missing hard drive space on new (used) laptop.

[cosmo_kramer1]

Hello,

I just purchased an old used Toshiba Satellite laptop with a 20GB hard
drive (Shows 18.x GB capacity in Explorer). It has Windows XP Home
edition installed. I went through it and cleaned out any of the
clutter (programs/files I don't need) to clear some drive space.

Here's my problem/question... I only "see" about 5.5 GB of data on
the C: drive (I have checked the option to display hidden files), but
Windows Explorer still shows only 1.5GB of free space. Any idea
what's happened to the other 11-12 GB of HD space? I'll probably be
re-installing Windows XP on this laptop anyway, which presumably will
give me back my drive space... But I am curious. Any help would be
appreciated!

-Pat

 

[Meinolf Weber]

Hello (e-mail address removed),

On the RUN line type compmgmt.msc and go to Disk management, here you can
see the partitions etc. and the size. What is shown here?

Best regards

Meinolf Weber
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[Claudehl]

Hello,

I just purchased an old used Toshiba Satellite laptop with a 20GB hard
drive (Shows 18.x GB capacity in Explorer). �It has Windows XP Home
edition installed. �I went through it and cleaned out any of the
clutter (programs/files I don't need) to clear some drive space.

Here's my problem/question... �I only "see" about 5.5 GB of data on
the C: drive (I have checked the option to display hidden files), but
Windows Explorer still shows only 1.5GB of free space. � Any idea
what's happened to the other 11-12 GB of HD space? �I'll probably be
re-installing Windows XP on this laptop anyway, which presumably will
give me back my drive space... �But I am curious. �Any help would be
appreciated!

-Pat

Did you empty the Recycle Bin?

 

[cosmo_kramer1]

I did this. I only show my C: Drive and DVD Rom drive. C: drive
shows as 18.63GB NTFS partition, with 1.53 GB free. But in explorer,
If I go to the root of C: and highlight all files and directories, it
only finds 5.94 GB of files (and I am seeing all hidden/system
files). So I think I should have 11.5GB free, not 1.5GB...

I have tried all of the obvious stuff... clear recycle bin, disk
cleanup, defrag, etc...

Thanks,
Pat

 

[Big Al]

Hello,

I just purchased an old used Toshiba Satellite laptop with a 20GB hard
drive (Shows 18.x GB capacity in Explorer). It has Windows XP Home
edition installed. I went through it and cleaned out any of the
clutter (programs/files I don't need) to clear some drive space.

Here's my problem/question... I only "see" about 5.5 GB of data on
the C: drive (I have checked the option to display hidden files), but
Windows Explorer still shows only 1.5GB of free space. Any idea
what's happened to the other 11-12 GB of HD space? I'll probably be
re-installing Windows XP on this laptop anyway, which presumably will
give me back my drive space... But I am curious. Any help would be
appreciated!

-Pat

Try jam software tree size program. It should show you what is in each
folder and total on the drive. Might help you isolate drive usage.
http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml

 

[Bill in Co.]

But what about all the files in all the subfolders? I think that's whats
missing. I'm inclined to believe the 1.53 GB free figure.

Some programs will actually count all the disk space used by all the folders
and subfolders and the files within them to verify this for you, but I don't
think you need it.

 

[R. McCarty]

Also if the drive is in an inconsistent ( Dirty ) state, then it's possible
that
there is allocated space that is actually free. This can sometimes account
for variances in disk space usage.

 

[Bill in Co.]

True enough.
Maybe she should run chkdsk just to be sure.

 

[db.·.. >]

you might want to
make sure you don't
have a 11 gigabyte
swap file.

then you might also
want to consider
running a chkdsk to
reconcile the mft.

 

[Bill in Co.]

you might want to

make sure you don't
have a 11 gigabyte
swap file.

then you might also
want to consider
running a chkdsk to
reconcile the mft.

Sigh, a day late and a dollar short.

 

[Gerry]

Pat / Bill

The figures for used disk space are usually found on investigation to
understate what is used, although there is at least one factor I know of
that goes the other way.

Windows Explorer records the sum of the files sizes, whereas the size on
disk for some files may be less. The difference is caused where file
system is NTFS and file compression has been applied. Compressed files
are displayed in Windows Explorer in a blue font. Files not compressed
display in a black font. In the Windows Directory of your C partition
you will have some Uninstall folders in your Windows folder typically:
$NtServicePackUninstall$ and NtUninstallKB282010$ etc and these in total
can produce a noticeable discrepancy in the figure to be included in any
reconcilaion.

The way to see most hidden files is to 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.

Notwithstanding there remain some files which remain hidden. You still
will not see the System Volume Information folder.
How to Gain Access to the System Volume Information Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;309531

The contents of the System Volume Information Folder can also be
compressed to produce the same discrepancy mentioned earlier between
file size and size on disk..

Other files not visible include hiberfil.sys, Norton Protected Storage
and Rollback files.

One way sometimes to discover the existence of larger hidden files is
that they can be revealed in the Most Fragmented Files list in a Disk
Defragmenter Report. Of course the files need to be fragmented to be
seen but those of significant size usually are if the disk needs to be
defragmented. Sometimes these files can be so large there is not
sufficient contiguous free space to be able to totally defragment them.

I would be interested in seeing a Disk Defragmenter report from Pat's
computer. Open Disk Defragmenter and click on Analyse. Select View
Report and click on Save As and Save. Now find VolumeC.txt in your My
Documents Folder and post a copy. Do this before running Disk
Defragmenter as it is more informative.

If you unexpected lose a lot of disk space it can be the result of not
stopping logging , although these files are normally visible.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~