Guest Master Jedi Posted August 5, 2007 Posted August 5, 2007 OK. I have a problem I tried once asking how to correct it and nobody even bothered answering. My problem is is that windows is misreporting the amount of hard drive space that is being used upon which partition to which it is installed. It is saying when I select all the files aqnd right click on properties, There is a lot of disk space mbeing used who knows how. I just did a fresh install, I( hgave every update installed, and only a few low volume install programs. It is sayiong when i right click on all of them there are 34, 256 files and 4, 888 folders! There shouldnt even be that many folders not to mentions files as I have just done a clean install. Anyways the size it reports as size on disk is 6.54GB and actual size is 6.7GB but when I look at the drive in its properties through My Computer is totally off. It reports 8.49GB. And none of the programs I have installed take up a Single GB of space yet. So what is going wrong and how can i fix it with out having to reformat and re-install windows. I'd greatly appreciate any help. I hadnt even yet got to the point where I had any sort of anti-virus yet! So can someone please save me the pain of reformatting and reinstalling?[
Guest Master Jedi Posted August 5, 2007 Posted August 5, 2007 RE: My Hard Drive is misreporting Size being used on My Windows System OK. I was able to retrieve some of the space and delete a bunch of files and folders after uninstalling 3DMark06. It doesnt even run that well on my first gen top of the line card anyways. We'll thatll change when i buy a new gfx card but thats sidetracking. I was able to recalim about 1.5GB's thanks to the uninstall of 3DMark06. But it still reports a ton of files and folders and file size that shouldnt be there. I'd really prefer not to have to reformat windows and reinstall again. It's a pain in the ass when this happens. It seems to happen a lot to me and I dont understand why. I Am very careful about only downloading software and such from trusted and well known sources. So I dont think it could be a virus but it may be. I'm currently running a scan on AVG Free Edition.
Guest Shenan Stanley Posted August 5, 2007 Posted August 5, 2007 Re: My Hard Drive is misreporting Size being used on My Windows System Master Jedi wrote: > OK. I have a problem I tried once asking how to correct it and > nobody even bothered answering. My problem is is that windows is > misreporting the amount of hard drive space that is being used upon > which partition to which it is installed. It is saying when I > select all the files aqnd right click on properties, There is a lot > of disk space mbeing used who knows how. I just did a fresh > install, I( hgave every update installed, and only a few low volume > install programs. It is sayiong when i right click on all of them > there are 34, 256 files and 4, 888 folders! There shouldnt even be > that many folders not to mentions files as I have just done a clean > install. Anyways the size it reports as size on disk is 6.54GB and > actual size is 6.7GB but when I look at the drive in its properties > through My Computer is totally off. It reports 8.49GB. And none of > the programs I have installed take up a Single GB of space yet. So > what is going wrong and how can i fix it with out having to > reformat and re-install windows. I'd greatly appreciate any help. I > hadnt even yet got to the point where I had any sort of anti-virus > yet! So can someone please save me the pain of reformatting and > reinstalling?[ If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed... http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm Used Disk Cleanup? Is hibernate turned on and do you use that feature? Uninstalled unnecessary applications lately? You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but your latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files".. How to use Disk Cleanup http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312 You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it.. When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps: - Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, and click Power Options). - Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the "System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the hiberfil.sys file. - Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file. You can control how much space your System Restore can use... 1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties. 2. Click the System Restore tab. 3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on the "Settings" button. 4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest 5% or higher. 5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again. You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize... Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a size between 128MB and 512MB.. - Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer. - Select TOOLS -> Internet Options. - Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the following: - Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK) - Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to something between 64MB and 256MB. (Betting it is MUCH larger right now.) - Click OK. - Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents" (the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10 minutes or more.) - Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet Explorer. You can use an application that scans your system for log files and temporary files and use that to get rid of those: Ccleaner (Free!) http://www.ccleaner.com/ Other ways to free up space.. SequoiaView http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/ DX Hog Hunt http://www.dvxp.com/en/Downloads.aspx JDiskReport http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used. -- Shenan Stanley MS-MVP -- How To Ask Questions The Smart Way http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
