Confused...3GB 'missing' on C-drive!?!
Discussion
Hi all,
My PC has been slowing down recently, and I've not been able to find out why. Defrag hasn't helped much.
Well, I did a thorough explore of the C-drive today after I found out that it was about 90% full (when trying to defrag this last time), and I'm MISSING about 3GB!
What I mean is - all the individual folders tally to just under 6GB, yet the C-drive itself is showing nearly 9GB used on a 10GB drive. Which explains why it's slowed up.
I've tried showing hidden files and folders, but nothing comes up - still 6GB worth of files. Not sure when it has disappeared, as it's been at around 80% used for a while, but I've cleaned a lot of stuff off and it's still higher than it used to be...I'd guess it's been building up for a while...which itself confuses me.
So where has it gone?!?
Have I got some smart virus / spyware lodged in there?
Can Windows just not add-up?
In short...WTF?!?
Thanks for any advice guys,
Martin
PS - have used disk cleanup to delete all the dross; have reviewed all downloads and Temp files / Temp internet files* and deleted anything I can...so without deleting programmes**, there's little more I can do.
* Which despite being empty is showing at 330MB folder size!
** Just Windows and utilities on C - games etc. on the next partition.
My PC has been slowing down recently, and I've not been able to find out why. Defrag hasn't helped much.
Well, I did a thorough explore of the C-drive today after I found out that it was about 90% full (when trying to defrag this last time), and I'm MISSING about 3GB!
What I mean is - all the individual folders tally to just under 6GB, yet the C-drive itself is showing nearly 9GB used on a 10GB drive. Which explains why it's slowed up.
I've tried showing hidden files and folders, but nothing comes up - still 6GB worth of files. Not sure when it has disappeared, as it's been at around 80% used for a while, but I've cleaned a lot of stuff off and it's still higher than it used to be...I'd guess it's been building up for a while...which itself confuses me.
So where has it gone?!?
Have I got some smart virus / spyware lodged in there?
Can Windows just not add-up?
In short...WTF?!?
Thanks for any advice guys,
Martin
PS - have used disk cleanup to delete all the dross; have reviewed all downloads and Temp files / Temp internet files* and deleted anything I can...so without deleting programmes**, there's little more I can do.
* Which despite being empty is showing at 330MB folder size!
** Just Windows and utilities on C - games etc. on the next partition.
If you right-click on the C: drive and see the space used, and then select all the top level files and directories (including all hidden files) and right-click the selection to show the space used, logically they ought to be the same.
I remember reading that they aren't.
As far as I remember, the reason is that Windows Explorer only shows information about files you can see, and there are some files that it won't show you. The main ones are the Internet Explorer cache files and type-ahead history. Even if you clear the browser history, empty the cache etc via tools/options you won't delete all of these files. You can't see them in Windows Explorer (even with 'show hidden files' selected). You can see them under DOS if you know what their names are but they don't show up in DOS directory listings. Basically they are very well hidden and you won't find them without a struggle.
It is possible to remove them, and the instructions weren't that long, but they varied depending exactly what version of Windows you are running and how it is configured, how many IE upgrades you've had installed and so on and I don't remember all the details. One of the ways they are hidden is via a desktop.ini file to associate the contents of a directory with a system class recognised by Windows Explorer. For instance on my system I see a bunch of folders under C:Documents and SettingsDefault UserLocal SettingsTemporary Internet Files that appear to be empty but aren't.
I suggest you run CCleaner, flush the browser cache and history, empty all the temp folders you can find (there will be several), empty the trash can. If you are still missing space then look for any folders under documents and settings with numerical names and apparently no content, and delete them (and empty the trash can again).
Backup anything important to you first.
I remember reading that they aren't.
As far as I remember, the reason is that Windows Explorer only shows information about files you can see, and there are some files that it won't show you. The main ones are the Internet Explorer cache files and type-ahead history. Even if you clear the browser history, empty the cache etc via tools/options you won't delete all of these files. You can't see them in Windows Explorer (even with 'show hidden files' selected). You can see them under DOS if you know what their names are but they don't show up in DOS directory listings. Basically they are very well hidden and you won't find them without a struggle.
It is possible to remove them, and the instructions weren't that long, but they varied depending exactly what version of Windows you are running and how it is configured, how many IE upgrades you've had installed and so on and I don't remember all the details. One of the ways they are hidden is via a desktop.ini file to associate the contents of a directory with a system class recognised by Windows Explorer. For instance on my system I see a bunch of folders under C:Documents and SettingsDefault UserLocal SettingsTemporary Internet Files that appear to be empty but aren't.
