OT - Disk Space dilemma

TomG wrote on 1/19/2004, 7:19 PM
Well, I'm stumped. I just cleaned up and achieved old projects from my dedicated WD 200GB HD. When I looked at the properties of the drive, I was surprised to see that I still had used 148GB and had 52GB free.

I looked at each of my subdirectories on that drive and the sum total was only 98GB. Why would there be a difference of almost 50GB. How much free space do I really have on that drive. Does the drive properties only report on the "contiguous" free space? Where is the phantom 50GB? I am viewing all hidden folders. Does XP hide anything else somewhere on a non-system drive?

Appreciate any thoughts on this.

TomG

Comments

PeterWright wrote on 1/19/2004, 7:21 PM
Not sure what's causing this - have you emptied the Recycle Bin?
Spot|DSE wrote on 1/19/2004, 7:30 PM
Emptied your Render To folder, if this is where it was pointing?
p_l wrote on 1/19/2004, 7:57 PM
If you have a Norton Protected Recycle Bin, which is a default feature of NAV, then you also have to right-click on it and select Empty Norton Protected Files to get rid of large files that were too big for the regular Recycle Bin.
pelladon wrote on 1/19/2004, 8:05 PM
Try running scandisk, then defrag. Also, how much space is reserved for the recycle bin? 10% of 200GB will reserve around 15- 20G. Do you have system restore activated? How much space was allocated to that?
Jessariah67 wrote on 1/19/2004, 8:24 PM
This has happened to me before. Up until yesterday (literally), I'd run a Norton Disk Doctor on it, and it would fix an "error" in free space reporting. However, I just had a WD drive "fill up on me" after deleting a few folders from it. No troubleshooting worked and I had to reformat it.
TomG wrote on 1/20/2004, 6:52 AM
Thanks for all your responses... I have done everything suggested. I don't have Norton on my machine and the recycling bin is empty. Don't know if this is a HD problem or a XP reporting problem. Probably have to reformat just to be on the safe side.

TomG
BillyBoy wrote on 1/20/2004, 7:05 AM
XP is very good at trying to fix itself. Go to Windows Explorer, right click on the disk drive in question, then pick properies, tools, error checking, check now. Check the top box, automatically fix system errors. You probably have to reboot. Windows will tell you. Do so after saving any open files.

This will fix many operating system errors like cross linked files, lost clusters, stuff like that. If something like that happened on your system, one file can be reporting HUGE amounts of your drive used when it fact it isn't. This will fix ti easily.... most of the time. It does no harm and shouldn't take more than a minute or so... unless there is something very seriously worng in which case your computer will seem unresponsive. DON'T bail out! This is actually a GOOD sign, and just Windows attempting to fix what's wrong. I've had this happen several times over the years when a huge chuck of my drive seems to go poof. Was just cross-linked files. Won't hurt anything checking.
BrianStanding wrote on 1/20/2004, 8:04 AM
As a general practice, I ALWAYS reformat my A/V drive once I am done with a particular project.
johnmeyer wrote on 1/20/2004, 10:44 AM
1. Run Scandisk. It will find "lost" clusters, convert them to files, and let you delete them.

2. Empty the Recycle Bin (which I think yo've done already).

3. Go to Explorer (not Internet Explorer, but Explorer, where you manage your files). Click on Tools -> Folder Options -> View tab. Make sure "Show Hidden files and folders" is selected, and then uncheck "hide protected operating system files." Click on OK a few times to make these settings stick. Now look and see if you suddenly have files and folders that didn't show up before. See if you have a "System Volume Information" folder. If you do, right-click and then select "Properties". See how much stuff is in this folder. If there is lots of stuff, you probably have System Restore enabled for this drive (right-click on My Computer and then select Properties, then the System Restore tab). If this is a capture disk, you DO NOT want System Restore eneabled. You can turn it on/off for each disk using the System Restore tab. Once you turn it off for this disk, those files will be erased.