Empty, But Filled Space?

[Johnnymushio]

I just got a new laptop, it says 10 gigs of the harddrive are used, but when i search for all the files on the computer, it adds up to about 500 mb, not 10 gigs. this even counts installed programs.

any idea where all this space is coming from? i tried uninstalling everything and deleting all the stuff i wont use, but its still 10 gigs used...

[tech_support]

Recycle Bin?

[killerchutney]

Yes, a similar thing happened when I got my new PC, 20gbs of the 320gb HD were missing, but it still read as 320gb in sisoft sandra.

Did the laptop come with vista?

[boxxertrumps]

There could be improper partitioning done, or you could have a rootkit on a seperate partition.
Have you set hidden windows to be shown?

[Johnnymushio]

yes hidden files can be shown, of course i checed the recycle bin, and yes the laptop came with vista. it has two seperate hardrives, one is for data, the other one is just a normal one i guess. the data one is empty, but the regular ones has 10 gigs filled, but i have no idea where it comes from...

[tech_support]

The mystery of brand-name computers...

[boogyman]

often times manufactures create a separate partition as a "recovery disk" for the horrible function of Windows Restore lol. Could this possibly be the case with you?

[Johnnymushio]

hmmm i dont think so, i dont think anything is backed up.

im thinking maybe its the windows vista OS thats taking up the space?

[tech_support]

Of course.
Vista takes up 3GB of space.
Then there's applications, data etc.

Try formatting and see how much space you have.

[shachi]

Usually it's hidden files. I once spent hours deleting my stuff from a usb drive until when I finally gave up on windows and switched back to linux where I saw like a bunch of hidden files taking up all the space.