Deleting files from Hard Drive but not showing any extra free space

shadowedge

Honorable
Jul 24, 2012
34
0
10,540
I have an external USB 3.0 3TB hard drive that I use for backups and it is now almost at full use. I tried deleting around 80GB of data, then emptying the recycle bin but Windows doesn't recognize that the hard drive as having any more free space. I did a Malware scan with Malwarebytes and a virus scan with Avast and nothing comes up. I even tried emptying the recycle bin with CCleaner and still no more free space.

Please help and thank you!

Windows 7 64 bit service pack 1