Wrong HDD space info

[Lee Beck]

When I right click disc properties it shows 38 GB
remaining on my 120 GB Maxtor drive. If I right click
folder properties for each of the 8 folders, they each
contain from 64 MB to 2 GB. Doesn't take a math whiz to
see that something's out of kilter.

A little background -- The drive actually was getting a
little low on capacity. This is a dedicated drive that I
use for video files, and was down to about 15 GB remaining
last night. I erased almost everything (deleted to
recycle bin). had some enormous files (a couple of AVI
files that were in the 20 - 40 GB range) and a several DVD
images on the drive. Everything seemed to go ok but the
right click disc properties "pie" shows only about 38 GB
available on the drive.

I did a disc cleanup, have rebooted several times, and
defragmented. The defrag image seems a little screwy in
that it still seems to be a little fragmented.

I'm hoping that there's a simple fix, or that this is a
bug in w2k pro and there's a workaround. My next step
unless I get some good advice here is to reformat the
drive. worst case scenario is that this is evidence that
that the drive is bad or going bad. However, if that's
the case, let me know now. It may still be under
warranty. It's about 6 months old (don't know Maxtor's
warranty). In any event, I'd rather trash it id necessary
than to run the risk off losing data.

How about one of you gurus giving me some info or
something to try.

Thanks.

 

[Invisible]

When I right click disc properties it shows 38 GB

remaining on my 120 GB Maxtor drive. If I right click
folder properties for each of the 8 folders, they each
contain from 64 MB to 2 GB. Doesn't take a math whiz to
see that something's out of kilter.

I don't know - depents on *how many* such folders there are ;-)

I'd direct you to have a play with DirGraph - but I'm afraid I've lost the
URL :-(

A little background -- The drive actually was getting a
little low on capacity. This is a dedicated drive that I
use for video files, and was down to about 15 GB remaining
last night. I erased almost everything (deleted to
recycle bin). had some enormous files (a couple of AVI
files that were in the 20 - 40 GB range) and a several DVD
images on the drive. Everything seemed to go ok but the
right click disc properties "pie" shows only about 38 GB
available on the drive.

You deleted them to the recycle bin... did you also empty the recycle bin
afterwards? (Otherwise there would be no size change.)

I did a disc cleanup, have rebooted several times, and
defragmented. The defrag image seems a little screwy in
that it still seems to be a little fragmented.

Right... how much space did Disk Cleanup think it could recover btw? (You
*did* run it on the correct drive, right? ;-) Did it take a long time to
defrag btw?

I'm hoping that there's a simple fix, or that this is a
bug in w2k pro and there's a workaround. My next step
unless I get some good advice here is to reformat the
drive. worst case scenario is that this is evidence that
that the drive is bad or going bad. However, if that's
the case, let me know now. It may still be under
warranty. It's about 6 months old (don't know Maxtor's
warranty). In any event, I'd rather trash it id necessary
than to run the risk off losing data.

Erm... you might try checking that there's no hidden files on the drive.
There are also options that use up disk space, but not as visible files. For
example, the Indexing Service stores its index data in invisible space. But
given that you've deleted so much stuff, I doubt the Indexing Service is
using up hardly any space... Offline Files does it too (I doubt you're using
that). I think there's a few others - can't remember right now.

Sorry I can't help more.

 

[Invisible]

Thanks for the reply. Here's my answers

* The math I was referring to is that I have 8 primary
folders total (with subfolders in each). Trust me. I've
always been able in the past to determine the contents of
the folder by right-clicking (e.g., 2145KB in and 234
files / 5 folders.) I'm using Windows Explorer, but I get
the same info when using "My Computer"

Right. OK...

* I don't really know how long it took to defrag. I did
it overnight. I don't recall how much disc cleanup said
it could recover. The "compressing old files" step did
take about 10 minutes, though.

Yeah, that "compress old files" thing always takes forever... I'd personally
like to turn the thing off, but there we go...

* yes, I did choose the right drive. I've checked the
drive and folders several times, given that I've been
using "windows Explorer" for about 20 years now and have
never seen anything like this. Only been using w2k for
about a year though.

OK, was just a thought. Wasn't really trying to imply that you're stupid ;-)

* Yes, I emptied the recycle bin. I can right click on it
and it claims to contain like 84 KB. I also used disc
cleanup prior to defragmenting

Right. Do other people use this machine? Just thinking, there's a seperate
recycle bin for each user, so *your* recycle bin could be empty, but someone
else's could be full. If you select "show hidden files" or whatever the
option is called in Windows Explorer, you should see a folder called
RECYCLER. Right-click that, and it will tell you how big ALL the recycle
bins are taken together. (On the other hand, if only you ever log on to this
PC, you will just get the same answer.)

Sorry, that's all I can think of so far...