C drive size discrepancy

[demon646]

Hello there,
I'm missing about 100 GB of data according to windows vista.

When I right click on the "C:" drive in 'Windows Explorer", and hit properties, it shows:
-258 GB used
-424 GB free
-683 Capacity and the pie graph

If you do the math, it's pretty much right on (rounded to the gig)

Here is my problem:

If I open the "C:" drive in "Windows Explorer", then manually select all the files and folders inside it including the hidden pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys, I get 164 GB for total size. Where is the other 94 GB?

I'm trying to clean up the drive and move media and games to a different drive, but not showing the correct file sizes seems to be hindering my progress.

Any ideas?

 

[demon646]

Here is a picture of "OS ( C: ) Properties", "all the files selected's properties" and the "advanced settings" for the folder options showing "hidden files" and "protected operating system files"

http://twitpic.com/3mzo7p
Click "+View Full Size" at the top of the pic to read the numbers better.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Try windirstat to see a graph of your files. My guess is you are not seeing some hidden system files like restore points or something.

 

[sminlal]

You've probably got a lot of space used up in the Recycle Bin (one for every account on the system) or restore points. Do this to check the space used by restore points:

Start -> right-click "Computer" -> click "Properties"

Click "System Protection" in the left pane

Click the "C" drive to highlight it and then click "Configure..."

 

[demon646]

Try windirstat to see a graph of your files. My guess is you are not seeing some hidden system files like restore points or something.

This was my guess I'm sure there's just some restore points or something that are not accounted for. I downloaded the windirstat program (see pic) http://www.twitpic.com/3n9mmw and it also says that I have 158 GB... So it's missing something too. OR windows properties is reading incorrectly. I've run scandisk and found no errors.

You've probably got a lot of space used up in the Recycle Bin (one for every account on the system) or restore points. Do this to check the space used by restore points:

Start -> right-click "Computer" -> click "Properties"

Click "System Protection" in the left pane

Click the "C" drive to highlight it and then click "Configure..."

I have and maintain an empty Recycle Bin. I have it set to 500 MB and almost always empty it every day (or whenever I see that it has something in it).

As far as the restore points, I followed your instructions to get me to the "System Protection" tab in the "system properties". The "C" drive is the only drive that is checked. I don't see "Configure..." on this window. I have a "System Restore" button and a "Create..." button. Neither of those seem to give me options to configure it.
http://www.twitpic.com/3n9p22
--

Does anyone know where the system restore files are and how to see them? I'd like to rule this out if I can (or find that it's the problem). I may just format anyway.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Does anyone know where the system restore files are and how to see them? I'd like to rule this out if I can (or find that it's the problem). I may just format anyway.

Here is a link with the how-to. I think it's the same for Vista.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/How-much-disk-space-does-System-Restore-require

 

[sminlal]

I followed your instructions to get me to the "System Protection" tab in the "system properties". The "C" drive is the only drive that is checked. I don't see "Configure..." on this window.

What OS and what edition of the OS are you running?

 

[demon646]

What OS and what edition of the OS are you running?

The computer is running Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit

I found disk cleanup's "more options" which says it'll "remove all but the most recent restore point".
http://www.twitpic.com/3njcw9

I clicked on it, but didn't notice any changes to the system.

I've since removed a BUNCH of media now and I'll post an update after Defrag finishes. I'm down to close to 56 GB from the original 164 or so... I think Windows Vista is still reporting about 100 GB more than what seems to be actually there (WinDirStat and file properties).

I'll post the sizes again in an hour or so.

 

[demon646]

Here is a link with the how-to. I think it's the same for Vista.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/How-much-disk-space-does-System-Restore-require

This didn't come up for me in Vista.

Thanks again for the WinDirStat link. It's proven to be very helpful to find large files.

 

[demon646]

Ok.. here are the latest sizes. I'm pretty much ready to make a back-up image of my C: drive now, but I don't want the backup to be 127 GB instead of 49 GB.

http://www.twitpic.com/3njz1x

OS ( C: ) Properties: 127GB
All the files on C: selected: 49.7 GB
WinDirStat OS ( C: ): 45.8 GB

Let me know if anyone has any other ideas as to where this other hidden data is. I don't want to make giant backups of C:

Maybe I should just wipe it and start over

 

[demon646]

Nothing eh? Any last thoughts before I wipe C: ?

 

[Hawkeye22]

Have you run a chkdsk /f? Maybe there are some clusters that need marked free but haven't been for some reason.