Tom's Hardware > Forum > Windows XP > Windows XP General Discussion > XP doesn't report correct free space after a failed cut-paste job.

XP doesn't report correct free space after a failed cut-paste job.

Forum Windows XP : Windows XP General Discussion - XP doesn't report correct free space after a failed cut-paste job.

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fatlabrador   08-11-2008 at 05:18:27 PM

Tried to cut-paste a 900 mb file from hard disk to a pen drive. The operation failed. And now, though the file is nowhere on the hard disk, XP doesn't recognise that those 900 mb are supposed to be free. Of course, I've learnt my lesson. Copy-paste is kosher, cut-paste is evil. All the same, any idea how I can get those 900 mb back? I hope I can avoid formatting. It's simply dreadful to begin installing everythign from scratch.

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copasetic   08-11-2008 at 07:32:35 PM
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Did you do a search for the file already? Maybe it was pasted somewhere else by accident.

Try opening a cmd prompt and running "chkdsk C:" (or whatever drive letter it is).

------------------------------ Core2 Duo E6850 @ 3.6 GHz -- Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R -- HIS HD 4870 @ 790/1100 -- 2 GB Corsair XMS2 6400 4-4-4-12 -- Silverstone Zeus 750W -- 900 GB HDDs -- Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro -- Acer AL2216W 22" @ 1680x1050

"Let fly the white flag of war!"
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fatlabrador   08-11-2008 at 08:40:30 PM
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Yes, I checked for the presence of the said file. Absolutely no trace. And to make matters worse, since it was lost in a cut-paste job, it doesn't show up in any data recovery tools. Also tried the chkdisk thing. Of no avail. Tried the defrag thing too. Drew a blank here as well.

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ijack   08-11-2008 at 09:49:13 PM
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How did you look for the file? Try doing a search for "All files and folders" with "What size is it?", "Specify size (in kb)", "At least 900000". You can't have that many files bigger than that on your hard disk. I'm thinking that it might have created a temporary file which is why you can't find the original by name. If chkdsk doesn't report lost clusters then they must be accounted for somewhere!

Message quoted 1 times
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ijack   08-11-2008 at 09:52:32 PM
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PS - forgot to add. Make sure that you include hidden and system files in your search.

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fatlabrador   08-12-2008 at 01:00:26 AM
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ijack wrote :

How did you look for the file? Try doing a search for "All files and folders" with "What size is it?", "Specify size (in kb)", "At least 900000". You can't have that many files bigger than that on your hard disk. I'm thinking that it might have created a temporary file which is why you can't find the original by name. If chkdsk doesn't report lost clusters then they must be accounted for somewhere!



You were spot on about the *.tmp file. Thanks a ton!

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copasetic   08-12-2008 at 03:24:19 AM
- 0 +

Good call, I didn't even think of that :whistle:

------------------------------ Core2 Duo E6850 @ 3.6 GHz -- Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R -- HIS HD 4870 @ 790/1100 -- 2 GB Corsair XMS2 6400 4-4-4-12 -- Silverstone Zeus 750W -- 900 GB HDDs -- Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro -- Acer AL2216W 22" @ 1680x1050

"Let fly the white flag of war!"
 Reply to copasetic
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