Missing disk space

I have another issue and wasn't sure whether to post it separately (I don't want to be a menace...). Since it's not related to my other thread (except that it's by me) I thought I'd ask separately.

I'll cut straight to it. In windows explorer, I right-click the letter of my 2nd drive, go to properties, it says used space = 12,395,315,200 bytes. However, because this doesn't add up, I Ctrl+A'd it (selected all) and it says size on disk = 4.53 GB (4,865,819,105 bytes) which is what it should be.

It's been this way for quite a while. I never noticed before because I haven't really taken stock of what I have on my drives until now.

Also, in C:\My Documents, I found that despite the My Pictures folder being empty, in properties it says size on disk = 8.03 MB (8,421,376 bytes) - and that it has 2 files.

(I have "show hidden files" enabled)

Can anyone throw a light on this? Any input would be really appreciated.

 

squirrel,

All folders (= directories) except the root contain at least 2 files: "." and ".." which point to self and up 1 level respectively.

With regard to use of space, total space = used (by files) + free + space used by file system (tables like FAT or MFT, and boot record(s)).

To see, go to command prompt and do:
dir
Directories (= folders) are files too.

 

Also, even though you have deleted files from a drive, the space will still show up as used until you empty the recycle bin.

 

Hi Sparrow,
thanks for responding

I forgot about the 2 dotted 'directories'

However it doesn't make sense for an empty folder (aside from those 2 dirs) to be over 8.3megs!

My 2nd drive is a bit different in that I can't see a location for disappeared space; it's just the folders and files on the disk take up less than 1/2 of the used space the drive properties says. Even accounting for possible wasted space, something seems amiss!

I've done some searching on the web and there are several others who've experienced this problem or a variety of it with various causes. One culprit being Norton AV's Recycle Bin addon. I used to have Norton installed but my computer crashed at the start of this year and I reinstalled xp but haven't reinstalled norton.

Another solution was to dnld DiskState.

I have system resore disabled, I clean out out my temp and temp internet files every day. And yes I always empty the recycled bin Martin, thanks I've reduced the capacity of the recycled bin for my drives, and reduced the max size for temp internet files.

Another possibility posed was a corrupt area/s on the disk. Also the FAT32 Free Space Bug was mentioned. My c:\ is fat32, the other is ntfs.

All in all it sounds like my best bet would be to get my stuff off and reformat. If I do, should I format both disks ntfs? or 1 fat32 and 1 ntfs?

 

Steve,

No, I've got system restore turned off. After analyzing, disk management says the drives don't need to be defraged at the moment.

My first drive has 2 partitions: C:\ and D:\

In disk management the figures are the same as the drive properties.

 

maybe more specifics?

When I look at properties of a folder I see "size" and "size on disk" and the difference is, I think, called "slack ", which is the result of files not completely filling their allocated disk space. Also the figures include all subdirectories and their files. Are there any subdirectories in the directory you're referencing?

I can't quite follow the numbers you're talking about.

 

For a standard IDE setup usually C: is the first partition on the 1st hardrive. D: is first partition on the second harddrive.

Matt

 

Right Christer!

 

Good to know. I rarely run two at the same time, mainly slave to backup, test etc.
(I always seem to have more computers than harddrives so can't afford to double up )

Thanks guys.
Matt

 

I re-read my initial post. I'm not surprised

Local disk (F properties - by right-clicking F:\ in windows explorer it says Used space and free space in bytes and GB: used space=10.4GB (I've offloaded a few things).

However, when I select all, all the files and folders on the drive, and check the properties it says size and size on disk; both of which equal 3.4GB. That's 7 gigs not accounted for. - about the same loss as my first post.

When the contents of the drive are added up, all directories and subdirectories are included.

With My Pictures on C:\ there are no subdirectories (save for those 3 dots), and no pictures in it. Yet it now takes up 8.42mb (I did save 4 or 5 pics in there since my last post but have since moved them).

My first drive is definitely C:\ and a small (< 1GB) D:\ (I did it myself )

 

squirrel

Now I see what you're doing.

That's not the case. ctrl-a marks only the directory, in your case the root. It doesn't include the whole disk. Do alt-v, check details and add up what you see.
The 7 GB are in the subdirectories.

However I still don't see what your talking about re c:

 

I've added up the contents. The 7gigs doesn't come from the subdirectories.

Out of the various causes I've read on the web, and from disk analysis, corruption seems to be it. Now I've just got to reformat the disk and see what happens

Thanks anyway, sparrow!​