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hard drive reporting less free space than it should??

P

parkbench

Senior member
:Q when one problem is fixed another takes its place...

i recently installed windows and all my old software to a new hard-drive. i deleted tons of files off the old one.

after i deleted these files off the old one (its a 40gb drive), i checked the properties and it listed only 5gb free, which I knew was impossible. For some reason i decided to go into windows explorer, i chose the 40gb d: drive, i select all, right click within the folder, and hit properties.

There it says that I've only got 20gb worth of files, which means 20gb free!

Why am I missing 15gb? What's going on? Who is reporting correctly and why? How do I fix this? 🙁

edit: i ran scandisk on the drive and it didn't do anything
 
(1) Did you empty the recycle bin after you deleted all the files?

(2) What version of Windows are you running? If I remember correctly, Win98 had a problem with reporting drive free space.
 
1) the recycle bin is empty
2) windows xp pro

update... i used to have norton protected recycled bin on this drive.. i ran it and deleted the files which brought me up to 7gb free, but that's still way short of 20gb free. 🙁
 
Properties has 2 numbers, "Size" and "Size on Disk" -- is the 20 MB used the "Size on Disk" or just the "Size"?

Also, do you have Windows Explorer set to show you all files and folders including system and hidden?
 
Norton Protected Recycle Bin will take up a lot. Also, take a look at the Windows restore settings. Right click on My Computer and go to properties.
 
After a lot of searching and some luck, i figured it out! While Windoctor was going through its processes it checked out a folder called System Volume Information, which I found out is the System Restore folder.

After a bit of google searching, I found what settings I needed to change in order to see it in Windows Explorer, access it and delete it. I now have about 17gb of free space on the drive which is right when you take into consideration that a 40gb drive is actually around 37gb.

By the way, you need to be in safe mode to actually delete the folder, something none of the sites state specifically.

Question: Is this folder going to be created on my new C: drive now? 10gigs of system restore files is absurd and I doubt it's that useful that I need to be eating up space like this! Or am I wrong?

edit: by the way, thanks again for the suggestions guys!
 
By deafult, System Restore will use 12% of your drive (and that is the maximum it can use), which on a 40GB drive, it will use about 4.5GB, which is about half of the 10gb you're saying you have gained. And yes, it will put that folder back when you restart.


Confused
 
Without a doubt, I gained 9-10GB when I deleted System Volume Information (from 7gb free, to 16.9gb free). I don't know how I gained that much if the limit is 4.5gb as you say, but at this point it doesn't matter. Luckily, the folder did not come back because it is now a backup media drive, and not my C: drive.

Thanks to all who helped!!
 
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