Missing hard drive space

Could you provide just a wee bit more info?

I'm running Vista Ultimate 32 bit SP1. About a month ago I cloned the 300gb OS drive onto a 1.5tb Seagate drive. I have installed several programs since then. Mostly games. I noticed that when I right-click certain icons I get an option that says "Open File Folder(F)". I've never clicked on it as I read somewhere that doing so will install a virus. I've run several different scans including Norton 360, Malwarebytes (free version), Windows Defender and IOBit Advanced SystemCare Pro and nothing has been found.

You can safely ignore the recommendations of the moron (and I'm trying to be polite) who wrote that. How can you access info if you don't open folders? That doesn't make sense.

It also says 'Open' and 'open file location' as well as 'Explore' so it seems like an unnecessary option

Options are not unnecessary - they exist to meet various requirements. I for one don't particularly like 'Explore', but lots of users and IT people do. 'Open' is to open the file and 'Open file location' is to open the folder where the file is stored.

So what does this particular option, "Open File Folder(F)", actually do?

Not sure if my original post went thru. I lost 300gb in a single day without installing a thing. Went from 1.16tb to 815gb. System restore was disabled at the time. The folders in the drive add up to less than 300gb total.

Do you have a single partition on that drive? What size is it (or are they if many)? What did you download when you lost 300 GB?

Yes, just a single partition of 1.36tb. The day before it disappeared I downloaded Windows Live Essentials, Windows Live Sign-In Assistant, Windows Live Sync, Windows Live Upload Tool, Microsoft Silverlight, Microsoft Sync Framework Services Native v1.0 (x86), Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime Native v1.0 (x86), Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition [ENU], Microsoft Office Outlook Connector, Microsoft Live Add-In 1.3, Hidden & Dangerous 2 (installed with disk), Advanced SystemCare 3 by IObit.

Did you download them to that disk?

Sure did

Why do you believe that you lost 300 GB of disk space? You could run Disk Cleanup (http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-CA/help/126...) to get rid of temporary files, etc. Even if you decide not to cleanup, Disk Cleanup will indicate how much disk space could be freed.

I shut down my PC on the night of 4/29 and when I turned it on the next morning it was down to 815gb from 1160gb. I only got back 6gb from disk cleanup. There were no shadow copies either. It's very confusing to say the least. When I explore the disk, the folder sizes only add up to around 300gb.

Do you include hidden files and folders? By default they are excluded.

Go to the 'computer' option on startup. You will see your drive(s). Right click on the drive in question. Select 'properties'. That will show how much space Vista thinks is used.

Now go into 'control panel'. Open the 'folder' icon, and 'view'. Make sure these boxes are checked... Display file size, show hidden files, folders and drives. Make sure that these boxes are unchecked... Hide empty drives, hide extensions for known file types.

Now you know how much space Vista thinks is used, and you also can see where it is used. Come back to us with updates. Personally, I think you've downloaded more than you think...

I did what you said above. In the C drive Properties window, it says 632gb used. When I open the drive, select all and hit properties it says the size of it all is 249gb. I'm pretty careful about what I put on this computer and quite anal about the size of files and such. I'm always checking space used and space left so to see it suddenly decrease like this is weird. I have also installed the same games and programs on my laptop and everthing is normal there. Are there any malware programs that can take up HDD space yet hide themselves from scanning programs? This is the only thing that I can think of.

That's a possibility, but very unlikely. Grabbing 300 GB of storage is not the best way to hide. Note that if you don't display hidden files and folders, then Properties won't take them into account. So if you have a very large hidden file, it can't be seen unless you actually want to see it.

Hiya !

I have the same problem that this man is describing. However I have not installed or downloaded anything. I know this because the computer I am speaking of has not been connected to the internet for over a month. Replacing the modem. I know my way around my comp like the back of my hand but, this one has completly stumped me! It just showed up one day. If I right click any file or folder on my C: drive which is my main drive : secondary being D: then I have the option to
"Open File Folder (F) " When I open this it only takes me to the file located in the right folder on my C: I do not understand why this is happening and I do not have an F: drive on my computer. VERY ODD !!

I actually came acrossed this thread since I was searching for an answer myself. That option is not needed for it takes me to the same exact place that OPEN does.

I too am wondering where some of my harddrive space went : / hmmph

But, a virus may not be too far off hand since I clicked to open that thing I lost connection to the internet, my modem is toast, and my antivirus Kaspersky nor Mbam find anything. I have use Hijackthis and the only thing that had to be deleted was packethsvc which was from Aol and I don't use aol anymore.

Hope to find an answer soon.

Oh ... BTW my comp is windows xp tho if that helps so it must not just be the operating system.

It takes time to figure out that type of issue. Can you post a screen print of the "Open File Folder (F) "?

To access the Vista Administrator Account do the following steps:

First you'll need to open a command prompt in administrator mode by right-clicking and choosing "Run as administrator"


Blame it on Microsoft as their top brains felt that the System Restore should take up to 15% of the disk.

Here is what you do:

A. Run Disk Cleanup to clean all but the last restore point (Control Panel - System and Maintenance - Performance Information and Tools - Open Disk Cleanup - More Options - System Restore and Shadow Copies - Clean up).

B. Open a command prompt as Administrator and run the following commands:

1. List the Shadow Copies currently on the system vssadmin list shadowstorage

2. Set the maximum to whatever amount you feel is necessary. I set mine to 1GB.

vssadmin resize shadowstorage /on=c: /for=c: /maxsize=1gb
3. List the Shadow Copies currently on the system to see whether the max size is set. In my case, it is 1 GB.

vssadmin list shadowstorage

You are all set and you should reclaim lots of space.

Advanced System Care 3 adds the "Open File Folder (F)" option to the context menu of shortcuts.

I didn't like it so I removed the software (over-rated anyway). If you want to keep it installed I'm sure you can go into the registry and remove the key.