35GB Of Unused Space Missing

A laptop of mine is missing almost thirty-five gigabytes of space. Why? I noticed the problem in the discrepancies between the two following movements...

My Computer > Highlight C: Drive
Disk size: 69 GB
Used space: 53.5 GB
Free space: 15.5 GB

My Computer > Double Click C: Drive > Select All Folders > Right Click > Properties
Disk size: 69 GB
Used space: 18.4 GB
Free space (should be): 50.6 GB

Now, I know there's always a different layout of sizes when it comes to hard drives, as my own (newish) computer differs by close to three gigabytes, but a difference of 35.1 gigabytes?

I did the following:
Disk Clean-up
> System Restore Clean
Error Check
Degfragmentation
Emptied Recycling Bin
Removed Programs Not Needed

... yet nothing.

Remember, this is a newly reinstalled laptop, too, so there isn't junk on it or too many files or too many programs.

Thanks in advance.

 

Go to Start, Control Panel, Performance & Maintenance, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Storage, Disk Management (Local) and to see what it shows.

 

C: > Partition > Type: Basic > File System: NTFS > Status: Healthy (System) > Capacity: 69.07 GB > Free Space: 15.52 GB 22% > Fault Tolerance: No > Overhead: 0%

 

Time to invoke some outside help via 3rd party freeware to see where the major stuff is located on your drive and possibly find something to dump.

Get TreeSize Free and will provide the answer. Post back what it reveals if you need further help in deciding.

 

Unfortunately I can't take a screenshot, but I'll try to be as specific as possible.

At the bottom is says "Free Sapce: 15.5 GB (of 69.0 GB) - 55,592 files.

Breakdown of sizes...

"18,325.6 MB C:\" Immediately highlighting the difference and what my issue is.
- "9,842.9 MB Documents and Settings "
- "3,990.5 MB Program Files "
- Et al.

 

It looks like you'll have to ignore the free space report since it doesn't fit with the reality of your drive usage. That presumes that you have no problem relating to drive space.

Some strange anomolies can occur between BIOS drive size recognition and Windows drive size recognition. I'd say keep on using it as is until this issue becomes an issue.

 

I guess I'll find out very soon, as I have to transfer about 20 gigabytes of music to this laptop (to get it back to how it was pre-crash and reinstall), and we'll see how it reacts to it.

Thanks very much.

 

So, I was adding .mp3's and it came beyond the 15 GB and I was told there was no more space, even though I should have 50 GB. Is the hard drive corrupt?

 

That pretty well verifies that you have a real problem!

Time to make a current backup to separate media if you haven't already done so.

Run chkdsk /r from a command window. Allow time for it to complete and take note of the final report. That should give some more insight if nothing else.