Free space error on vista

[kalibus]

i have vista home premium installed on my hp pavilion dv6700.
windows explorer tells me that my used space is about 52.5gb. but if I include hidden folders and find all the space occupied by all the files on my harddrive it tells me that total space occupied is 38gb. so there is a shortfall of about 14.5gb of space lost.
i need help to reclaim this space for my work. any suggestion will be highly welcome

 

[DelJo63]

find Disk Cleanup and run it. On XP it is Click Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Cleanup

fyi: Windows has lots of hidden files and seldom does Used Space + Free Space = HD capacity.

there are a few things that you can do to get the most usable space for your files:

1. reduce browser cache size
2. empty browser temporaries when the browser exists (on Firefox; IE* needs to use CCleaner)
3. reduce Restore Point Usage to ~5% of HD instead of the default 10%