Windows Hard Disk query

[marcus]

OK so Ive bought an 80GB SATA hard drive which I have installed NTFS and placed my OS on.

I highlight C drive (there are no partitions) and Properties on this, it shows that Capacity is 80,015,491,072 bytes (74.5 GB).

However, it states I have used on my C drive 12.8GB. Now when I click INTO the C drive, highlight all folders there, Properties it states 3.60 GB used. Where has the remaining 9 or so Gig gone to? All files viewing is enabled, Ive emtied recycle bin. I ran a search and it found several files on my C drive of over 200meg, yet when I browse to that exact same location the same folder is actually empty!

Is this XP just being, well, XP or is there anything I can do to retrieve my hard drive space?

[mid]

Sounds decidedly like XP being XP, yes. For a start, you're just highlighting all folders in C:\ - don't you see several hundred megs of swap file there? If not, then its the first sign that not everything is being shown.

[wod]

i was wondering this, i bought an 80gig hard disc a couple of months ago formatted it to ntfs and its says capacitiy is 74.5 gig eh ?

[Super Stu]

Some manufacturers (deceptively) use 1k = 1000 bytes, not 1024 bytes. I don't go in for all this hand waving k and K business. a k/K is a 1024 bytes, no matter how these morons want to spin it.

It may well be 80,000,000,000 bytes and not 80 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 bytes. When you format it and work out the volume in proper bytes, the discrepancy may well be accounted for.

For the record, I use Maxtor driver here and they do exactly what they say on the tin.

Edit - yes, I was correct. You've both bought hdds from those lamers who use 1k = 1000 bytes and not 1024.

I'll prove it. You have 80gig drives, which these muppets take to mean 80 * 1000 * 1000 * 1000 bytes (80 billion bytes). Divide that number by 1024 3 times (the correct way to do it) and you get the correct capacity in gigabytes of 74.5

As for the missing space, it will be the swapfile etc.

[yashiro]

If you are worried try running:

chkdsk /R from a command prompt.

Reboot and wait as it checks the disc/filesystem integrity.

[Synbios]

Also remember that System Restore can and will suck up hard drive space, but that's easy to clear and manage really (I have a method to remove all system restore points manually, which involves fooling XP into thinking you're going to share the System Volume Information folder, which in turn opens up a loophole... but anyway, if that's not the problem then there's no point me going into that right now ).

[Commander Marklar]

You're all being too clever for your own good; I bet it is just the recycle bin, keeping its default space allocated

Right-click it, check how much it has.

[marcus]

Nice one - its set to 10%, which equates to approximatly 8 gig, hence the descrepancy. The rest is the swapfile. So there you have it.

[Super Stu]

But the 5.5gig you're "missing" is due to my explanation, I guarantee it.

I highlight C drive (there are no partitions) and Properties on this, it shows that Capacity is 80,015,491,072 bytes (74.5 GB).

If the drive was 80gig proper, it would be 85,899,345,920 bytes.

[Chadruharazzeb]

5 gig swapfile???

Lav a bladdy dack, there's no way I'm bothering with XP if it needs to hog THAT much HD space.

[Vaipon]

XP doesn't need any more than 2k when it comes to swapfile. I used to despise XP, but now I grudgingly admit that it is superior in pretty much every single way. Not worth the money though (but then again, nothing from Microsoft is).

[Synbios]

I've got 512MB of pagefile and I have 512MB RAM. I think my pagefile is easily sufficient.