Windows XP - Free Space disapers after reset

[GCRDelphi]

I have a windows xp sp3 machine where there free space goes down to a fixed
amount after a reset. Let me explain:

I boot the machine (a 40GB HD divided in a 36GB and a 4GB partition), The
4GB partition shows only 600MB free, I run CHKDSK /F D: and it fixes the free
space to 2 GB, I reset and it goes back to 600. The same situation is for the
36GB partition where it shows 4GB free but if I boot to the Recovery Console
and run chkdsk c: /p it fixes the free space to 18GB but as soon as I reset
the free space goes back to 4GB, so the same thing happens if chkdsk runs at
boot. WinDirStat shows the correct space being used/free on both partitions,
but most parts of windows shows the numbers incorrect.

Please let me know if there is a way to correct this without having to
format and re-install everything.

Thank You.

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

I have a windows xp sp3 machine where there free space goes down to a
fixed
amount after a reset. Let me explain:

I boot the machine (a 40GB HD divided in a 36GB and a 4GB partition), The
4GB partition shows only 600MB free, I run CHKDSK /F D: and it fixes the
free
space to 2 GB, I reset and it goes back to 600. The same situation is for
the
36GB partition where it shows 4GB free but if I boot to the Recovery
Console
and run chkdsk c: /p it fixes the free space to 18GB but as soon as I
reset
the free space goes back to 4GB, so the same thing happens if chkdsk runs
at
boot. WinDirStat shows the correct space being used/free on both
partitions,
but most parts of windows shows the numbers incorrect.

Please let me know if there is a way to correct this without having to
format and re-install everything.

Thank You.

A good starting point would be to tell us what chkdsk reports when it goes
about its job. It does not just "fix the free space to 18 GBytes" but it
actually finds some errors, e.g. lost clusters or incorrect file size
allocations that it corrects. You need to examine in detail what gets
corrected in order to get an idea about what's causing the problem.

 

[GCRDelphi]

The only message I get is something from the boot chkdsk is that the free
space was begin reported incorrectly and was corrected. I do not see any
other messages showing anything else being corrected. I saw once with chkdsk
in "read only mode" that a few indexes need to be corrected but that was it.

I will try and get more information and reply again.

 

[Jose]

The only message I get is something from the boot chkdsk is that the free
space was begin reported incorrectly and was corrected. I do not see any
other messages showing anything else being corrected. I saw once with chkdsk
in "read only mode" that a few indexes need to be corrected but that was it.

I will try and get more information and reply again.

What method are you using to measure the amount of free space on the
drive in question?

For chkdsk to report reliable and consistent results, the system must
be in a static state. There are only two ways to generate the static
state necessary for running chkdsk - Recovery Console or before XP
loads (on reboot).

Here is an FYE article about it how using other methods may result in
inconsistent results:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/187941

Your observation will not be explained by this information but it is
good information how to results from chkdsk that leave no unanswered
questions, so please provide more information and then we can decide
what to do next that will explain it or fix it.

When chkdsk runs automatically on a reboot, the results are shown in
the Event Viewer Application log.

To see the Event Viewer logs, click Start, Settings, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, Event Viewer.

A shortcut to Event Viewer is to click Start, Run and in the box
enter:

%SystemRoot%\system32\eventvwr.msc

Click OK to launch the Event Viewer.

Look in the Application log for an event sourced by Winlogon,
something like this:

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Winlogon
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1001
Description:
Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.

39070048 KB total disk space.
25151976 KB in 78653 files.
48256 KB in 10264 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
237080 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
13632736 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
9767512 total allocation units on disk.
3408184 allocation units available on disk.

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

Post the results of your chkdsk from the Event Log as follows:

If you double click an event, it will open a Properties windows with
more information. On the right are black up and down arrow buttons to
scroll through the open events. The third button that looks like two
pages on top of each other is used to copy the event details to your
Windows clipboard.

When you find an interesting event that occurred around the time of
your issue, click the third button under the up and down arrows to
copy the details and then you can paste the details (right click,
Paste or CTRL-V) the detail text back here for analysis.

To get a fresh start on any Event Viewer log, you can choose to clear
the log (backing up the log is offered), then reproduce your issue,
then look at just the events around the time of your issue.

How are you fixed for antivirus and malware softwares? ZoneAlarm,
Spybot, McAfee, Norton, AVG, etc...

 

[GCRDelphi]

Here is the Event Logs (Sorry I forgot to mention that the PC has Windows XP
in Spanish)

Comprobando el sistema de archivos en C:
El tipo del sistema de archivos es NTFS.


