Help: Total size of all files != used space on disk

[constable]

Im using a single 120gb HD (IDE) for all my files and folders. Only one partition. When I go into "my computer" and click on the drive it says there is 102 GB (110,xxx,xxx,xxx bytes) used out of 111GB (120,xxx,xxx,xxx bytes). However, if I highlight all the folders at the top level in the drive (which theoretically should include every file on the drive) including hidden folders and what not, it says the total size of all selected files is 92 GB (100,xxx,xxx,xxx bytes).

So essentially there are 10 gigs unaccounted for. I realize that the size of all the files and the total used space arent going to be exactly the same, but 10 gigs is a huge missing chunk of space. Heres what i've done to figure out where that space went:

Disk Cleanup: at most I could free up 100 megs, so its not in there
Disk Defragmenter: says "You do not need to defragment this volume", less than 1% fragmented, so thats not the problem.
Norton Protected files/recycling bin: I dont have norton, so there isnt a wealth of protected/quarantined items sitting in the recycling bin.
Symantec Antivirus: Not a single file in the quarantine and there are no viruses on my pc (using the latest definitions).
Ad-Aware: Purged spy ware.

Any ideas as to where that missing 10 gigs could be?

 

[steveox]

nevermind. i read the whole thing and somehow .. missed a line.

 

[constable]

Someone told me it could be the page-file. What is the page-file and how can I change it?

 

[kuljc]

you're probablly fine.. there shouldn't be anything to worry about.

windows isn't very efficient in right click properties thing. Go to any computer and do it and you'll find it's completly off (when doing the whole drive that is).

 

[LTC8K6]

That sounds pretty normal to me. My recycle bin is reserving 4 gigs, system restore is using 8 gigs too, but I don't know if they count. You don't want to mess with the page file anyway.

You can change the recycle bin and system restore amounts if you want.

Page file is under view system information - advanced - performance

 

[sundev]

I think it just seems like a lot because you have one massive drive - really only 10% is unaccounted for. I just checked on my computer and my system drive has a 2.2 GB discrepancy (it's 30 GB total).

In addition to what other people have said (recycle bin, page file, system restore), I believe Internet Explorer also can also reserve a bunch of space for temporary internet files, can it not? You can check what your IE settings for this at Tools->Internet Options->Settings

 

[DnetMHZ]

System restore also reserves a portion of the disk.

 

[Luhny]

I would also say turn down your system restore. It will always want ot uses the max. On my computer the max is around 10% of the drive space