what is eating my free disk space?

[kath]

A teacher accidently started to synchronise with our intranet. He got rid of everything he could find that had been downloaded to his laptop, but the disk is showing under 10Gb free. He is sure there should be more. I added up all the space used by all files and directories (including the pagefile, hiberfil.sys and hidden recyclers) and there is definitely 30Gb unaccounted for. I am stumped! Any and all suggestions would be gratefully received.

[mossj]

Any and all suggestions would be gratefully received.

 

Emptied the Recycle bin?

[mattx]

Run WinDirStat

 

WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics

[Jamo]

WinDirStat looks good for you, Lifehacker - Geek to Live: Visualize your hard drive usage - Disk recovery . There are some other alternatives available, but it will map up where the space has gone!

[Jamo]

Run WinDirStat

 

WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics

 

my typing be slow today! Not enough coffee..... lol

[JJonas]

or sequoiaview

 

Technische Universiteit Eindhoven: Info

[Andrew_C]

Is it partitioned, particularly a recovery partition?

[kath]

I had emptied the recycle bin! Just trying WinDirStat - I had used xytree.

 

It is a partion, but C:\, not a recovery partition.

[JJonas]

C:\ is your main boot partition leave that one alone Edited June 5, 2009 by JJonas

[SYNACK]

Use the disk cleanup tool in Vista, it is probably the shadow copies of the system files for system restore. Select for all users when asked and then click on the "more options" tab and click the "System Restore and Shadow copies" clean up button.

 

This will probably be the solution to the missing disk space.

[JJonas]

Have you tried error checking the hard disk? It could be the disk space is being misreported.

[kath]

I had error checked it, and defragged.

 

Also now run disk cleanup for disk restore and shadow copies.

 

Now only missing 4GB which I think he will have to live with.

 

Thanks to all.

[Dom_]

Did you check C:\WINDOWS\CSC

[rosswilson]

Hi,

 

Try "Tree Size Free" to see how much space each folder on your computer is using. I have used it before and is very good. Just point it to the C:\ drive and let it run. You will end up with a nice tree display of all your folders in size order.

 

Another tip is using it on the root folder of your roaming profiles or redirected folders to see who is using the most storage. You can also flick the software over to display percentages that each folder is using (out of the total size of the root folder).

 

Great software, and free!

 

Ross

[OutToLunch]

Now only missing 4GB which I think he will have to live with.

 

Remember that the stated size of a disk on spec is not the size that you end up with in Windows due to the 1000/1024 rule for megabytes/gigabytes.

 

eg. a 120gb HD = 120000MB by the manufacturers rule of 1000MB = 1GB

120000/1024 = 117.2GB (3GB 'missing')

[CHR1S]

If your using offline files dont forget to check whats hiding in the CSC -> c:\windows\CSC

[browolf]

I use Treesize freeware

 

it makes a table of how much each folder takes and you can drill down the folder structure.

http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/screenshots/EN/freeware_treesize_gr.gif

[adamchapman]

could it be something to do with Disk Compression?

 

I know that files in Drive quota entries are shown as their uncompressed sizes....

 

just a stab in the dark!

[kath]

Thanks OutToLunch,

 

That is why I am not too bothered about what what is still "missing". I was just too lazy to work it out accurately. I will do my best to remember your numbers, though, for future reference.

 

Kathh

[k-strider]

is System Restore enabled? this uses shadow copies and won't show up as used space but the free space does go down.

 

Gordon.