XP is overstating used space on external hard drive

[Ron]

There's probably a simple explanation for this, but I haven't found it yet.
I have a new external 200 gig drive that I re-formatted to NTFS, using the
XP format command and default parameters. I put a Norton Ghost 9 backup
disk image on the drive, about 35 gigs. Then - after a reinstallation of
Ghost (so it wasn't aware of the image file on the external drive) - I ran
another backup. So there were simply two very large (disk image) files on
the external drive. Then I deleted the first one. Win XP reports (in My
Computer, right-click on the drive icon and choosing "properties") used disk
space as if the first file was still there along with the newer one. I've
tried disk cleanup, defrag, etc. but the used space remains overstated.

I'd appreciate any solution and/or explanation for this phenomenon. Thanks,
Ron

 

[C A Upsdell]

There's probably a simple explanation for this, but I haven't found it
yet. I have a new external 200 gig drive that I re-formatted to NTFS,
using the XP format command and default parameters. I put a Norton
Ghost 9 backup disk image on the drive, about 35 gigs. Then - after a
reinstallation of Ghost (so it wasn't aware of the image file on the
external drive) - I ran another backup. So there were simply two very
large (disk image) files on the external drive. Then I deleted the
first one. Win XP reports (in My Computer, right-click on the drive
icon and choosing "properties") used disk space as if the first file was
still there along with the newer one. I've tried disk cleanup, defrag,
etc. but the used space remains overstated.

I'd appreciate any solution and/or explanation for this phenomenon.

try emptying your recycle bin

 

[Guest]

I have the same issue w/ an internal hard drive and Norton Ghost 9.0, and
yes, I have emptied the recycle bin. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Ron]

try emptying your recycle bin

Thank you! I purged the so-called "Norton protected files" and that issue
went away. I didn't realize that the new (F drive has its *own* recycle
bin. It doesn't show as a separate icon either on the desktop or in Windows
Explorer I had assumed deleted files accumulate in the recycle bin on the C
drive even if they come from the F drive. Not true, apparently.

Moreover, since I've installed Norton System Works, the recycle bin is
"Norton protected" and has different menu options associated with it. It
also appears to contain non-Norton protected files, even though they were
deleted after installation of NSW. I'm confused about this distinction, and
I also have yet to discover how to select individual "Norton protected"
files for purging from the bin. Guess I have some more reading to do.

Thanks again. -Ron

 

[Ron]

I forgot to say (for clarification), when I deleted that huge drive image
file from the F drive, I got a message that it was too big for the recycle
bin, did I still want to erase it? I said OK. But it ended up in the
"Norton Protected section" of the bin anyway. Maybe that message was issued
by Windows, but not honored by Norton? ie. Perhaps Norton overides the
space allocation set aside by XP for the recycle bin. -Ron

 

[Guest]

I'm glad that worked for you Ron. Unfortunately my issue hasn't resolved. My
recycle bin was empty from the beginning and now I have uninstalled Ghost and
Systemworks and still windows says my drive is full. I have even done
searches for image files *.v2i and *.iv2i and have found nothing. D'oh!!!

 

[Alex Nichol]

Thank you! I purged the so-called "Norton protected files" and that issue
went away. I didn't realize that the new (F drive has its *own* recycle
bin. It doesn't show as a separate icon either on the desktop or in Windows
Explorer I had assumed deleted files accumulate in the recycle bin on the C
drive even if they come from the F drive. Not true, apparently.

Recycle bin files continue to be held on the drive from which deleted
(just transferred to the Recycler folder and indexed) - any copying to a
different drive would take far too long, and there might not even be
room. A look in Recycle Bin always shows all files deleted by the
current user, wherever they are located. As far as the system goes the
Norton bin is just another (hidden) folder, so it shows as space being
used

 

[Ron]

Recycle bin files continue to be held on the drive from which deleted
(just transferred to the Recycler folder and indexed) - any copying to a
different drive would take far too long, and there might not even be
room. A look in Recycle Bin always shows all files deleted by the
current user, wherever they are located. As far as the system goes the
Norton bin is just another (hidden) folder, so it shows as space being
used

Thanks for the insight! I had had "show hidden files and folders" turned
on, but only when I additionally (and momentarily) turned *off* "hide
protected operating system files" did the Recycler folder appear on each
of the hard drives. However, the recycler directory on the new F drive
contains a single (hex-labeled) folder of a bunch of objects all of which
had been previously deleted from the C drive, not the F drive. It is, in
fact, an exact copy of one of the two such folders that are in the recycler
directory on the C drive. This little nuance I don't understand. But
thanks for bringing me closer to full enlightenment. -Ron