Guest Gerry Posted August 5, 2007 Posted August 5, 2007 Re: My Hard Drive is misreporting Size being used on My Windows System How old is this computer? Is the hard drive 6.7 gb or is this a single partition on a hard drive containing further partitions? Your attitude towards deleting files will lead you into troubled waters! Windows XP does generate a lot of files and folders. You do not have to install all Windows components. There is a list in Add / Remove Programs ( in Control Panel ) through which you can manage components. Using that feature is far safer than your approach. I am not sure whether you are seeing all files and folders. Go to Start, Control Panel, Folder Options, View, Advanced Settings and verify that the box before "Show hidden files and folders" is checked and "Hide protected operating system files " is unchecked. You may need to scroll down to see the second item. You should also make certain that the box before "Hide extensions for known file types" is not checked. Next in Windows Explorer make sure View, Details is selected and then select View, Choose Details and check before Name, Type, Total Size, and Free Space. Even then there are still certain folders that remain hidden and this regularly promps discussion about "lost" disk space. The System Volume Information folders containing System Restore points, which by default is allocated 12% of the drive / partition, is just one example of what remains hidden. The size of files and free space reported by Windows Explorer can also mislead. Compressed files mess up reporting. It is obvious that you are concerned that you have insufficient free disk space. Tell exactly how large your hard drive is and how much free disk space you have. If the drive is partitioned please provide details for each partition. If your hard drive is only 6.7 gb then it is not really suitable for use with Windows XP. -- Hope this helps. Gerry ~~~~ FCA Stourport, England Enquire, plan and execute ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Master Jedi wrote: > OK. I have a problem I tried once asking how to correct it and nobody > even bothered answering. My problem is is that windows is > misreporting the amount of hard drive space that is being used upon > which partition to which it is installed. It is saying when I select > all the files aqnd right click on properties, There is a lot of disk > space mbeing used who knows how. I just did a fresh install, I( hgave > every update installed, and only a few low volume install programs. > It is sayiong when i right click on all of them there are 34, 256 > files and 4, 888 folders! There shouldnt even be that many folders > not to mentions files as I have just done a clean install. Anyways > the size it reports as size on disk is 6.54GB and actual size is > 6.7GB but when I look at the drive in its properties through My > Computer is totally off. It reports 8.49GB. And none of the programs > I have installed take up a Single GB of space yet. So what is going > wrong and how can i fix it with out having to reformat and re-install > windows. I'd greatly appreciate any help. I hadnt even yet got to the > point where I had any sort of anti-virus yet! So can someone please > save me the pain of reformatting and reinstalling?[
Guest dobey Posted August 5, 2007 Posted August 5, 2007 Re: My Hard Drive is misreporting Size being used on My Windows System "Master Jedi" <MasterJedi@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:E630C71D-9831-4925-BBC9-34654CB03F33@microsoft.com... > OK. I have a problem I tried once asking how to correct it and nobody even > bothered answering. My problem is is that windows is misreporting the > amount > of hard drive space that is being used upon which partition to which it is > installed. It is saying when I select all the files aqnd right click on > properties, There is a lot of disk space mbeing used who knows how. I just > did a fresh install, I( hgave every update installed, and only a few low > volume install programs. It is sayiong when i right click on all of them > there are 34, 256 files and 4, 888 folders! There shouldnt even be that > many > folders not to mentions files as I have just done a clean install. How many should there be? I have just done a check on a fresh minimal install and there are 12,700 odd files and 700 folders. On my installalation which is 16 months old there are 60,143 files and 3,441 folders. >Anyways the size it reports as size on disk is 6.54GB and actual size is >6.7GB but > when I look at the drive in its properties through My Computer is totally > off. It reports 8.49GB. And none of the programs I have installed take up > a > Single GB of space yet. So what is going wrong and how can i fix it with > out > having to reformat and re-install windows. I'd greatly appreciate any > help. I > hadnt even yet got to the point where I had any sort of anti-virus yet! So > can someone please save me the pain of reformatting and reinstalling? Is your pagefile included when you select all of the files and look at the properties? This would account for between 1 and 2 GB, maybe more. You need to unhide system files to see it. Also, when windows compresses files, (for example uninstall information for the updates in the Windows directory - usually in blue font by default), it reports the files uncompressed size. So am 800KB file that takes up 400 KB when compressed will be reported as having a size of 800KB and size on disk as 400KB. There is also "slack". The minimum size a file can take up on a disk it one cluster. By default on XP this is 4KB. A one byte file will use 4KB space. If the cluster size it 64 KB then that one byte file will occupy 64 KB. This is the difference between "size" and "size on disk" in the file properties. 6.5 GB sounds like quite a large install. Did you install everything, or use some slipstream disk with a few extras? Doesn't sound like a problem to me.
