15GB in use on empty hard drive?

A2Z · 19 Jan 2008 at 05:48

I have a 250GB hard drive, which shows up as 232GB in Windows, which is fine, but it also shows that 15.8GB is used and 216GB is free....but the hard drive is totally empty :confused:

and yes i have checked 'view hidden files'

the HD has been used for a few years and has always been full, but ive just moved everything to a new 500GB, but what is this 15.8GB being used up by??

is there a program i can use to help me see?

:confused:

Z][GGY · 19 Jan 2008 at 07:28

page file? system restore?

rpstewart · 19 Jan 2008 at 08:44

TreeSize Free will give you an indication of where the space is being used.

A2Z · 19 Jan 2008 at 12:56

Z][GGY;10923221 said:
page file? system restore?

ok so thats it? a reformat will get rid of it right?

TreeSize Free will give you an indication of where the space is being used.

Tried it, this is what it shows:

Whats the 4GB of 'files'? :confused:

still leaves a missing 11GB though

Jesus · 19 Jan 2008 at 13:00

lol weird, ive had this before as well, cant remember the outcome tho.

OpenToSuggestions · 19 Jan 2008 at 13:01

All my hard drives do that after time. I just cut all the files to another hard drive, format the now empty one and cut all the files back. It is quite irritating tbh. idont really get how one of my drives can use 30gb when there is not a single file on there

rpstewart · 19 Jan 2008 at 13:10

A2Z said:
Whats the 4GB of 'files'?

still leaves a missing 11GB though

While you turned on "show hidden files" did you turn off "Hide protected OS files"? You'll need to do both to see everything - the 4Gb is likely to be the page file or the like.

The other 11Gb will be in System Volume Information - that's where system restore points are stored.

A2Z · 19 Jan 2008 at 13:53

rpstewart said:
While you turned on "show hidden files" did you turn off "Hide protected OS files"? You'll need to do both to see everything - the 4Gb is likely to be the page file or the like.

you are right, turned that off, and 2 files, hiberfil.sys and pagefile.sys are both 2GB each

not sure about the system volume thing as this isnt the HD with windows on it (although may have been at 1 point in the past, cant remember)

Minstadave · 19 Jan 2008 at 14:24

You can turn down the amount of space system restore uses on each drive from the control panel-->system menu in XP

Can't find it in Vista though.

rpstewart · 19 Jan 2008 at 15:26

Minstadave said:
Can't find it in Vista though.

Vista doesn't let you choose how much space is used for System Restore, it's either on or off.

coupe69 · 19 Jan 2008 at 15:30

rpstewart said:
Vista doesn't let you choose how much space is used for System Restore, it's either on or off.

You can actually change the amount of space that system restore uses.

All is explained here.

Aod · 20 Jan 2008 at 18:20

have you taken into account that HDD manufacturers consider 1GB to be 1,000,000,000B, as opposed to 1,073,741,824 Bytes

this means that the actual capacity will always be less than the "marketed" capacity.

Minstadave · 20 Jan 2008 at 18:27

Aod said:
have you taken into account that HDD manufacturers consider 1GB to be 1,000,000,000B, as opposed to 1,073,741,824 Bytes

this means that the actual capacity will always be less than the "marketed" capacity.

He has, from the OP:

"I have a 250GB hard drive, which shows up as 232GB in Windows, which is fine"

Thats right for a formatted 250GB drive.