Odd drive space problem

Big Chris · 30 Jan 2006 at 19:38

I've got two hard drives in my machine, one with Windows and all my installed apps on, and another larger drive with all my music and films on.

The larger drive was almost full (less than 1GB left of 120GB) so I moved a folder with some music videos in totalling just over 4GB to the smaller Windows drive.

Having gone back into my computer, the larger drive doesn't seem to have any more free space on it, still showing just under 1GB free despite moving the 4+GB folder across (which took 3 or so mins to move).

I've checked and checked again and it has gone from where it was so was not copied by mistake, yet it doesn't seem to have free'd up any space.

Any ideas?

Big Chris · 30 Jan 2006 at 19:55

Thanks a lot Marc, that little app did the trick, very handy.

Strangely enough, it showed up a folder on my larger drive called RECYCLER which I'd never seen before. It contained some files that I'd recently moved (or thought that I'd moved) to my smaller Windows drive.

The files were there on the Windows drive, but also in this RECYCLER folder on the original drive, but they were named 0000001.avi, 0000002.avi and so on.

Anyone know why this has happened? I can't see this RECYCLER folder through My Computer or Windows Explorer, only using the app that Marc linked me to above.

Big Chris · 30 Jan 2006 at 22:00

Andre said:
RECYCLER is your recycle bin. If you copied, then deleted the files, they will go to the recycle bin. If you move the files, then they wil be deleted from the original drive

As it says above though, I moved the files originally from one drive to another, I didn't copy them hence the confusion.

Also, this RECYCLER folder is sat hidden on my storage drive which just cotains music and video, surely the Recycle Bin will be stored on my other Windows drive?

Big Chris · 30 Jan 2006 at 23:24

I see... Is there any other way to access this folder then other than the app that Marc suggested above?

Seems silly that this folder can be collecting stuff that I've previously moved off the drive (I still don't get why I cut the file from one drive and paste it to another, yet it leaves a copy of the file anyway on the original drive and calls it 00000x.avi in a hidden folder? :confused:

).

Big Chris · 3 Feb 2006 at 21:47

This is still puzzling me somewhat. I think people are getting confused too or not reading my posts properly so I'll clarify.

I'm not talking about the Recycle Bin on my main drive. There's a hidden folder on my media storage drive called RECYCLER, which I can only see when looking at the drive using the disk reporting tool suggested by Marc2003. When looking via my computer or Windows Explorer this folder is not shown.

When I move (as in cut & paste, NOT copy & paste) large video files from the media drive to my main drive (with Windows installed on it) the file moves from the original location and ends up where I want it. However, a copy of the file is then also placed in this mysterious RECYCLER folder, with its name changed from FILM.avi to 00000001.avi and so on.

Again, this is not the Recycle Bin I'm referring to as that sits on my main Windows drive, and does not contain these 00000001.avi files.

Can anyone shed any light on this? Does the description make sense as Andre has clearly got the wrong end of the stick and others might have too.

Big Chris · 3 Feb 2006 at 22:46

I only have access to the Recycle Bin from my Windows desktop though, and as mentioned before there's nothing in here even when the RECYCLER folder has stuff in it.

Also, if I delete from either drive, the file ends up in the Recycle Bin as per normal, and is called FILM.avi. In this case I'm only moving files from one drive to another, yet it still makes a copy, changes the name to 000001.avi and hides it in this Recycler folder.

I know Windows works in very mysterious ways but this is just silly. I have to fire up the disk reporting app each time I move something and delete the contents of this Recycler folder.