Guest Ken Blake, MVP Posted August 5, 2007 Posted August 5, 2007 Re: My Hard Drive is misreporting Size being used on My Windows System On Sat, 4 Aug 2007 19:54:02 -0700, Master Jedi <MasterJedi@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > OK. I have a problem I tried once asking how to correct it and nobody even > bothered answering. My problem is is that windows is misreporting the amount > of hard drive space that is being used upon which partition to which it is > installed. It is saying when I select all the files aqnd right click on > properties, There is a lot of disk space mbeing used who knows how. I just > did a fresh install, I( hgave every update installed, and only a few low > volume install programs. It is sayiong when i right click on all of them > there are 34, 256 files and 4, 888 folders! There shouldnt even be that many > folders not to mentions files as I have just done a clean install. Anyways > the size it reports as size on disk is 6.54GB and actual size is 6.7GB but > when I look at the drive in its properties through My Computer is totally > off. It reports 8.49GB. And none of the programs I have installed take up a > Single GB of space yet. So what is going wrong and how can i fix it with out > having to reformat and re-install windows. I'd greatly appreciate any help. I > hadnt even yet got to the point where I had any sort of anti-virus yet! So > can someone please save me the pain of reformatting and reinstalling?[ I doubt very much if anything is wrong. You probably are running with the default of not showing you system and hidden files and folder. Change it in My Computer | Tools | Folder Options. -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User Please Reply to the Newsgroup
Guest Master Jedi Posted August 6, 2007 Posted August 6, 2007 Re: My Hard Drive is misreporting Size being used on My Windows Sy Re: My Hard Drive is misreporting Size being used on My Windows Sy Thank you everybody for your suggestions but I unfortunately had to reformat and reinstall windows again anyway because after I had removed the few worms i had which i didnt know about, I wasn't able to even boot into windows. removing the worm destroyed everything. So My new partition on my 320GB Sata hard drive is 30GB even. And the rest is another storage partition. Againj after installing all updates, I have the very same problem. It is saying That 7. Some GBs is being used when I actually go into the hard drive and select all the folders and files minus the page file which is set at 1.5GB it says it is totaled at just under 5GB. Even that is too much. I just had to do another complete fresh install. I will try running the Suggesstions and come back aqgain but I hate thgis problem it always happens to me.
Guest Master Jedi Posted August 6, 2007 Posted August 6, 2007 Re: My Hard Drive is misreporting Size being used on My Windows Sy Re: My Hard Drive is misreporting Size being used on My Windows Sy OK Everybody I accidentally exed out of the message popup before sending the post i had made. SIGH. I ended up doing a completely new reformat and fresh install anyways because the worms that AVG had found and removed well lets just say they had nasty effects like completely wipping my hard drive clean when I removed them. I hate those kind of Worms! Anyways it is doing what i described again. Where on my 30GB Partition of a 320GB Hard Drive upon which Windows is installed. It is saying in the main My computer Window under the details on this particular partition that Free Space is reported at 22.8GB. It should be much more than that. Because the total size on disk of all files and folders minus the 1.5GB Paging File which I know takes up space, only equals 4.95GB. And even then thats alot after all the updates, the usual drivers, and basic small software that I need when I just start my computer fresh. Even thats too much. I will try going through the suggestions one by one to see if this fixes the problem. And until then, I will be hard at work going through the various methods described to clean up my hard drive. I just don't get it. This always happens.
