Disk Space Not Recovering???

[ZelHilliar]

Hi,

I am running a maxtor diamondmax 9 120gig HDD, partitioned into 2, a 20gig c: and a 100gig d:.
I've recently noticed that when copying anything to the d:, the disk space available goes down as it should, however when deleting data, the disk space doesn't get recovered... I've now ended up with about 50gig worth of data and only 20gig free? somehow lost 30gig????
I moved a folder full of pics, 100s of files... which total about 2gig to my c:, this somehow freed up a massive 15gig?? and when copying it back, only took up what it should, 2gig, so I gained 13gig, however I backed up about 5gig onto CD and deleted it... no extra space available.
I have run scandisk and defrag on the drive and not sure what is going on?? Any help would be much appreciated..

Thanks,
Zel

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to Techspot.
That is an interesting phenomenon you got there. What OS are you running and what format (FAT32/NTFS) are the disks?

As a first help, download the trial- or free version of Diskeeper here:
http://www.executive.com/coverpage.asp
Then run that, rather than the built-in M$ defragger. With a disk that size, you better let Diskeeper run overnight.

By the way, take a few minutes to fill out your UserProfile, makes things a lot easier for all of us. (just click on "user cp" at the top of the page).

 

[Nodsu]

Perhaps you need to empty the Recycle Bin?

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Ouch! Never thought of that
That must be it. I am not thinking straight, well spotted Nodsu.

 

[poertner_1274]

Or you can bypass the recycle bin every time by hitting SHIFT-DEL, then just confirm that you want them permanently deleted.

:wave: Welcome to TechSpot :wave:

 

[ZelHilliar]

Hi,

Uh, yeah.. I know about the shift-del thing, it isn't the recycle bin... That would definately have been the obvious thing, which normally are the answer when it comes to PCs.
However not this time...

I'm running Windows XP, file system is NTFS for both partitions...

 

[Rick]

I would think you have a corrupted file system.

It may misreport free and missing space for individual files and folders incorrectly, giving the illusion of what is happening.

What I might try to do is backup your data on D: to another drive and then delete the partition (In Windows will be fine). After that, perform a full format. You can do this by going to XP's diskmanagement snap-in. Start / Run / compmgmt.msc

Then copy your data back over... It should be fine.

It may also be worth scanning the drive for errors using your drive manufacturer's disk utility. https://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7602

You can also force chkdsk to run, by typing chkdsk D: /X at the command prompt ( Start / Run / cmd )

Note the X switch will trigger a full filesystem scan and dismounts the drive before scanning (so you don't have to restart).

 

[Masque]

Originally posted by Rick
Note the X switch will trigger a full filesystem scan and dismounts the drive before scanning (so you don't have to restart).

That's some good info. I wasn't even aware of that one. Thanks Rick.

 

[ZelHilliar]

Thanks a ton...

I will be trying this this weekend...

 

[Actros]

Data recovered

I've met with this problem in the past. Well you're data is there.
You should try to recover with getdata back from runtime.
It's the best. However if this option failes ,too, you should try
Flobo HDDDOC Recovery if you have documents(source code, your site soutce,
.doc MSWord files)from http://www.floborecovery.dsoftscape.com.
It's the best abd unique application in the field.

 

[CosmicT]

Norton Protected Recycle Bin

Hi,

I also just had this problem. If you have a Norton Protected Recycle Bin, this might be your problem. It purges deleted files after 7 days by default.