Hard Drive Space Not Found

[wirm]

Hi folks,

I was cleaning out some old external hard drives by removing things I no longer need. However, the amount of available space doesn't change.

I've tried clearing the recycle bin and restarting the computer and external drive, but the space still doesn't show up.

How do I fix this? Thanks

 

[jjmIII]

save everything you want on another drive, format, and restore...if you have the space

 

[wirm]

ugh, it took like half an hour to put everything in there...
Oh well

 

[Nothinman]

Assuming Windows, have you run chkdsk on it?

 

[Tegeril]

If this is a system running Vista Business/Ultimate or Windows 7 Pro/Ultimate, you may have Shadow Copy enabled on those drives. If you check the properties of the volume you were deleting from, you'll see a Previous Versions tab. The copy of your file may be stored in a shadow copy for you to recover from in the future. You can wipe out shadow copies with Disk Cleanup if that's what you want (more options tab under System Restore and Shadow Copies for Vista Ultimate).