Used Gby in partition exceed size of all files

[Anthony Buckland]

I was checking file usage in my C: partition. If
I check the properties of C:, I get 41.0 Gby
used. If I open C:, select everything, and check
properties, I get a collective size of 35.7 Gby.
I have hidden files and folders shown, and
protected operating system files not hidden.
Should I be concerned about the considerable
difference? Thanks.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I was checking file usage in my C: partition. If
I check the properties of C:, I get 41.0 Gby
used. If I open C:, select everything, and check
properties, I get a collective size of 35.7 Gby.
I have hidden files and folders shown, and
protected operating system files not hidden.
Should I be concerned about the considerable
difference? Thanks.

No.
(Considerable? *shrug*)

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
( Particularly of interest here - #4 )
( Alternative: http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm )

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but your
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 moving
the slider until you have just about 1GB (1024MB or close to that...)
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 64MB and 128MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.

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/

Other ways to free up space..

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

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

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

In the end - a standard Windows XP installation with all sorts of extras
will not likely be above about 4.5GB to 9GB in size. If you have more space
than that (likely do on a modern machine) and most of it seems to be used -
likely you need to copy *your stuff* off and/or find a better way to manage
it.

 

[Twayne]

I was checking file usage in my C: partition. If
I check the properties of C:, I get 41.0 Gby
used. If I open C:, select everything, and check
properties, I get a collective size of 35.7 Gby.
I have hidden files and folders shown, and
protected operating system files not hidden.
Should I be concerned about the considerable
difference? Thanks.

I assume by "Gby" you mean gigabytes, nomrall abbreviated as "GB". The
B is a capital when it means bytes, and lower case when it means bits.

Those are perfectly acceptable numbers and nothing to fret about.
What you are seeing is two different situations, each of which are
making measurements of "rounded" figures in different ways. On my
system:
Properties on C shows 25.8 Gig.
Selecting instead all the files/folder in the right pane of Explorer,
Properties shows 22.2 Gig.

To get exact numbers that matched you would need different software that
accurately only counted bytes in the files themselves and not slack,
sectors/sector sizes, etc. etc..

It's kind of a long story to explain here so I'll leave that to you for
research <g>.

Cheers,

Twayne

 

[W****n S***********g]

I assume by "Gby" you mean gigabytes, nomrall abbreviated as "GB". The B
is a capital when it means bytes, and lower case when it means bits.

I assume by "nomrall" you mean normally??..

Usually spelled with the western emphasis.

 

[Gerry]

Anthony

You can get some hidden files that are not revealed using the method you
have chosen to use.

Norton Protected Storage was a commonly hidden file?
http://snipurl.com/cg3gg [service1_symantec_com]

Other files not visible include hiberfil.sys, 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.

Windows Explorer also misreports. Compressed files are reported as their
original size before compression whereas their size on disk is less.
This causes problems trying to reconcile space used plus free disk space
with the size of the hard disk.

--



Hope this helps.

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

 

[Twayne]

Anthony

You can get some hidden files that are not revealed using the method
you have chosen to use.

Norton Protected Storage was a commonly hidden file?
http://snipurl.com/cg3gg [service1_symantec_com]

Other files not visible include hiberfil.sys, and Rollback files.

He had the hidden/system etc types of files set to show including sytem
files. hyberfile.sys shows up in Explorer quite readily.
"Rollback" files etc. are not named thus; they are part of the volume
file. And show quite readily in the space occupation modes.

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.

Per the stated settings the OP used they will all be seen. No files
will be hidden.

Windows Explorer also misreports. Compressed files are reported as
their original size before compression whereas their size on disk is
less. This causes problems trying to reconcile space used plus free
disk space with the size of the hard disk.

If you look at the properties of such a file, it gives two sizes: the
compressed size and the on-disk size. ALL PROPERTIES WINDOWS OF FILES
AND FOLDERS SHOW "Size" and "Size on Disk".
Not sure what you're trying to point out here, but the original
numbers are quite in line with reality.