Guest Master Jedi Posted August 6, 2007 Posted August 6, 2007 Re: My Hard Drive is misreporting Size being used on My Windows Sy Re: My Hard Drive is misreporting Size being used on My Windows Sy OK. I went through all the suggestions and followed through each one. And have now cleared up a lot more space that windows doesnt need to use. I'm still going to use the JDirectoryAnalyzer software which I have actually used before. And btw the DX Hog link was to a Amsterdam in otherwords Dutch site. Sorry but I don't know Dutch. Is there also anyway to get windows to translate any web page I read in any language to english without having to use services like world lingo? Thatd be great if it could be done. I imagine IE7 can do it which I will upgrade too once I authenticate my windows OS. I have had to reinstall windows so many times that it doesnt even let me activate over the internet anymore. It is very annoying. I would like to know how to fix that if its possible. And yes my Windows XP is a genuine Windows XP Home Edition 2002 version in other words SP0 Edition. Yeah I dont even get on the net till after i upgrade to t anyways I am pretty sure the extra space that is still missing is from the Firefox Cache usage but I dont know how to set that option in FireFox. ActuAlly I just realized I reclaimed all I could because all the folders and files plus the page file on the Hard Drive is 4.95GB in size. That is about right. Even though it reports that Disk Usage is at 5.06 which is actually now right if I include the almost 1GB of space for the System Restore Feature. Well thank you for the help. Much appreciated.
Guest Uncle Grumpy Posted August 6, 2007 Posted August 6, 2007 Re: My Hard Drive is misreporting Size being used on My Windows Sy Re: My Hard Drive is misreporting Size being used on My Windows Sy Master Jedi <MasterJedi@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: >OK Everybody I accidentally exed out of the message popup before sending the >post i had made. Which made life easier for most of us who are accustomed to proper spelling, punctuation and grammar... none of which appear to be familiar to your sorry ass.
Guest Gerry Posted August 6, 2007 Posted August 6, 2007 Re: My Hard Drive is misreporting Size being used on My Windows Sy Re: My Hard Drive is misreporting Size being used on My Windows Sy Compression of files on an NTFS formatted disk is a factor you need to take into account when reconciling figures. Another is that 1 gb can be taken as 1,000 x 1,000 mb not 1,024 x 1,024 mb . -- Hope this helps. Gerry ~~~~ FCA Stourport, England Enquire, plan and execute ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Master Jedi wrote: > OK. I went through all the suggestions and followed through each one. > And have now cleared up a lot more space that windows doesnt need to > use. I'm still going to use the JDirectoryAnalyzer software which I > have actually used before. And btw the DX Hog link was to a Amsterdam > in otherwords Dutch site. Sorry but I don't know Dutch. Is there also > anyway to get windows to translate any web page I read in any > language to english without having to use services like world lingo? > Thatd be great if it could be done. I imagine IE7 can do it which I > will upgrade too once I authenticate my windows OS. I have had to > reinstall windows so many times that it doesnt even let me activate > over the internet anymore. It is very annoying. I would like to know > how to fix that if its possible. And yes my Windows XP is a genuine > Windows XP Home Edition 2002 version in other words SP0 Edition. Yeah > I dont even get on the net till after i upgrade to t anyways I am > pretty sure the extra space that is still missing is from the Firefox > Cache usage but I dont know how to set that option in FireFox. > ActuAlly I just realized I reclaimed all I could because all the > folders and files plus the page file on the Hard Drive is > 4.95GB in size. That is about right. Even though it reports that Disk > Usage is at 5.06 which is actually now right if I include the almost > 1GB of space for the System Restore Feature. Well thank you for the > help. Much appreciated.
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