Forum Home
Press F1
 
Thread ID: 60257 2005-07-27 03:33:00 Invisible GB's theoldfarter (1792) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
375815 2005-07-27 03:33:00 I have a 40GB(actual 37.2) Hard Drive that I use for processing DVD's. (no operating system or such)

After a format, it shows 37.2GB free.
I rip DVD's onto it, resize, process them with Nero Recode 2 & after I have finished, I delete them.

Over time, I have noticed that there are drive GB's "lost".

I have deleted everything off the drive, including: "Hidden files & folders", but the drive shows:
"Free space 33.6 GB, Total size 37.2 GB"

What's happened to the 3.6 GB, which is the difference?

If I format the drive again, it will show 37.2 GB free

(Using NTFS)
theoldfarter (1792)
375816 2005-07-27 04:09:00 Most probally system restore.

I would suggest you disable it for that drive,and enable viewing of hidden and system files/folders.
Metla (12)
375817 2005-07-27 04:09:00 Recycle bin Rob99 (151)
375818 2005-07-27 04:11:00 I have recently experienced this as well . After rearranging a couple of my hard drives, two of my empty partitions were defragged only to find that there was still "something" left on each even though Disk Management and Windows Explorer declared both to be empty .

At first I thought they were system files of some kind but they were well hidden as I couldn't view them at all . Can't remember what size they were now but it was more than several GBs . Like you have found, only a reformat of those partitions got rid of them and gave me my space back .

It makes me think that a regular good old reformat and reinstall of Windows is still a good idea, even with WinXP .
FoxyMX (5)
375819 2005-07-27 04:14:00 If it was the Recycle Bin and System Restore how come my two partitions had these hidden files on them? System Restore should not have been on them.

One partition is on my main drive alongside WinXP and the other is on my second HDD. The Recycle Bin was empty as CCleaner had just been run.
FoxyMX (5)
375820 2005-07-27 04:23:00 Most probally system restore.

I would suggest you disable it for that drive,and enable viewing of hidden and system files/folders.

The System Restore has not been turned on for this drive.

Turning on the hidden and system files/folders, showed two folders:
1: Recyler
2: System Volume Information.

Folder 1 shows 2.19 GB
Folder 2 shows empty

Thanks for your reply.
theoldfarter (1792)
375821 2005-07-27 04:23:00 System restore runs on every partition unless instructed not to.

And in the same token you have a hidden recycle bin that caches the deleted files,on each partition, its in a hidden folder called recycler,and when opened it can have multiple recycle bins in it,which most of the time you cant open to view files,but you can right click and select empty.
Metla (12)
375822 2005-07-27 04:31:00 Try running a Scandisk, Error-Checking as it called in XP, on the drive.
May need to reboot to run it but it will tell you this.
CYaBro (73)
375823 2005-07-27 04:37:00 System restore runs on every partition unless instructed not to .
Hmmm . . . I wish I had thought to disable it to see if it made any difference .

Ah well, next time . :rolleyes:
FoxyMX (5)
375824 2005-07-27 05:32:00 Cluster Overhang, I think, Google it, but first of all look at these links:

aumha.org

www.weddell.co.uk
zqwerty (97)
1 2