HD used space doesn't match files size...

[shorever]

I recently divided my HD into 2 partitions , c: with 82gb and D: with 61gb, using Windows Vista computer management. On C: I only have windows vista, MS Office and few small softwares. When I click on C: properties it shows that 37gb is being used, however, when I select all the files on C: (including hidden files) and click on properties it shows that the size on disk is only 15 GB. It is a 22gb difference, why is this happening? Is this normal?

thanks

[lainlives]

well, some files are super hidden, and some may be compressed, and tehre are folders that can have a few megabytes that are not accessable

[djr33]

I've found that the cached value for data stored in a folder may be wrong. You could try to regenerate that (viewing the space again, restarting the computer, or various other little tricks), or you could simply delete the folder(s) entirely, and move their contents somewhere else.
Did you check the recycle bin? I hope you don't have dozens of GB in there, though.

[shorever]

Thanks for your response,

the recycle bin is empty, it was the first thing I checked. I will try to move some folders to see what happens.

[djr33]

I've found that moving the files to somewhere for a moment, deleting the folder, then creating another folder of the same name and replacing the files, though a bit tedious, can fix it.


One other thought is that I believe some programs can reserve space on the drive, though I'm not sure exactly how that works. If you are, for example, downloading a 1GB file, it will make a 1GB shell file for the data. If it's only 10% done, though, there are really 900mb not being used. But it still reserves them. However, that would probably show up on a folder/filesize check.

[tech_support]

Windows reserves like 5% of the space, always. It's to prevent you filling up your whole H/D and then preventing Windows to create temp files and stuff. I think Mac does this as well.

[djr33]

No, Macs just start having fits when you reach "Zero Kb left on your hard drive.. please remove some files"
Then again, it isn't quite zero, so, yes, probably a bit is reserved, so it can have the fit and not crash in doing so.

[darkwolf]

Hi
when you split a drive you will always loose 8gb of space . Now if this is a used before drive, you may have bad sectors on the platters which when divided has been overwritten to not be used (or written useless if you like) so these sectors will be never used. ie your loss of space
hope this helps