themainman62

Hi, I'm having a problem with my second hard drive (G:). The problem is that everytime I delete something the hard drive space is not fully restored, for example if I delete something that is 5 GB, I am only getting 2 GB back. The files are not compressed, and I can see all hidden files and folders.. any help would be appreciated, thanks.

justpassingby

In windows explorer : tools => folder settings => view => have you unchecked "hide operating system protected files" ? This and "show hidden files and folders" will allow to see all the files that are taking space on your computer. If the problem is recurrent, you should be able to see which files or folders seems to get bigger when you delete a big file (right-click on a folder and properties for a quick view of the space it uses).

justpassingby

woh oh oh
Partitions aren't bad !

And deleting them will only make you lose all the data that's on them.

jasonlw1975

Partitions limit the size of the drive listed, if i am correct.

justpassingby

That's only one tiny visible aspect of what partitions are. Partitions are very helpful !

There's no point in having one single 250GB partition for windows XP on a 250GB HDD, in the end it will only cause problems : system files, programs and updates from windows update will end up scattered all accross the drive and separated from each other by non system files. Instead of having to search a little 30GB partition, usually the first of the disk and thus the fastest one, the hard disks heads will have to cross the whole disk to access the needed files.
+ Having a dynamic swap file, the system restore points, the temporary files from IE and your current downloads constantly writing on the disk at the same time will make quite a mess of it. Single files will end up fragmented in tiny bits that may also be scattered at both ends of the disk.
+ Once you want to clean that mess, defragmentation will take hours !

So that's where partitions come into play. A good partition scheme for a single disk system might be one small partition for only your OS and programs that start automatically with windows. One partition for other programs you don't use every day (games for example). One partition for downloads and those things that cause quick fragmentation. One last partition for backup of documents or media files. That scheme ensures that all system files which location directly impacts on system performances stay in the same small space, hence faster seek times, and that those files will also benefit from the fastest transfer rate of the disk, the first partition being on the outer part of the platter.

Another use of the partitions is when you have more than one operating system installed on one disk. Each OS will want to have its own partition.

Though partitions should not be abused of. They have to be treated as different places where different things occur. If you want to use them as compartiments, you're better using a simple folder instead.

themainman62

Ok, I've Unchecked hide operating system protected files and already had it set to show hidden files, The HDD is one big partition with 186.31GB total. When I select all the files inside the G: drive (Highlight all files and folders) it comes up with 85.6 GB used total, however when viewed from the HDD Properties screen it says I only have 83.7 GB free, or about 102 GB are being used. I deleted about 17 GB of Downloaded files and there was little space recovered after that, prob no more than 2 GB. This is my secondary HDD, don't know if that could possibly be the cause of this.

justpassingby

Seing more space used than the added sizes of the files is normal, it comes from the fact the NTFS system uses 4 KB clusters by default. A 1 KB file will use 4KB on the disk (in fact even a 1 byte file will use 4KB), a 1601 KB file will use 1604 KB on the disk, and so on. If you have lots of small files, that wasted space adds and can become quite big. Though it would use less space, you don't want the clusters to be smaller because 4KB is also the size used by windows to handle the ram and same cluster size = faster transfers from hdd to ram. Bigger clusters also allow bigger transfer rates and smaller file allocation table. 4KB is a nice compromise.

Now you still have a problem with that unrecovered space. Did you empty the bin ? (dumb question, I know) Is there some kind of file monitoring program running in background ? Check the size of the swap file is not too big : right-click on my computer => properties, advanced, performances, advanced, change under virtual memory. Max setting should not exceed 2GB. Run the disk cleanup utility.

I don't think it could be linked to system restore, since that usually only creates restore points when a new program is installed, but you could try disabling system restore for drive G: (right-click on my computer => properties, system restore, choose G: and click on settings).

Next option would be to post a hijackthis report in the dedicated thread and see if there's not some sort of malware on your computer (read the "important" sticky first in the hijackthis thread)

themainman62

well I didnt send them to the bin (instead shift deleted them) and don't have any monitoring program running in the background, and have the page file set at 1900 MB. If I run the disk cleanup utility it will make up for the lost space, by compressing old files. I'm not sure what's up with my computer it seems to have some odd issues that are hard to fix I've been having somewhat of a performance issue as well I'm not sure if it's in part due to all the upgrading I've done, or what. I've replaced every part on my computer except for the motherboard. It couldn't be caused by something in the registry could it? I am sure that I am not affected with anything though. hmmm thats interesting about the info when a file is smaller than 4 kb didn't know that.

justpassingby

try this : start => run => cmd => chkdsk g: /F /R. See if it reports errors.

hwm54112

Check the allotted size of the recycle bin and system restore. Both are stated in terms of a percentage of the disk size, not a percentage of available space

themainman62

It was the system restore it was set to max occupying about 20 GB on my G: drive, turned it off now everything seems to be right, problem solved, thanks.