Missing disk space

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mjbrookes
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Missing disk space

Post by mjbrookes »

On my new laptop,
I have turned on viewing of hidden & folders files already.

MyComputer reports ...Local Disk D:  Total Size 340Gb Free Space 20.7GB

Which suggests that 320GB is being used for files.

BUt when I view the folders/files in drive D I can only see 217.4GB of files & folders

So about 100GB is missing???

Can anyone help me find/use the missing space.


Regards
Mark
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nikos
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Post by nikos »

did you try TOOLS > FOLDER STATISTICS in xplorer2?
mjbrookes
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Post by mjbrookes »

Hello Nikos

Thanks for the suggestion

Test 1:
The folder/file sizes shown by Folder-statistics are the same as those shown in the main display, except for:-

1. "$RECYCLE.BIN" [536.6MB]: Sub-Folders=2, Files=81
2. for about 3 seconds the Folder-statistics window did display a warning message ... "some items were not accessible (insufficient access rights)"
* Perhaps I have 100Gb in these in accesasible files ? !!! ?
* However I did think that I had configured Xplorer2 to display hidded & system files ?


Test 2:
Run Xplorer2 as Administrator:
The folder/file sizes shown by Folder-statistics are the same as those shown in the main display, except for:-

"WindowsImageBackup" [64.8GB]: Sub-Folders=4, Files=19
"MARK-SAMSUNG-LA" [23.5GB]: Sub-Folders=8, Files=549
previously these were both shown as [0B]


So I can now find 88.3Gb of my "missing files
The new position is that drive D =          340  gb
less free space                              13.6gb
files in use, according to xplorer =        305.9gb
so, Unknown =                                20.5gb



SO: running xplorer as Administrator has solved most of my problem.

However, can you suggest what is causing the remaining 20.5GB?  and how I can avoid this 20GB from growing bigger?

Thanks for your help
regards
Mark
Kilmatead
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Post by Kilmatead »

I'd suggest looking at one of these dedicated utilities for a more thorough breakdown of disc space issues.  In particular the first one (SpaceSniffer) wins a prize for being free, no installation needed, with a rather amusing size animation displayed during scans (hey, as most of life is composed of frivolous animations when you boil human activity down to its basics, it seems fitting to appreciate such things).  That aside, it's just a good free tool made for exactly your purpose, though the others may be worth a look for other ends. :shrug:
mjbrookes
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Post by mjbrookes »

Thanks, I have had a look at space sniffer, it gives an interesting alternative view to that provided by xplorer2, and it's free  :D

However it hasn't helped me find the 20gb, because it only shows what it can find, not what it can't find. By comparison xplorer2 has allowed me to compare the space that ought to be available against the recorded used space.

the unknown 20gb represents 6% of the disk space. I suspect that there is actually a good/simple reason for it which I simply don't know about. In the meanwhile a 6% space "loss" seems a lot to be missing.

regards
Mark
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fgagnon
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Post by fgagnon »

I assume you are you using "size on disk" (not file size) so as to include unused bytes in allocated clusters.
But have you, by any chance, fallen into the often confusing "what's a Gigabyte?" trap and mis-converted bytes to GB for any of the reported sizes along the way by multiplying by 10^9 instead of 1024^3 ?
The difference is about 7.4%
(Best to do all your analysis in bytes to avoid this common confusion.)
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