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Missing hard drive space question

post #1 of 9
7/14/05 at 6:43pm
Thread Starter 
I recently got an I9300. One curiousity in particular has been bothering me though. After formatting and reinstalling windows and various other programs I have noticed that the used file space on the C drive (via right clicking on the C and selecting properties) does not match the combined space taken up by all of the folders on the C drive. I have hidden files and folders shown, so I am quite perplexed as to what is using this space. Could anyone provide some insight?
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post #2 of 9
7/14/05 at 6:49pm
Read this:

http://www.notebookforums.com/showth...706#post564706

from the Frequently Asked Questions sticky.
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post #3 of 9
7/14/05 at 6:49pm
Do you have Windows Restore on? If it is active (which it is by default - you would have to disable the service manually to turn it off) then it will reserve a percentage of each hard drive for restore data. You can usually free up a few gigabytes by turning it off - just remember that if you do you can't use Windows Restore to get out of any bad situations, so choose what to do accordingly. (I have it off and periodically make images with Acronis, but that's me...)
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post #4 of 9
7/14/05 at 6:51pm
My hard drive has a 47MB FAT partition that holds the Dell diagnostic software and 8MB that could not be included in the main partition. So I have 55MB of unusable space on an 80GB drive. Is this close to what you are missing?
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post #5 of 9
7/14/05 at 8:36pm
Thread Starter 
I have restore set to use 200 MB and there are actually about 2 gigs unaccounted for. ^^^ From reading the FAQ it seems to me that they are referring to a schizm between the advertised size and the shown size, but I am refering to a difference between the space used on the C drive and the sum of the folders on the C drive. ie I have used 15 gig/70 but the sum of the folders on the C drive is only like 13 gig.
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post #6 of 9
7/14/05 at 9:08pm
Just to be asking: what's your virtual memory set to? Is it "managed by Windows" or did you set it to some hard number?

The reason I ask is that the swap file is normally a hidden system file, and won't necessarily show up in a file listing. I think.
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post #7 of 9
7/15/05 at 12:21am
Thread Starter 
my paging file size is like 1.5 gig. There is about a 2.5 gig difference between the space used in C drive and the sum of the folders on the drive. Also, the properties tab says I have a capacity of like 79,900,... bytes and right next to it says 74.4 gig. Now, 74.4 gig is only 78,014,054 bytes so I don't know what the deal with that is either.
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post #8 of 9
7/15/05 at 12:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stryx
my paging file size is like 1.5 gig. There is about a 2.5 gig difference between the space used in C drive and the sum of the folders on the drive. Also, the properties tab says I have a capacity of like 79,900,... bytes and right next to it says 74.4 gig. Now, 74.4 gig is only 78,014,054 bytes so I don't know what the deal with that is either.

Are you sure you are calculating correctly.

74.4*1024(mb)*1024(kb)*1024(bytes) = 79886391705.6 bytes. Seems close enough to me.
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post #9 of 9
7/15/05 at 1:28am
Thread Starter 
You are correct sir, improper calculations on my part. That accounts for the size being only 74.4 gigs and I determined that the other missing space was for the page file and the hibernation file. So i disabled hibernation to free up like another gig. Thanks for the help
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