PE Explorer oddness

[sstein]

Hi,

I've been using PE Explorer to tinker with various dll and exe files. I found though that even after reducing the size of a file, the disk space being used overall increases. To find out I did a little test.

Firstly I checked my disk space

Used disk space was sitting at :

9,687,731,376

I opened Winzip.exe using PE Explorer, made no alterations and saved the file. This created a winzip.exe and a winzip.exe.backup. I deleted the backup file. This should have returned me to 9,687,731,376. But it didn't.

Disk space used was now sitting at

9,689,825,280

Thats an icrease of 2,093,904 bytes. Or 2044 KB. Or 1.9 MB (roughly)

I did a search of the system to see which files had been created in the timespace where I was using PE Explorer. There was a log file which had been edited (6 Kb), but that was about it. Nothing to explain a 2.0 MB increase in disk space.

The winzip.exe file is 1,933,312.

So I tried again, disk space being used before using PE Explorer was

9,692,037,120

Opened up firefox.exe - size: 7,651,952

Saved the file with no modifications, and deleted the backup file it created.

Disk space used was now:

9,699,262,464

So roughly the size of whichever file is being edited is lost, regardless of how it is changed.

I did this again with firefox.exe, and again another 7 MB lost in disk space, each time I open it I lose some disk space. But where it is going??????

I can only assume it creates a copy of the file somewhere on the disk, but windows search can not find it. I've tried using files created, files accessed and files modified. All return nothing. (I have told it to search hidden files and folders)

So, does anyone where it is creating these files?

I've tried looking in

C:\Program Files\PE Explorer and all sub folders
C:\Documents & Settings\HP_Owner\Application Data\PE Explorer
C:\Temp
C:\Windows (it's the same size as it always has been, so it's not putting anything in here)

I'm stumped???

I cant use the file if everytime I want to change something I lose the size of the file in diskspace??? That would be pointless?

Anyone here use PE Explorer and can shed some light on this???
-

Stuart

[Globulator]

Probably just your swapfile growing I expect.

[dilbert]

Recycle bin?

[sstein]

The recycle bin is definitely empty.

Tried running disk cleanup, and CC Cleaner but neither finds much at all to delete.

I'm going to try again with anti-virus turned off. Perhaps its the AV noticing a file is being edited and makes a backup somewhere. Still doesn't explain why it's not showing up as a file being created.

You may be right about the swap file, I guess this would mean that after the disk space is lost, a restart would fix it ??

I'll try that as well!

-

Stuart

[sstein]

Tried this again,

loaded up firefox.exe, disk space increased by c. 7 MB

The only folder which increased was doc & settings, it increased by 44 KB. So probably a log file of some sort.

No other file on the C: increased?? I guess this means it probably is a swap file or something else. The page file remained the same size.

Why isn't this space coming back though when I restart, is there a way to flush these files to get the disk space back. I also tried it with the AV turned off and it makes no difference.

???
-

Stuart

[TurricanII]

from a C:\ prompt Try doing:

DIR c:\ /s/a > before.txt

then make your change, then again at a dos prompt

DIR c:\ /s/a > after.txt

then

fc before.txt after.txt

That might highlight the change. If not, maybe Alternative Data Streams are being ammended?

[dilbert]

TurricanII said:

If not, maybe Alternative Data Streams are being ammended?

I only found out about those the other week. What a pain they are. I think windows is going to become mired in it's own complexity!!

Edited by dilbert on Saturday 9th February 23:55

[sstein]

dilbert said:

TurricanII said:

If not, maybe Alternative Data Streams are being ammended?

I only found out about those the other week. What a pain they are. I think windows is going to become mired in it's own complexity!!

Edited by dilbert on Saturday 9th February 23:55

This is just bizzare

Created before.txt and after.txt

The changes came back as

• *** before.txt

Total Files Listed:
34768 File(s) 6,628,436,701 bytes
13693 Dir(s) 234,294,792,192 bytes free

• *** AFTER.TXT

Total Files Listed:
34768 File(s) 6,631,410,529 bytes
13693 Dir(s) 234,291,986,432 bytes free

• ***

C:\Windows size hasn't changed, nor it's size on disk.

I took a note of all the folder sizes from C:\ and none changed. No files have been added or directories. Yet again though I am roughly 7MB down on disk space (the same as the size of the firefox.exe that I was editing - though i didn't actually edit it, just opened saved and closed)

ARGH!

-

Stuart

P.S What are alternative data streams, haven't come across this?