Why didn't my harddrive space increase?

[KhoiFather]

I moved 10GB of files from my WD 80GB HD over to my 120GB Maxtor HD and space in the WD HD didn't increase. It stayed at 5GB free space, shouldn't it go up to 15GB free space? WTF is up with this, it's pissing me off, because I can't use the extra free space thats in the HD!

 

[InlineFive]

I think the files copied instead of actually moving. Make sure they still aren't on the 80GB drive.

-Por

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: PorBleemo
I think the files copied instead of actually moving. Make sure they still aren't on the 80GB drive.

-Por

It's totally impossible to "move" files from one hd to another, you can only copy them from one drive to another. So, Por is right, they are still on your 80GB drive.

 

[ryejay98]

No... you can move them... but by default, it usually copies them.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: ryejay98
No... you can move them... but by default, it usually copies them.

No, by default, Windows always copies them. Even though some of us know how to force Windows to actually move them, this guy didn't even know enough to be able to figure out why moving 10GB of files didn't give him 10GB more space on his drive.

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

disable system recovery

 

[LTC8K6]

I move files between hard drives all the time.

If you just dragged and dropped them, then it only copied them by default. Send To also just copies them. i think the cut and paste method also just copies them.

To move them, I right click and drag them. Then when I drop them I get the menu where I can choose to move them or copy them. There are other ways, I'm sure.

 

[Davegod]

cut & paste will delete them off the old drive. Dragging & dropping will just copy them and they will also stay on the old disk (whereas if you drag files to different folders within the same partition, they will not also stay in the old folder).

In short, as already said check the previous drive and delete them, then remember to empty recycle bin

 

[WackyDan]

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: PorBleemo
I think the files copied instead of actually moving. Make sure they still aren't on the 80GB drive.

-Por

It's totally impossible to "move" files from one hd to another, you can only copy them from one drive to another. So, Por is right, they are still on your 80GB drive.

Totally impossible??? Wrong. Hold the shift key while dragging and dropping, and you have a move. Right Click and choose "cut" then choose paste in the DIR you want the files and you have a move.

I do this with the drive withint he same system, external drives, and network drives.

Sorry to be picky but I'm sure you meant to pick your words better.

 

[Maximilian]

Cut n Paste are your friend as youve prolly now got 2 sets of the same 10 gb stuff with one on each HDD.

 

[KhoiFather]

So what should I do? How do I make it so it's not still on the 80GB HD? If I try to cut and paste back to the 80GB, the 80GB won't have enough space cause there's only 5.6GB of space left on the 80GB.

Also, I did the cut and paste and I know the files definitely aren't on the 80GB anymore cause I don't see it. I see the files in the 120GB HD.

 

[LTC8K6]

D'oh! Obviously cut and paste moves them! I was thinking of copy and paste, I guess.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: WackyDan

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: PorBleemo
I think the files copied instead of actually moving. Make sure they still aren't on the 80GB drive.

-Por

It's totally impossible to "move" files from one hd to another, you can only copy them from one drive to another. So, Por is right, they are still on your 80GB drive.

Totally impossible??? Wrong. Hold the shift key while dragging and dropping, and you have a move. Right Click and choose "cut" then choose paste in the DIR you want the files and you have a move.

I do this with the drive withint he same system, external drives, and network drives.

Sorry to be picky but I'm sure you meant to pick your words better.

Yes, I know of a few of the ways to force Windows to move files from one drive to another, but when you are addressing someone who can't figure out why he didn't gain space on a drive, it's best to keep things simple.

 

[Maximilian]

Right well you *copied* the 10 GB worth of files onto the 120 GB maxtor so check that theyre all there and alls fine then go and delete the other copy of the 10 GB of files on the 80 GB drive. Make sure you have them on the 120 GB before you go and trash the other copy

 

[LTC8K6]

Well, you can now delete the 10GB worth of files off of the 80GB HD if you successfully copied them over to the 120GB drive.

Make sure the files did in fact get copied to the larger drive and then delete them from the smaller drive.

 

[KhoiFather]

Originally posted by: Soviet
Right well you *copied* the 10 GB worth of files onto the 120 GB maxtor so check that theyre all there and alls fine then go and delete the other copy of the 10 GB of files on the 80 GB drive. Make sure you have them on the 120 GB before you go and trash the other copy

The 10GB files aren't on the 80GB anymore. I don't see them, when I first moved them up, I highlighted the files, cut, then pasted it over to the 120GB HD and then I checked to see if the space freed up on the 80B and it didn't, so I scratch my head and wonder the hell why...

See, the 80GB is my secondary drive, there are 59GB of files there, well it says Capacity is 74.5, so 74.5 minus 59 is 15.5. It says I only have 5.76GB of free space, where the hell is the rest of my free space??

 

[Maximilian]

Hmm strange... If its a removable drive try removing it and put it back in again, if it isnt then try defragging it and see if that does the trick.

 

[LTC8K6]

Defrag it?

 

[KhoiFather]

Its not a removable drive, I'll try defragging it, and hopefully it works.

 

[Abhi]

Disable system restore and delete all existing restore points.

If its a FAT32 drive, run a quick scandisk...

 

[Viper96720]

Did you do a disk cleanup?

 

[imported_Phil]

Scandisk or chkdsk should fix this, it sounds like the file table is a little messed up

 

[Matthias99]

Also, if you have Norton Systemworks, you need to empty their "Protected Recycle Bin" specifically, in addition to the regular Windows recycle bin. GoBack behaves similarly sometimes, as can WinXP System Restore.

 

[KhoiFather]

Well I'm using Windows 2000 and I do have Norton Anti Virus installed.