« previous next »
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: HDD "lost" space  (Read 907 times)

Offline elvikun

  • Member
  • Posts: 1173
  • Coffee Addict
HDD "lost" space
« on: February 18, 2012, 05:36:35 PM »
Greetings.

I know BakaBT might not be exactly the bets place for this but...

...Since I'm trying to seed what I can around here, I started to notice how much space I have left on my HDD ... Never really cared, since I have 10 TB of external drives.... tho not ideal for sharing, since they tend to get a bit hot.

Well, the thing is, I have 500gb HDD in my computer of which 430gb shows as occupied, but no matter how hard I tryied, I'm able to trace only about 360gb of taken space, which is a bit... eh.

Wondered if anybody knows what the "lost" 70gb could be and/or knows about some tool which could help me precisely determine what might be taking it?

Thanks in advance.
Logged
"The only way we'll make it out alive... is if we don't get killed!"

Offline kitamesume

  • Member
  • Posts: 7223
  • Death is pleasure, Living is torment.
Re: HDD "lost" space
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2012, 06:35:40 PM »
2 possible reasons:

1) you're using a large allocation size, where for example you set it to 64KB, ends up eating 64KB per fragment of a file, whatever the size of the file actually is.
in this scenario, if you throw in 100 1KB files then it'll look as if theres 100 64KB files occupying the disk.

2) some of your files is hidden. you can't see whats hidden now, can you?
Logged

Haruhi Dance | EMO | OLD SETs | ^ I know how u feel | Click sig to Enlarge

Offline krumm

  • Member
  • Posts: 275
Re: HDD "lost" space
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2012, 07:53:57 PM »
I've had the hidden Recycle Bin folder steal space when the recycle bin is empty, but it has always been less then 20GB and has always been on an external HDD.  May be worth checking.
Logged

Offline Scudworth

  • Member
  • Posts: 2009
Re: HDD "lost" space
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2012, 08:06:46 PM »
If you haven't already, you could try Defragging you hard drive.
Logged

When life gives you lemons, you clone those lemons and make super lemons.

Offline elvikun

  • Member
  • Posts: 1173
  • Coffee Addict
Re: HDD "lost" space
« Reply #4 on: February 18, 2012, 11:45:53 PM »
Defragmenting quite often, actually.
Well, after looking arond a lot more, I found 30Gb in Oblivion's undeleted folder which actually showed as only 230kb when viewing trough properties. So I guess there's another 40Gb somewhere in my numerous, numerous, numerous folders...

Well. I don't even know why the last 30gb wasn't showing up by normal means (wasn't flagged hidden or anything), and I have no idea where to look for the rest. Any chance you guys know if there is such a tool that could detect...well... abnormal stuff on HDD? Looked around, found many toold but not quite for this purpose.
Logged
"The only way we'll make it out alive... is if we don't get killed!"

Offline Lupin

  • Member
  • Posts: 2169
Re: HDD "lost" space
« Reply #5 on: February 19, 2012, 05:18:59 AM »
It's hidden in System Volume Information folder in the root of the drive. It's the folder where windows hides system restore/shadow copies of files. You can free up the space by running Disk Cleanup (in Admin mode) for that drive then going to the "more options" tab. There's a button for deleting these files in there.
Logged

Offline kureshii

  • Former Staff
  • Member
  • Posts: 4485
  • May typeset edited light novels if asked nicely.
Re: HDD "lost" space
« Reply #6 on: February 19, 2012, 06:50:02 AM »
Might want to see whether it's MFT entries eating up that space.
« Last Edit: February 19, 2012, 06:57:14 AM by kureshii »
Logged

Offline zetskee

  • Member
  • Posts: 23
Re: HDD "lost" space
« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2012, 08:54:25 PM »
Windirstat always helps me to figure out where my disk space is going. http://windirstat.info/index.html
Logged

Offline Pentium100

  • Member
  • Posts: 528
Re: HDD "lost" space
« Reply #8 on: February 21, 2012, 04:03:18 AM »
I use SpaceMonger (there is a free older version) - I like it better because it writes the file/directory names directly on the rectangles representing them.
Logged
BBT Ika Musume Fanclub Member #080586
Misaka Mikoto Fanclub Member:080586

Offline criver

  • Member
  • Posts: 86
Re: HDD "lost" space
« Reply #9 on: February 21, 2012, 05:37:00 PM »
I had the same problem some time ago - check your Temp folder. I used Windirstat and cccleaner when I had problems.
Logged

Offline kitamesume

  • Member
  • Posts: 7223
  • Death is pleasure, Living is torment.
Re: HDD "lost" space
« Reply #10 on: February 21, 2012, 05:58:49 PM »
is OP still here though? its been 3days since he last posted here.
Logged

Haruhi Dance | EMO | OLD SETs | ^ I know how u feel | Click sig to Enlarge

Offline elvikun

  • Member
  • Posts: 1173
  • Coffee Addict
Re: HDD "lost" space
« Reply #11 on: February 21, 2012, 06:42:26 PM »
Quote from: kitamesume on February 21, 2012, 05:58:49 PM
is OP still here though? its been 3days since he last posted here.
Is she still here? Yes, just noticed people get annoyed and don't listen to me if I answer after every post. Plus was a little bit busy and posting without trying woldn't be very benefical. Bite me.

Defragmentation, disc clean-up, temporary file, all done, before I posted, pretty much all conventional, traditional things I could think of.

Will try the two programs soon, thanks for that and as for MTF entries, will have to look into that, because while knowing what they are, I'm not very sure how to "affect them" or what effect that could have on the system.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2012, 06:43:59 PM by elvikun »
Logged
"The only way we'll make it out alive... is if we don't get killed!"

Offline kitamesume

  • Member
  • Posts: 7223
  • Death is pleasure, Living is torment.
Re: HDD "lost" space
« Reply #12 on: February 21, 2012, 07:52:36 PM »
i mistook you for a boy since "kun" is mostly used toward young men/boys.
Logged

Haruhi Dance | EMO | OLD SETs | ^ I know how u feel | Click sig to Enlarge

Offline elvikun

  • Member
  • Posts: 1173
  • Coffee Addict
Re: HDD "lost" space
« Reply #13 on: February 21, 2012, 08:26:13 PM »
Quote from: kitamesume on February 21, 2012, 07:52:36 PM
i mistook you for a boy since "kun" is mostly used toward young men/boys.
I know, but sometimes, nicknames come from weird places and with weird reasons... and it's hard to let them go once you get attached ;D
Logged
"The only way we'll make it out alive... is if we don't get killed!"

Offline kureshii

  • Former Staff
  • Member
  • Posts: 4485
  • May typeset edited light novels if asked nicely.
Re: HDD "lost" space
« Reply #14 on: February 22, 2012, 02:37:24 AM »
Quote from: elvikun on February 21, 2012, 06:42:26 PM
and as for MTF entries, will have to look into that, because while knowing what they are, I'm not very sure how to "affect them" or what effect that could have on the system.
To paraphrase the article, not very much you can do about them without a reformat. The MFT entries are needed for storing file/directory metadata, and you can't delete that without wiping out file records. But it's useful to know how much space the MFT is taking up so you don't go running around trying to reclaim space that's unreclaimable in the first place, since MFT allocated region is often included in the free space count even if not all of it is useable.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
« previous next »