Se ha programado una comprobación del disco.
Windows comprobará ahora el disco.
Liberando 8 entradas de índice no usadas del índice $SII del archivo 0x9.
Liberando 8 entradas de índice no usadas del índice $SDH del archivo 0x9.
Liberando 8 descriptores de seguridad no usados.
CHKDSK está comprobando el diario USN...
La entrada de diario USN en el desplazamiento 0x59026000 y longitud
0xb416743c
cruza el límite de página.
Reparando el segmento de registro de archivo de diario USN.
Se ha completado la comprobación del diario USN.
Windows ha hecho algunas correciones en el sistema de archivos.

35993600 KB de espacio total en disco.
19089444 KB en 57660 archivos.
22980 KB en 6998 índices.
0 KB en sectores defectuosos.
256248 KB en uso por el sistema.
El archivo de registro ha ocupado 65536 kilobytes.
16624928 KB disponibles en disco.

4096 bytes en cada unidad de asignación.
8998400 unidades de asignación en disco en total.
4156232 unidades de asignación disponibles en disco.

Información interna:
f0 3f 01 00 9e fc 00 00 f2 64 01 00 00 00 00 00 .?.......d......
86 21 00 00 02 00 00 00 3b 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 .!......;.......
da 22 10 16 00 00 00 00 02 33 17 81 00 00 00 00 .".......3......
d8 26 10 1e 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .&..............
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 cc 1b c5 d4 00 00 00 00 ................
99 9e 36 00 00 00 00 00 d8 39 07 00 3c e1 00 00 ..6......9..<...
00 00 00 00 00 90 20 8d 04 00 00 00 56 1b 00 00 ...... .....V...

Windows ha finalizado la comprobación del disco.
Espere mientras se inicia el sistema.

Here is the command prompt for chacking the second partition:

Microsoft Windows XP [Versión 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Rigo.Rigo2009>dir d:
El volumen de la unidad D es Extra
El número de serie del volumen es: E8DC-2AD7

Directorio de D:\

25/04/2009 06:57 p.m. <DIR> autorun.inf
07/11/2009 12:08 p.m. <DIR> Drivers
20/02/2010 05:25 p.m. <DIR> I386
10/05/2009 04:22 p.m. 393 INSTALL.LOG
03/10/2009 04:20 p.m. <DIR> Program Files
11/04/2009 09:00 a.m. 5 recycle
2 archivos 398 bytes
4 dirs 546,861,056 bytes libres

C:\Documents and Settings\Rigo.Rigo2009>chkdsk d: /f /x
El tipo del sistema de archivos es NTFS.
Volumen desmontado. Todos los identificadores abiertos a este volumen no son
vá
idos ahora.
La etiqueta de volumen es Extra.

CHKDSK está comprobando archivos (etapa 1 de 3)...
Comprobación de archivos terminada.
CHKDSK está comprobando índices (etapa 2 de 3)...
Comprobación de índices terminada.
CHKDSK está comprobando descriptores de seguridad (etapa 3 de 3)...
Comprobación de descriptores de seguridad terminada.
CHKDSK está comprobando el diario USN...
Se ha completado la comprobación del diario USN.
Windows ha comprobado el sistema de archivos y no encontró problemas.

3076447 KB de espacio total en disco.
433444 KB en 3916 archivos.
888 KB en 116 índices.
0 KB en sectores defectuosos.
27251 KB en uso por el sistema.
El archivo de registro ha ocupado 17440 kilobytes.
2614864 KB disponibles en disco.

4096 bytes en cada unidad de asignación.
769111 unidades de asignación en disco en total.
653716 unidades de asignación disponibles en disco.

C:\Documents and Settings\Rigo.Rigo2009>dir d:
El volumen de la unidad D es Extra
El número de serie del volumen es: E8DC-2AD7

Directorio de D:\

25/04/2009 06:57 p.m. <DIR> autorun.inf
07/11/2009 12:08 p.m. <DIR> Drivers
20/02/2010 05:25 p.m. <DIR> I386
10/05/2009 04:22 p.m. 393 INSTALL.LOG
03/10/2009 04:20 p.m. <DIR> Program Files
11/04/2009 09:00 a.m. 5 recycle
2 archivos 398 bytes
4 dirs 2,668,707,840 bytes libres

Please note the free space changed from 546,861,056 bytes to 2,668,707,840
bytes even dough chkdsk did not find any errors.

I have installed AVG Free, ZoneAlarm Free

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

You probably have some temporary files that the /x switch of chkdsk forces
to close before it goes about its work. I suspect that the phenomenon does
not occur when you reboot the machine in Safe Mode.

Note also that your drive D: is a 3 GByte partition, not 4 GBytes as you
mentioned in your first post.