What's eating my HDD space?

[mikegor]

Hi

I have Windows Vista U 32 bit. just reinstalled it along with my new WD 150 GB raptor 10k rpm, works great and everything really is faster.

Used HDD space is up to 59 GB right now and I've only installed a cupple of apps and games and those folders only account for 23 GB. When i check every folder under C: it sums up to 34 GB. So where has the other 25 GB gone?

Virtuall mem is at 4 GB but the rest?
Am I missing anything? Still more then 20 GB unaccounted for.
Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[lxskllr]

Shadow copies, and system restore is my guess. If you don't need the space I wouldn't worry about it. The shadow copies in particular are very nice. It's rare that they're needed, but when you do it can be a life saver.

 

[mikegor]

Sounds plausible.
So i guess i can trun it off in controll panel / System. But 20 GB for that still sounds much.

Thanks

 

[corkyg]

All of what lxskllr said plus NTFS consumes a decent portion of the drive with metadata files, mft files, and the mft reserved zone. What you are seeing is pretty normal.

 

[sanzen07]

http://www.sixty-five.cc/sm/ - SpaceMonger will tell you exactly what is using up your hard drive space with a visual representation.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I have a 500GB FreeAgent USB external hard drive. Formatted NTFS. Let someone borrow it, and it came back with a blank filesystem, but with 6GB space used up. By nothing.

I just reformatted, but it's clear that some space wierdness can happen with NTFS.

 

[GreenCow]

I reccommend WinDirStat

This and other tools are listed on Scott Hanselmans Ultimate Tool List

 

[nerp]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
I have a 500GB FreeAgent USB external hard drive. Formatted NTFS. Let someone borrow it, and it came back with a blank filesystem, but with 6GB space used up. By nothing.

I just reformatted, but it's clear that some space wierdness can happen with NTFS.

Are you sure it wasn't a hidden porn volume? 😀 hehe.