Missing Hard Drive Space

[angel weekes]

I posted this question earlier but perhaps I was in the wrong place.
I have a acer travelmate 2420 laptop with 34 GB. When I click on my computer
it says that I am using 9 GB in hard drive space but I see only about 4 GB in
use so where is the othere 5 GB. I have run defragment and scan disk and
checked both boxes there. At the end of the scan it says that I have 16 KB in
bad clusters but it says the disk is clean. Are the bad clusters the reason
why I am using so much hard drive. Is there a way I can fix the problem, the
laptop has insurance does it need to be taken in for a repair.Hope somone can
help.

 

[Bob I]

Bad cluster being shown on a hard drive may be indication of impending
failure. Get the diagnostic utility from the hard drive manufacturers
web site and check the drive.

 

[Gordon]

I posted this question earlier but perhaps I was in the wrong place.
I have a acer travelmate 2420 laptop with 34 GB. When I click on my
computer
it says that I am using 9 GB in hard drive space but I see only about 4 GB
in
use so where is the othere 5 GB. I have run defragment and scan disk and
checked both boxes there. At the end of the scan it says that I have 16 KB
in
bad clusters but it says the disk is clean. Are the bad clusters the
reason
why I am using so much hard drive. Is there a way I can fix the problem,
the
laptop has insurance does it need to be taken in for a repair.Hope somone
can
help.

You need to enable hidden files - I suspect that your "missing" space is
being taken up by your page file and the hibernate file....

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I posted this question earlier but perhaps I was in the wrong place.
I have a acer travelmate 2420 laptop with 34 GB. When I click on my
computer
it says that I am using 9 GB in hard drive space but I see only about 4 GB
in
use so where is the othere 5 GB. I have run defragment and scan disk and
checked both boxes there. At the end of the scan it says that I have 16 KB
in
bad clusters but it says the disk is clean. Are the bad clusters the
reason
why I am using so much hard drive. Is there a way I can fix the problem,
the
laptop has insurance does it need to be taken in for a repair.Hope somone
can
help.

How much memory does your laptop have? If it's got a gig of RAM, the
pagefile will be about a gig, so will the hibernation file.

If you allowed IE to set its own cache size, that could easily be over a gig
(I usually clear this and limit it to around 25 meg). Temporary files and
installers from hotfixes can get you a gig or more.

All these files are normally hidden from view.

As you can see, there can easily be several gigabytes of files you didn't
know about.

One last thing. If you decide that the bad sectors merit a new drive and
wish to take the unit for service, be SURE that you have BACKED UP
EVERYTHING before doing this. Remember to VERIFY the backups before
letting the machine go.

Many service places will assume, sometimes quite wrongly, if they're handed
a machine for repair or replacement of a hard disk, that you've backed it
up, and will proceed to wipe the drive and install only the basic OS. If
you didn't make a copy of the data, don't expect that you'll have one
afterwards.

HTH
-pk

 

[HeyBub]

I posted this question earlier but perhaps I was in the wrong place.
I have a acer travelmate 2420 laptop with 34 GB. When I click on my
computer it says that I am using 9 GB in hard drive space but I see
only about 4 GB in use so where is the othere 5 GB. I have run
defragment and scan disk and checked both boxes there. At the end of
the scan it says that I have 16 KB in bad clusters but it says the
disk is clean. Are the bad clusters the reason why I am using so much
hard drive. Is there a way I can fix the problem, the laptop has
insurance does it need to be taken in for a repair.Hope somone can
help.

There is no problem. Ignore the difference.

It's a harmless little misdirection, much like the fellow you meet at a bar
telling you he's single and CEO of the nation's largest yacht-building
company.

 

[Frankly Scarlett]

Another possibility is the manufacturer put on a hidden partition for doing
a restore.
You might find it by looking at the Disk Management portion of the Computer
Management console.
If this is the case, then "Don't Worry - Be Happy"
TTFN

 

[Wally]

I posted this question earlier but perhaps I was in the wrong place.
I have a acer travelmate 2420 laptop with 34 GB. When I click on my computer
it says that I am using 9 GB in hard drive space but I see only about 4 GB in
use so where is the othere 5 GB. I have run defragment and scan disk and
checked both boxes there. At the end of the scan it says that I have 16 KB in
bad clusters but it says the disk is clean. Are the bad clusters the reason
why I am using so much hard drive. Is there a way I can fix the problem, the
laptop has insurance does it need to be taken in for a repair.Hope somone can
help.

It could be this -


Because of the importance of the MFT to NTFS and the possible impact on
performance if this file becomes highly fragmented, NTFS makes a special
effort to keep this file contiguous. NTFS reserves 12.5 percent of the
volume for exclusive use of the MFT until and unless the remainder of
the volume is completely used up. Thus, space for files and directories
is not allocated from this MFT zone until all other space is allocated
first.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/174619