Cheers,

Twayne

 

[Gerry]

Twayne

Go away. Your contributions are not wanted!


--



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

Anthony

You can get some hidden files that are not revealed using the method
you have chosen to use.

Norton Protected Storage was a commonly hidden file?
http://snipurl.com/cg3gg [service1_symantec_com]

Other files not visible include hiberfil.sys, and Rollback files.

He had the hidden/system etc types of files set to show including
sytem files. hyberfile.sys shows up in Explorer quite readily.
"Rollback" files etc. are not named thus; they are part of the
volume file. And show quite readily in the space occupation modes.

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.

Per the stated settings the OP used they will all be seen. No files
will be hidden.

Windows Explorer also misreports. Compressed files are reported as
their original size before compression whereas their size on disk is
less. This causes problems trying to reconcile space used plus free
disk space with the size of the hard disk.

If you look at the properties of such a file, it gives two sizes: the
compressed size and the on-disk size. ALL PROPERTIES WINDOWS OF FILES
AND FOLDERS SHOW "Size" and "Size on Disk".
Not sure what you're trying to point out here, but the original
numbers are quite in line with reality.

Cheers,

Twayne

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

 

[Anthony Buckland]

No.
(Considerable? *shrug*)
...

Thanks for your reply (clipped here) and those from
others. I won't worry, then. I have loads of free
disk space. I was just curious and scratched the
itch.

 

[Jim]

I was checking file usage in my C: partition. If
I check the properties of C:, I get 41.0 Gby
used. If I open C:, select everything, and check
properties, I get a collective size of 35.7 Gby.
I have hidden files and folders shown, and
protected operating system files not hidden.
Should I be concerned about the considerable
difference? Thanks.

One problem is that the size of the file is only the bytes actually used.
However, the amount of space allocated to the file can be as much as 4095
bytes more. This is known as slack space. Thus just adding the space
actually used by all of the files can give a false impression about the
amount of free space on the disk.

Jim

 

[Twayne]

Twayne

Go away. Your contributions are not wanted!

LOL, wow, how stoopid and ignorant can one be? I will do exactly what I
want, when I want, the way I want, as I want, and there is nothing the
likes of you can do about it. I've seen narcissism here before, but I
have to give you that one; very high on the scale of loving yourself!
I can only assume you don't like being called on it when you so often
screw up and otherwise provide blather the does nothing for anyone?

Not that you can read anyway, but ... if you don't like my posts, then
.... wait for it ... don't read them! I know that's hard for you to
understand, but ... give it a try anyway.

thanks for the giggles,

Twayne

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

Anthony

You can get some hidden files that are not revealed using the method
you have chosen to use.

Norton Protected Storage was a commonly hidden file?
http://snipurl.com/cg3gg [service1_symantec_com]

Other files not visible include hiberfil.sys, and Rollback files.

He had the hidden/system etc types of files set to show including
sytem files. hyberfile.sys shows up in Explorer quite readily.
"Rollback" files etc. are not named thus; they are part of the
volume file. And show quite readily in the space occupation modes.

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.

Per the stated settings the OP used they will all be seen. No files
will be hidden.

Windows Explorer also misreports. Compressed files are reported as
their original size before compression whereas their size on disk is
less. This causes problems trying to reconcile space used plus free
disk space with the size of the hard disk.

If you look at the properties of such a file, it gives two sizes: the
compressed size and the on-disk size. ALL PROPERTIES WINDOWS OF
FILES AND FOLDERS SHOW "Size" and "Size on Disk".
Not sure what you're trying to point out here, but the original
numbers are quite in line with reality.

Cheers,

Twayne

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anthony Buckland wrote:
I was checking file usage in my C: partition. If
I check the properties of C:, I get 41.0 Gby
used. If I open C:, select everything, and check
properties, I get a collective size of 35.7 Gby.
I have hidden files and folders shown, and
protected operating system files not hidden.
Should I be concerned about the considerable
difference? Thanks.