Disc space

[narasimhan]

my c drive(xp service pack 3 installed) shows
total size: 24.4GB
used: 15.4GB
free: 8.92GB

but if i "select all" files inside c drive and check it adds up to only 12.9GB
all hidden files and protected system files(page hibernate files) are visible. system restore is disabled.

so why is the difference?

i haven't defragmented the drive for a long time. will defragmentation recover the disk space?

 

[Guest]

Hard drive files are spread across clusters of a given size. The cluster is still used even if it isn't full -- thus the difference.

 

[wa1]

u answered that, filhart...

 

[narasimhan]

Hard drive files are spread across clusters of a given size. The cluster is still used even if it isn't full -- thus the difference.

i don' understand. can u explain a bit more.

if the clusters are used even though they are not full then atleast the size on disc should be 15.4GB.

but the size on disc is only 13.0GB.
i tried google but couldn't find an answer.

 

[Guest]

No. The file size is the file size. The space used on the disc may be more because the total amount of data takes up more space because of the cluster issue.

In case you're lying awake worrying about this, consider that when you buy a hard drive it's described on the pack as (say) 100gigs but you only get 80 or 90g of disk space. It's to do with the fact that a Megabyte is not 1000 kilobites but 1024.

What matters is that you have enough space for your files and enough space left for the Windows swap file and for defragging when necessary -- thus you don't fill a drive more than about 75% if you can avoid it. In other words, you never get to use all that you've paid for.