XP reports incorrect disk space

[Guest]

Hi,
I have an unusal problem with XP. Not sure whether someone has come accross
this, but on my PC, XP shows incorrect disk space. I had been struggling with
this when i had atleast 3-4GB disk space but XP kept showing 400MB. After a
few days, the problem was fixed and everything was fine. The same problem
repeated again. I decided to format my disk and install everything fresh. I'm
still facing the same problem. I had an 8GB disk. Formatted and put my stuff
back, which was hardly 2 GB. Initially it showed everything well, but now i
see the same problem again ... that something seems to be blocking my disk
space. I did a search on the largest file, nothing i could find which was
eating up space. Anyone aware of this problem, and/or the solution? I
remember i had Norton Disk Doctor which used to fix up disk space issues, but
not sure whether that is available for XP. Can someone advie?

-Deepak

 

[DL]

Depends where you are getting the free space size from.
There are hidden files, page file etc
You could check with TreeSizePro
http://www.jam-software.com/treesize/
It will show were and what for files

 

[Johnathan]

Hi,
I have an unusal problem with XP. Not sure whether someone has come
accross this, but on my PC, XP shows incorrect disk space. I had been
struggling with this when i had atleast 3-4GB disk space but XP kept
showing 400MB. After a few days, the problem was fixed and everything
was fine. The same problem repeated again. I decided to format my
disk and install everything fresh. I'm still facing the same problem.
I had an 8GB disk. Formatted and put my stuff back, which was hardly
2 GB. Initially it showed everything well, but now i see the same
problem again ... that something seems to be blocking my disk space.
I did a search on the largest file, nothing i could find which was
eating up space. Anyone aware of this problem, and/or the solution? I
remember i had Norton Disk Doctor which used to fix up disk space
issues, but not sure whether that is available for XP. Can someone
advie?

-Deepak

What happens if you format the disk and not install anything? I take it this
is a secondary HDD used for none OS files. What is meant by "Install
everything fresh"? If you only mean that you added previously stored data
then add some a little at a time to se if there is specific data that is
causing this.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi,
I have an unusal problem with XP. Not sure whether someone has come accross
this, but on my PC, XP shows incorrect disk space. I had been struggling with
this when i had atleast 3-4GB disk space but XP kept showing 400MB. After a
few days, the problem was fixed and everything was fine. The same problem
repeated again. I decided to format my disk and install everything fresh. I'm
still facing the same problem. I had an 8GB disk. Formatted and put my stuff
back, which was hardly 2 GB. Initially it showed everything well, but now i
see the same problem again ... that something seems to be blocking my disk
space. I did a search on the largest file, nothing i could find which was
eating up space. Anyone aware of this problem, and/or the solution? I
remember i had Norton Disk Doctor which used to fix up disk space issues, but
not sure whether that is available for XP. Can someone advie?

-Deepak

By drawing the premature conclusion that WinXP reports
an incorrect amount of disk space, you caused yourself a
lot of unnecessary work such as a re-installation of WinXP,
which obviously failed to solve the problem.

The answer is: WinXP does indeed report the correct
amount of free space. The challenge is to find out what's
eating up your disk space, then take appropriate measures.
These free tools will help you:

DriveUse:
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/freezip/freeware/index.html
Bullet Proof Folder sizes: http://www.foldersizes.com/

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I have an unusal problem with XP. Not sure whether someone has come
accross this, but on my PC, XP shows incorrect disk space. I had
been struggling with this when i had atleast 3-4GB disk space but
XP kept showing 400MB. After a few days, the problem was fixed and
everything was fine. The same problem repeated again. I decided to
format my disk and install everything fresh. I'm still facing the
same problem. I had an 8GB disk. Formatted and put my stuff back,
which was hardly 2 GB. Initially it showed everything well, but now
i see the same problem again ... that something seems to be
blocking my disk space. I did a search on the largest file, nothing
i could find which was eating up space. Anyone aware of this
problem, and/or the solution? I remember i had Norton Disk Doctor
which used to fix up disk space issues, but not sure whether that
is available for XP. Can someone advie?

Find out what is taking up the space..

Do you have hidden and system files visible?
How's your system restore settings?
Used Disk Cleanup?
Is hibernate turned on and do you use that feature?
Uninstalled unnecessary applications lately?

Other ways to free up space..

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

DX Hog Hunt
http://www.dvxp.com/en/Downloads.aspx

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

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

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

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/

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but yuor
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 5% or
higher.
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

 

[Guest]

I have installed XP on a partition. ANd this problem with incorrect disk
space also appeared on other partitions. When i installed fresh, I meant that
I formatted my XP partition and and reinstalled XP. I dont expect my OS to be
infected with a virus because i always keep my Antivirus updated. Even if
there was a virus, i expected my AV to detect that. But that didnt happen
either, so i would rule out the possibility of a virus. Of all the replies
i've got, i think i better get some tool to see what is using how much space.

Thanx for the replies though.

Regards,
Deepak

 

[Johnathan]

I have installed XP on a partition. ANd this problem with incorrect
disk space also appeared on other partitions. When i installed fresh,
I meant that I formatted my XP partition and and reinstalled XP. I
dont expect my OS to be infected with a virus because i always keep
my Antivirus updated. Even if there was a virus, i expected my AV to
detect that. But that didnt happen either, so i would rule out the
possibility of a virus. Of all the replies i've got, i think i better
get some tool to see what is using how much space.

Thanx for the replies though.

Regards,
Deepak

While you're out get a larger HDD.