Re: Hard Drive Space Disappeared
- From: "Gerry" <gerry@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 23:28:35 +0100
Are you using a backup programme like Norton Ghost?
System Restore will account for nearly 4 gb of the difference, unless
you followed my suggestion when it will be 0.7 gb. The Recycle Bin just
over 3.2 gb.
Do you use the Hibernation feature?
If your hard drive is formatted as NTFS another potential
gain arises with your operating system on your C drive.
In the Windows Directory of your C partition you will have
some Uninstall folders in your Windows folder
typically: $NtServicePackUninstall$ and
$NtUninstallKB282010$ etc.
These files may be compressed or not compressed. If
compressed the text of the folder name appears in blue
characters. If not compressed you can compress them.
Right click on each folder and select Properties,
General, Advanced and check the box before Compress
contents to save Disk Space. On the General Tab you
can see the amount gained by deducting the size on disk
from the size. Folder compression is only an option on
a NTFS formatted drive / partition.
Another default setting on a large drive which could be
--
Hope this helps.
Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
saxman wrote:
Thank you JS & Gerry. I have followed your suggestions, but didn't
end up with any significant change to the file space availability.
(I had done most of what you had suggested already, but gave it
another try for completeness sake).
Having set the files so I could see them all as suggested by Gerry, I
did a Select All, Properties, and get: 49,197 Files, 5,900 Folders,
13.1 GB Size,
11.7 GB Size on Disk. However, if I select Explore, My Computer,
right click Properties, I get: File System NTFS, Used Space 28.8 GB,
Free Space 3.86 GB. Disk Defragmenting doesn't want to run because
there's not 15% free space, but if I force a run, it does complete
and reports Volume Fragmentation of 38% total, 73% File Fragmentation
and 4% Free space fragmentation. I'm still suspecting a corruption
of some sort, but don't know where to go next. Your thoughts?
I am not sure whether you are seeing all files and folders. Go to
Start, Control Panel, Folder Options, View, Advanced Settings and
verify that the box before "Show hidden files and folders" is
checked and "Hide protected operating system files " is unchecked.
You may need to scroll down to see the second item. You should also
make certain that the box before "Hide extensions for known file
types" is not checked. Next in Windows Explorer make sure View,
Details is
selected and then select View, Choose Details and check before Name,
Type, Total Size, and Free Space. Even then there are still certain
folders that remain hidden and this regularly promps discussion about
"lost" disk space. The System Volume Information folders containing
System Restore points, which by default is allocated 12% of the
drive / partition, is just one example of what remains hidden.
The size of files and free space reported by Windows Explorer can
also mislead. Compressed files mess up reporting.
It is likely that an allocation of 12% has been made to System
Restore on your C partition which is over generous. I would reduce
it to 700 mb. Right click your My Computer icon on the Desktop and
select System Restore. Place the cursor on your C drive select
Settings but this
time find the slider and drag it to the left until it reads 700 mb
and exit. When you get to the Settings screen click on Apply and OK
and exit.
Another default setting on a large drive which could be wasteful is
that for temporary internet files especially if you do not store
offline copies on disk. The default allocation is 3% of drive.
Depending on your attitude to offline copies you could reduce this to
1% or 2%. In Internet Explorer select Tools, Internet Options,
General, Temporary Internet Files, Settings to make the change. At
the same time look at the number of days history is held.
The default allocation for the Recycle Bin is 10 % of drive. Change
to 5%, which should be sufficient. In Windows Explorer place the
cursor
on your Recycle Bin, right click and select Properties, Global and
move the slider from 10% to 5%. However, try to avoid letting it get
too full as if it is full and you delete a file by mistake it will
bypass the Recycle Bin and be gone for ever.
Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp
to Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files. Also
select Start, All Programs, accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp,
More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System
Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.
Using Disk CleanUp you need to run it in all User Profiles. cCleaner
avoids that necessity. Also the More Options suggestion above could
well have been overlooked when you ran Disk CleanUp. cCleaner
does not touch Restore Points.
--
Hope this helps.
Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
saxman wrote:
I was noticing some degradation in performance yesterday and looked
at my HDD usage. In the 35 GB of the hard drive, only 4 GB was
available - and this after dumping the trash bin and offloading a
mess of documents. I've looked at all the directories that I can
see, including hidden directories, and can account for only 12 GB of
the 31 GB in use. Microsoft technical documents I can find talk
about running ntbackup.exe, which doesn't appear to be available on
my laptop. Those documents indicate there may have been a
corruption of the drive with files that contain leading blanks not
recognized by the file system. Anyway, I appear to be at a
dead-end, unable to identify and remove 23 GB of files. Does
anyone have suggestions on how I might proceed?
.
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