Gah! Missing HD space!

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This is quite odd, something Ive never had trouble with before.

It seems that my 89gb harddrive (not sure what its listed capacity is), is 'full' with only 50gb of stuff. When I use the harddrive itself (right click, properties) to check its capacity, it reports that it has ~1gb of free space. When I select all the files (including the hidden ones), Im informed that I have 50GB of space taken up.
Ive tried disk cleanup, defragging, and fiddling with the OS, as per suggestions online, but all I can do is delete or defrag, nothing else seems to have an effect.
Its really quite distressing to have 30GB of HD space 'vanish' from the face of the planet.

Off the top of my head....

...you may want to run a scan disk on it if you haven't...also check folder/file options and make sure it's set so that you can view hidden files/folders in case you missed something...double check your hard drive settings in the bios and make sure they're correct...system restore can also eat a good bit of space (if it's enabled).

Think I know what the reason for the hd drive space going so fast. Fat32 file system can only make files from 4k to a high of 32k on some hard drives. This makes a hard drive fast but you have a lot of hd sectors with 0 and 1 as place holders. This means a 898 byte file could be using 32000 bytes on your hd. Switch to what is called NTSF file system data sectors. That will help, check temp dir and if left save to local cache on each program.

My HD is already set to NTFS, and scandisk doesnt bring anything up.

I forgot to ask are you using Winxp pro or the home editon ? Some tools are only part of winxp pro. And what does it say on the Hd case the size ? Sequoia View 1.2 program will show you using a graphic view by size files on a HD. That way you can track down the big files or even a whole lot of smaller ones.

WinXP pro.

It doesnt seem to be the files, Ive checked again, even manually added them up. It comes to about 55GB out of 80, despite the fact that my computer disagrees and says that I only have 2.13 GB free now.

It could be a partition issue. Did you attempt to install Linux recently? That might be the problem.

I like spacemonger for working out where all my HDD space has gone.
http://www.sixty-five.cc/sm/

Also, the previous post about file-sizes getting rounded up is still true of NTFS; if you have a large number of very small files, they'll chew up more disk-space than you'd expect. If you right-click on a file or files and choose 'properties', you'll see the difference between 'size' and 'size on disk'.

Other things that can take up disk-space:
- Your virtual-memory pagefile (see Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Performance Options)
- Offline files
- The recycle-bin

Well, it appears my computer has mental issues of its own.
Ive downloaded two 'disc space alocation' programs which determine what is using disk space. They agree with me, only 47.7 GB of space is being used on my HD, but the computer seems to THINK that only 4.something GB are free now.
Ive tried moving things, deleting things, adjusting things, but my computer is adamant that half of the HD is not there.

According to WinDirStat, %41.7 of my HD space is taken up by 'unknown'.
While moderatly creepy, it is also very annoying. Is there a black hole in my HD, possibly?

Have you changed anything that has to do with the HDD?

I know that some Hard Drives have jumper settings that block some of the space to work around glitchy Windows behaviors. One of my 60gig drives has settings to only show the "upper 35GB" or the "lower 35GB". That can't change by itself, though. It would had to have been that way since the install.

Have you ever had the total space read properly with this set up?

A while ago I beleive I looked at the HD and saw it with full space, but that just means its changed some time in the last two months.

Have you run CheckDisk, recently?

One other thing I thought of that consumes HD space is the restore information. If you've had this installation of Windows going for a while, you could have an enormous amount of space wasted by System Restore. I think the default is someting like 12%, but it might be worth checking. Here's some info ... a little wordy, but it's really easy to check.


This is from Microsoft FAQ pages:

"How can I adjust how much space System Restore uses on my disk?

Answer: To adjust the amount of space System Restore uses on a disk, go to the Control Panel ('Start > Control Panel') and double click the 'System' icon. Then click on the 'System Restore' tab on the system applet. Depending on your disk setup use the following instructions:

• If you have just a single partition on your system: You can adjust the space system restore uses on the disk by moving the slider on this page left (to decrease space usage) or right (to increase space usage. The maximum space usage is 12% and is the default.

• If you have a multiple partitions on your system or multiple disks: Click on the drive you want to adjust in the available drives section on the System Restore page and then click the settings option. You can then adjust the space system restore uses on that drive by moving the slider to the left (to decrease space usage) or right (to increase space usage). The maximum space usage is 12% and is the default. Repeat for each drive as necessary.


How do I tell how much space system restore is currently using to store my restore points?

Answer: To check how much space System Restore is actually using up on your disk use the following steps:

1.
Open 'My computer' from the Start menu.

2.
From the toolbar go to 'Tools > Folder Options' menu and then click the 'View' tab.

3.
In the advanced settings option for Hidden files and folders ensure the 'show hidden files and folders' option is selected. Also ensure that 'Hide protected operating system files' option is unchecked. Then click 'OK'.

4.
Go to your system drive (the drive where windows is installed, generally the C: drive for most users) and look for the 'System Volume Information' folder.

5.
Double Click the 'System Volume Information' folder.

6.
Inside you will find a '_restore' directory. Right click this directory and click on the 'Properties' option.

7.
The 'Size on Disk' value is how much space system restore is using on this drive to store the restore points.

8.
Repeat as necessary for other drives on the system you may have System Restore monitoring.


If your computer is part of a domain and you do not have access to the 'System Volume Information' Folder, please perform the following additional steps after step 4 above:

1.
Right click the 'System Volume Information' folder and click the 'Properties' option for the folder.

2.
Go to the security tab and add your username to the user/group list which have access to this folder. Without doing this you will not be allowed access to this folder.

3.
Once you have completed the above step, click 'OK' and then continue from step five above.


How do I delete System Restore restore points I do not need?

Answer: You have the option to delete all but the latest restore point from your machine or delete all the restore points on your machine. To do this:

• To delete all but the latest restore point on your machine by using the disk cleanup utility: Go to 'Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup'. Click on the more options tab and then click 'Clean up' in the System Restore box.

• To delete all the restore points on your machine disable and re-enable system restore on the system: Go to the Control Panel ('Start > Control Panel') and open the 'System' applet. Click on the 'System Restore' tab on the system applet. Check mark 'turn off system restore on all drives' and click the apply button. Then uncheck the box again to re-enable System Restore on the machine and click OK.

• You can also reduce the number of restore points saved on your machine by lowering the total amount of disk space available to system restore. Remember that the lower the disk space available to system restore, the lower the number of restore points that will be available on your machine and smaller the safety net available to you through System Restore.. To do this please see 'How can I adjust how much space System Restore uses on my disk?"

Ive gotten rid of all but one restore point and Ive run check disk twice.

>_>

I'm wondering where you're getting the 89GB figure if you're "not sure what its listed capacity is".

Is your drive partitioned at all?

Right-click My Computer, Manage, then Disk Management. See if there is more than one partition listed and also note what it says for Disk 0 and Disk 1 if you have that as well.

You can mess things up in Disk Management so I would advise not to do anything other than look. Some OEMs have "hidden" partitions as well so you may not see everything there, but it's something to check.

There are two partitions, one is about 300mb (dont remember the exact size) and contains the HP factory default restor dealy.
The other is the rest of the HD.