Windows Reporting Incorrect Disk Usage

icemule1

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Jan 12, 2011
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I'm having a problem with Windows 7 recognizing the proper amount of used space on my disk. I have a 250GB HDD that used to be my primary drive back when I had Windows XP. I have since gotten a new computer with Windows 7 and put that drive in as a secondary drive and I finally decided to go in there and try to clean it up and free any unnecessary space. Problem is, seems like I'm only using 110GB but Windows thinks I'm using 190GB. Here are the things that I've tried so far:

1) Assumed ownership of the entire drive
2) Turned on viewing of system and hidden files
3) Turned off System Restore for the drive
4) Deleted everything in the RECYCLER and System Volume Information folders

Even after doing all of the above, it still is not letting me delete certain folders such as my old Windows directory or the Boot directory. I'm wondering if the permissions are so messed up that it's not allowing WinDirStat, the program I'm using to see how much data is on the drive, to see all of the data that's really there.

Windows still reports I'm using 190GB and WinDirStat reports I'm using 110GB. Sure, I could copy the 110GB over to a safe place and then reformat the drive but I don't want to take a chance of deleting 80GB worth of real data if it's on there.

Any suggestions? I'm stumped.
 

icemule1

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Jan 12, 2011
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18,520
I solved my own problem and am posting it here in case someone else runs into this problem. The problem was that some files and folders had the permissions from my old computer and they were showing up as Unknown Account{234897234-234234} in the permissions list. What I had to do was select the drive and remove that account, then apply the settings to the entire drive.

So it turns out that Windows was reporting the correct disk usage, and WinDirStat (and manually selecting all files on the disk and checking size in Properties) was not reporting on the folders in which it couldn't access.