respond in the same thread on this newsgroup. Make sure you
include details of your application and Windows versions, and whether
or not you have included any service pack updates.

 

[Dave]

XP has by default a IDE drive limitation of about 140Gb.
New drivers are available somewhere to up that limit, or
a dedicated HD controller could also be used.

With the original XP drivers, the drive will appear, but
will never show the correct size.