I have a 80Gb SSD C drive. My Computer/Properties indicates 75Gb used, 5Gb free. There is minimal user data on there.
If I unhide all files and add up the total file usage (of properties of each folder) that is approx 43Gb. This is borne out by Treesize Pro which reports 44Gb used. (Treesize looks at all files so shows hiberfile etc - there is no swap file on C drive)
Yet Treesize and Properties report only about 5Gb free.
I ran a scheduled disk check which found no errors. (btw this wouldn't run with USB and keyboard plugged in - it simply cancelled)
It won't let me copy a 15Gb folder to C as there is insufficient space.
Where's my free space gone, and how can I get it back?
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I should add that I never really noticed it disappearing - this is a new installation Windows 7 from November time with everything installed from scratch, although I did have need to restore a week old disk image (Ghost) over Christmas due to catching a virus.
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Hiberfil.sys?
Swop file?
tho that should only be 8gb in total.
First step for me would be a defrag, if that dont work followed by a ghost off and then back on again.
Suspect MBR problem.
Rats will say its a rootkit.
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Hiberfil (6Gb) is included in the 44Gb. No swap on C drive. Defrag not recommended for SSD but it's only 2% "fragged" anyway.
Unlikely to be a rootkit but what's the easiest test? (System protected by MSE)
System restore turned off, Windows 7. No dump files present.
Last edited by: smokie on Sun 9 Jan 11 at 11:35
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I would
Ghost it off
Try a "fixmbr"
if that fails format and ghost it back on.
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Thanks guys, been out for the day hence no update. I did leave a fresh Ghost image being create, but I suspect that will not work as when I recover the image it will simply plonk it back how it is - doesn't it overwrite the MBR? Happy to try it though.
Thanks for the links John - being on Windows 7 (64 bit) I don't have to run the TRIM commands, and while I read and understood what was there I couldn't see anything which explained my phenomena, but it led me to the Intel SSD Diagnostic tool which ran clean (although indicated an unrelated config problem which is now corrected).
My D drive is a Crucial SSD and that isn't "missing" any space - the sum of folder sizes roughly equals Used space reported, and free space is drive size minus used space (roughly)
Just trying to remember the history of the C drive, I wanted to keep it not too full, as I have a bunch of fairly heavy duty games (e.g. Crysis) which take oodles of disk space. So I didn't want to keep them "online" on the C drive, but want them on C when in use to benefit from faster loading etc. So I installed them all (into C:games) then backed up that folder to a standard SATA drive which I would restore as and when I wanted to play (which is probably less than once per month!). IIRC that was about 30Gb when installed and, OK, I have installed some stuff since taking them "offline" but not that much! However I don't know if that's when the discrepancy arose.
While typing this the drive has passed the Intel diags, so next is a FIXMBR...
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FIXMBR no longer exists under Windows 7. Use bootsect (in boot folder) from DOS window in repair mode. (Syntax something like bootsect /nt60 :. Anyway, that changed nothing.
So while in repair mode, I opened a DOS window. CHKDSK reports (approx) 78Gb total, 69Gb used, 7Gb free.
So I did a dir *.* /s to list all files on the disk. That reports 119164 files in 50 Gb with 7.6 Gb free. (note in 50Gb)
Then did dir *.* /s in each directory and the figures broadly agree with what Windows (and Treesize) reports, that is total data size around 44 Gb
Back into Windows 7, in Explorer I selected all folders & files in the C drive and right click/Properties which reports data size 44 Gb. This appears to be the right figures for data size from a number of sources.
I'm not going to bother with a Ghost restore yet, a bit more research to do but I have some catching up on other stuff so this will have to wait now. But I seem to be missing nearly 30Gb of disk space!
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In Windows are you showing hidden and protected files? I assume you are.
This does sound like the drive could be doing something like the article pointed to above, i.e. reserving space. Maybe Windows 7 doesn't need to do this but maybe nobody configured the drive?
Do you recall how it was when built?
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Yes, showing all files - and I think in a command window in Repair mode you get to see everything anyway.
I thought if it was reserving space then this wouldn't show up in the drive size e.g. a 1 Tb drive shows as 880 Gb when formatted. This is showing disk size as a little under the 80Gb advertised size, which I can cope with. Seems the space used is being reported wrong to me.
Just been back to Repair mode and ran chkdsk with /f, no change, but I noticed that it reports 535k files whereas all other tools (including when I manually checked each directory using dir *.* /s) total around 120k files.
I think the best thing I can now do is knock up another bootable disk (I have a spare 1Tb somewhere) and copy the entire contents of the SSD to a folder to see which figure is right.
I certainly had 30Gb of Games library which I've copie off - as I said above, I've installed some stuff since then but only programs so no massive data which would soak up 20Gb +.
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You've not got files stuck in a recycle bin folder for a user have you?
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No.
Quick update - I have just found 435916 jpg files (16.2Gb) in a folder under Windows, which I was unable to access. Have changed ownership so that I can inspect them - quick Google indicates they may be connected with Windows Media Player where it has imported artwork for my music collection (I don't use Windows Media Player for music at all, ever!!)
Windows/ServiceProfiles/NetworkService/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Media Player/Art Cache/LocalMLS
A piece of Open software called WinDirStat helped me find the files, although it wasn't straightforward.
Seems if I delete them they may be recreated...bit of a waste of disk space!! But I'll ty it anyway.
The numbers help with the problem - at least brings the file counts from various places more in line with each other.
Update - and they were not reported in most products e.g. Explorer, as total files on disk was somewhere around 120k IIRC. Now I've changed ownership they appear. And my account is Admin. All a bit odd...
Last edited by: smokie on Sun 9 Jan 11 at 22:41
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But these are probably included in the total used. Where's the missing space...
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I know Smokie's got a lot of audio but typical album art is 20K so 16GB+ is a lot of albums...
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Yep, it's still processing the library but the files are between 15 and 40kb. Some are timestamped today, but I wasn't playing music at the time. btw if each file is an album, I can assure you I have nothing like 400,000 albums!!!
Update: or even tracks!!
Anuvver update - estimating 1 hr to delete...
Last edited by: smokie on Sun 9 Jan 11 at 23:02
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We had an issue at work a while back whereby the anti virus that we used was somehow or other multiplying and duplicating files.
Within the space of a morning my desktop hard disk basically filled up from scratch.
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User error - of a kind. When I restored the image, Windows Media Player was set to automatically update it's library. Since re-imaging, I'd re-pointed the My Music shortcut to my music library. So over the days it's been building my music library in Media Player, and it was also set to download content from the internet, which is presumably where the album covers came from.
Previously it had been looking in My Music, but there had been no music files in the target location of the shortcut, which is why I hadn't seen the problem before.
So I've re-configured WMP and delete the library, and all the files, and now have 24Gb free - which is still probably a bit less than expected, but more acceptable.
What I'm not comfortable about is that the existence of these files was almost invisible - had it not been that WinDirStat reported 16Gb of jpg's I'm not sure I would have found them. They were owned by SYSTEM which presumably prevents them being reported on - except at the highest level - which gave rise tot eh inconsistent figures I was seeing.
You live and learn... Thanks to all for your suggestions and continued interest. :-)
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Don't we all just love Windows and Microsoft.... No. Changes will happen. Now Windows 8 will run on ARM (they dumped non Intel long ago including PowerPC, MIPS.... it tells me Windows is at last going to have less of an influence.
But this is for another thread. Glad you found the free space and it was as simple as something using it rather than some low level SSD thing.
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Disk - free space issue - smokie