Hi, Harddrive Space Problem

Krenium · 05-25-2008, 02:00 PM

Alright.

So, I run a Lenovo T60 Laptop with Windows XP, and the problem is that I only have a 50GB Hard drive so I try very hard to be wary of what I put and what I don't put on my computer.

I've been hovering at ~40GB for some time now, and even after deleting copious amounts of stuff, I can't seem to get under 35GB.

So I downloaded a trial of this problem called ShowSize PE, which is suppose to scan my hard drive and tell me where all the data is.

When I use this program, it shows that I only have about 18GB of data, yet I only have 10GB of free space available, which is consistent with just manually going through the files.

I was just wondering where the other 22GB of hard drive space has gone to, and whether there was anyway to retrieve it.

Thanks in advance.

Lead3 · 05-25-2008, 02:48 PM

Hi,
Welcome to TSF!
First thing is that a 50GB drive really is only 46.56GB because of the way drive manufacturers specify them (decimal versus binary). That would mean you are missing about 18GBs. You should go to folder options and unhide protected system files so that you can see the following.
There are three users of disk space that should be looked at.
Your pagefile, System restore (System Volume Information) and the hybernation file. These all can be GB's in size.
In my case hyberfil.sys = 3GB, Pagefile.sys = 3GB and System Volume information = 12% of my drive size max. (about 9.6GB)
Also most laptops have a recovery partition that can be up 10GBs. Are you including this?

Krenium · 05-25-2008, 03:37 PM

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm not sure how to check if there is 10GB allocated to recovery, how do I check that?

Lead3 · 05-25-2008, 06:41 PM

Right click on My Computer and select Manage, then disk management. This will show the partitions on your hard drive.

Krenium · 05-26-2008, 02:54 PM

Alright, when I goto that, I see my Preload (C:) drive taking up 51.1 GB and another drive named ServiceV001 taking up about 5GB

Lead3 · 05-26-2008, 03:32 PM

It appears that you have 51.1GB for your C: drive and the ServiceV001 is probably your recovery partition. I like a free program called Treesize Free to look at what is stored on my hard drive and where.

http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml

What did you find when you unchecked "hide protected system files"?

05-25-2008, 02:00 PM	#1 (permalink)
Krenium Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 3 OS: Windows XP	Hi, Harddrive Space Problem Alright. So, I run a Lenovo T60 Laptop with Windows XP, and the problem is that I only have a 50GB Hard drive so I try very hard to be wary of what I put and what I don't put on my computer. I've been hovering at ~40GB for some time now, and even after deleting copious amounts of stuff, I can't seem to get under 35GB. So I downloaded a trial of this problem called ShowSize PE, which is suppose to scan my hard drive and tell me where all the data is. When I use this program, it shows that I only have about 18GB of data, yet I only have 10GB of free space available, which is consistent with just manually going through the files. I was just wondering where the other 22GB of hard drive space has gone to, and whether there was anyway to retrieve it. Thanks in advance.

05-25-2008, 02:48 PM	#2 (permalink)
Lead3 Hardware Tech Team Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Florida, USA Posts: 890 OS: 98SE,2000,XP SP3,VISTA SP1	Re: Hi, Harddrive Space Problem Hi, Welcome to TSF! First thing is that a 50GB drive really is only 46.56GB because of the way drive manufacturers specify them (decimal versus binary). That would mean you are missing about 18GBs. You should go to folder options and unhide protected system files so that you can see the following. There are three users of disk space that should be looked at. Your pagefile, System restore (System Volume Information) and the hybernation file. These all can be GB's in size. In my case hyberfil.sys = 3GB, Pagefile.sys = 3GB and System Volume information = 12% of my drive size max. (about 9.6GB) Also most laptops have a recovery partition that can be up 10GBs. Are you including this? __________________ Last edited by Lead3 : 05-25-2008 at 02:50 PM.

05-25-2008, 03:37 PM	#3 (permalink)
Krenium Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 3 OS: Windows XP	Re: Hi, Harddrive Space Problem Thanks for the quick reply. I'm not sure how to check if there is 10GB allocated to recovery, how do I check that?

05-25-2008, 06:41 PM	#4 (permalink)
Lead3 Hardware Tech Team Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Florida, USA Posts: 890 OS: 98SE,2000,XP SP3,VISTA SP1	Re: Hi, Harddrive Space Problem Right click on My Computer and select Manage, then disk management. This will show the partitions on your hard drive. __________________

05-26-2008, 02:54 PM	#5 (permalink)
Krenium Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 3 OS: Windows XP	Re: Hi, Harddrive Space Problem Alright, when I goto that, I see my Preload (C:) drive taking up 51.1 GB and another drive named ServiceV001 taking up about 5GB

05-26-2008, 03:32 PM	#6 (permalink)
Lead3 Hardware Tech Team Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Florida, USA Posts: 890 OS: 98SE,2000,XP SP3,VISTA SP1	Re: Hi, Harddrive Space Problem It appears that you have 51.1GB for your C: drive and the ServiceV001 is probably your recovery partition. I like a free program called Treesize Free to look at what is stored on my hard drive and where. http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml What did you find when you unchecked "hide protected system files"? __________________