Discrepancies in amount of free space on XP system

[McGraw]

According to "My Computer"

12.5Gb Total disk size
3.99GB Free space remaining
8.51Gb Difference between two figures

3.34Gb Actual size of everything on my hard disk, file wise

5.17Gb Missing space

Recycle bin is at 1%
System restore is at a similar percentage.

Whare has all my free space gone?

Cheers.

[ian@huth]

It all depends on the sector size you are using. Each file has to occupy a number of whole sectors irrespective of its size. A 50 byte file has to occupy a sector and leave the rest of it unusable. Add up all these unusable portions of sectors and that is where the missing space is. Compaction of archived files can reduce this "waste". What sector size have you got as the larger it is, hte more wasted space you can get?

what size is your page file? Try normal disc clean up and clean system restore then search temp folder (you most likely done this)

[danielf]

Originally Posted by ian@huth

It all depends on the sector size you are using. Each file has to occupy a number of whole sectors irrespective of its size. A 50 byte file has to occupy a sector and leave the rest of it unusable. Add up all these unusable portions of sectors and that is where the missing space is. Compaction of archived files can reduce this "waste". What sector size have you got as the larger it is, hte more wasted space you can get?

Would that account for 40% of the entire disk?

[McGraw]

when I did it, my page file was 300mb.

I selected the entire conents of C: with show hidden folders selected and that is where got my figures from.

No way is this loss due to cluster size.

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by danielf

Would that account for 40% of the entire disk?

It can do if you have a very large sector size and a number of applications and games with loads of very small files.

[Aragorn]

Download the 'trial' version of TreesizePro (http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=U&sta...x.shtml&e=9847)

This tells you exactly what is 'used' space and what is wasted. Very useful little tool.

[McGraw]

Excellent program. Thanks a lot.

I have found the culprit, 3Gb odd of pst files in my workgroup profile for starters. This folder is empty according to Windows!

Now though, how do I actually delete these files from Treesize?

They won't delete.

Cheers.

[danielf]

Are they visible from a Dos prompt?

[Aragorn]

Originally Posted by McGraw

Excellent program. Thanks a lot.

I have found the culprit, 3Gb odd of pst files in my workgroup profile for starters. This folder is empty according to Windows!

Now though, how do I actually delete these files from Treesize?

They won't delete.

Cheers.

You should be able to delete from it just the same way as you would in Explorer (Del key, or right click and delete).

If these don't work, what error does it give?

[McGraw]

Files are in use.

I can't see them in explorer though, only treesize

[SMHarman]

Do you use Outlook for your mail. That is all your email and calendar etc, are you sure you want to delete it?

If you have Outlook closed then you should be able to delete it, otherwise outlook locks the file as in use.

[Aragorn]

Originally Posted by McGraw

Files are in use.

I can't see them in explorer though, only treesize

If they are no longer needed, firstly try a standard reboot to unlock them. If still no luck, reboot in safe mode - Treesize will run in safe mode.

Are they hidden by explorer because they are system files - eg disable hiding of system files in Explorer 'Folder Options'.

[McGraw]

Logged onto the workgroup and I can get to some but not all.

Will log onto the pc as admin tomorrow and remove the profile.