Win XP Shows Incorrect Disk Space Usage

D

Danny Stone

This is not the standard 1000 vs 1024, FAT32 vs NTFS, etc.
problem. This is a weird one, folks:

Win XP Pro is showing that I have 40.3GB free on my 74.5GB
(formatted) hard drive (as shown in the "My Computer"
window). The problem is that I am only actually using
5.75GB on the drive. This amounts to a 28.45 GB (!) size
discrepancy! The drive is formatted as a single primary
NTFS partition (the drive is my C: boot drive), and the
reported drive size (74.5GB)is correct, as expected. Also,
using both Windows Explorer and DOS DIR, I examined disk
file usage (including hidden, system, and compressed
files). They both agree to ~ 5.75GB being used, although
both show the 24GB discrepancy as well (i.e., 40GB
Free/Unused). I also used Bulletproof FolderSizes v2.4 to
examine the disk usage, and it indicates that only 5.75 GB
is used, as well.

Disk manangement and Error-check show no faults on this
drive. I simply have not found any files taking up this
space! I cannot account for this discrepancy, and worse,
cannot fix it...

System/configuration specifics:
- Windows XP Professional, SP1 and SP2
- Hard Drive is Western Digital Caviar 80GB ATA/100
- Page (Swap) file is located on seperate drive

Further Configuration Specifics:
The system is running Award BIOS v4.51, so it does not
automatically recognize drives larger than 33GB. An update
is not available, so to get around this limitation, I am
using Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Utility, which
provides a dynamic disk overlay to "tricking" the system
into recognizing the drive as a 33 GB drive at boot-up,
with the full space being available after boot-up.
However, I do not believe this is causing the trouble
described above because:
- Win XP properly recognizes the correct drive size.
- The system ran for several days with correct disk usage
indications before the problem occured.

I have not been able to associate the problem with the
installation of any application software. In fact, I
uninstalled several applications that were installed prior
to the problem occurence to assure they were not the
culprits.

I am considering performing another clean install (very
time consuming but possible, since this is a relatively
new install), but without knowing the cause, I have no
assurance that the problem will occur again. My concern is
that the real/unused space will be rendered unusable by
this problem.

Any ideas, anyone?
 
P

Peter Hutchison

This is not the standard 1000 vs 1024, FAT32 vs NTFS, etc.
problem. This is a weird one, folks:

Win XP Pro is showing that I have 40.3GB free on my 74.5GB
(formatted) hard drive (as shown in the "My Computer"
window). The problem is that I am only actually using
5.75GB on the drive. This amounts to a 28.45 GB (!) size
discrepancy! The drive is formatted as a single primary
NTFS partition (the drive is my C: boot drive), and the
reported drive size (74.5GB)is correct, as expected. Also,
using both Windows Explorer and DOS DIR, I examined disk
file usage (including hidden, system, and compressed
files). They both agree to ~ 5.75GB being used, although
both show the 24GB discrepancy as well (i.e., 40GB
Free/Unused). I also used Bulletproof FolderSizes v2.4 to
examine the disk usage, and it indicates that only 5.75 GB
is used, as well.
Besides normal application and data files there are other hidden
system files:

a) Restore database (see Volume Information folder)
b) Page file
c) Hibernation file
d) etc

These can take up a few GB in themselves. Open an command prompt
and type DIR /AH to view hidden files in c:\.

Peter Hutchison
 

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