I suggest you run CCleaner, flush the browser cache and history, empty all the temp folders you can find (there will be several), empty the trash can. If you are still missing space then look for any folders under documents and settings with numerical names and apparently no content, and delete them (and empty the trash can again).
Backup anything important to you first.
Tim - yes. Not that daft! 
zippo - how do I clean it out? - can only find the shortcut to activate it, and don't want to do that without being sure what I'm up to.
Ged - recycle bin emptied regularly. How do I find out my pagefile size?
Tim A - ran it, there is a problem on one of the Temp'y Internet Folders. Need to reboot before I can run it in fix mode. Doubt that'd be the whole cause though...
Yep, that's the 330MB or whatever it is! Hence my initial concern about virus/spyware.
Had already cleared out the Temp folders that I could find.
Thanks for the advice guys,
Martin.
zippo - how do I clean it out? - can only find the shortcut to activate it, and don't want to do that without being sure what I'm up to.
Ged - recycle bin emptied regularly. How do I find out my pagefile size?
Tim A - ran it, there is a problem on one of the Temp'y Internet Folders. Need to reboot before I can run it in fix mode. Doubt that'd be the whole cause though...
GreenV8S said:
For instance on my system I see a bunch of folders under C
ocuments and SettingsDefault UserLocal SettingsTemporary Internet Files that appear to be empty but aren't.
ocuments and SettingsDefault UserLocal SettingsTemporary Internet Files that appear to be empty but aren't. Yep, that's the 330MB or whatever it is! Hence my initial concern about virus/spyware.
GreenV8S said:
I suggest you run CCleaner, flush the browser cache and history, empty all the temp folders you can find (there will be several), empty the trash can. If you are still missing space then look for any folders under documents and settings with numerical names and apparently no content, and delete them (and empty the trash can again).
Backup anything important to you first.
Thanks Peter, might just try and track that down. Watch this space... Backup anything important to you first.
Had already cleared out the Temp folders that I could find.
Thanks for the advice guys,
Martin.
Is your PC a Dell, Tiny, Time or some such? These generally have a hidden partition containing a copy of the Windows install as it came from the factory. It doesn't show up in Windows Explorer or My Computer but if you use a disk partitioning program you can generally see it as unused space with no name. It might just be that.
Go to the command prompt (Start>Run and type "cmd".
1. Type "C:". Enter.
2. Type "cd(backslash)". Enter
3. Type "dir/s/a/w". Enter.
Replace "(backslash)" with a backslash (PH doesn't allow the posting of the backslash character). All commands without to be entered without quotes. Note that the slashes in step 3 are forward slashes.
It will run a process and list every file on your hard drive, and after a minute or so (depending on how much stuff you have on your drive) a total file size tally will be shown. I bet you a pint this will account for the "missing" 3gb.
Possible reasons for the discrepancy:
1) You are not actually selecting all files and folders in the count. For example the system restore folder, recycle bin folder and page file do not show up in Explorer by default.
2) There is a discrepancy between actual byte size of files and size taken up by cluster allocations on disk. Think of a cluster as a physical room on your disk, with the rule being that each cluster can only be filled by one file or part of one file. So if the cluster sizes on your disk are 16k, and you have a 1k text file, that text file will be allocated to one cluster and the remaining 15k will never be able to be used and is wasted. Multiply this several thousand times and you get quite a lot of wastage.
3) Something is broken (which I doubt).
Hope this helps.
. 1. Type "C:". Enter.
2. Type "cd(backslash)". Enter
3. Type "dir/s/a/w". Enter.
Replace "(backslash)" with a backslash (PH doesn't allow the posting of the backslash character). All commands without to be entered without quotes. Note that the slashes in step 3 are forward slashes.
It will run a process and list every file on your hard drive, and after a minute or so (depending on how much stuff you have on your drive) a total file size tally will be shown. I bet you a pint this will account for the "missing" 3gb.
Possible reasons for the discrepancy:
1) You are not actually selecting all files and folders in the count. For example the system restore folder, recycle bin folder and page file do not show up in Explorer by default.
2) There is a discrepancy between actual byte size of files and size taken up by cluster allocations on disk. Think of a cluster as a physical room on your disk, with the rule being that each cluster can only be filled by one file or part of one file. So if the cluster sizes on your disk are 16k, and you have a 1k text file, that text file will be allocated to one cluster and the remaining 15k will never be able to be used and is wasted. Multiply this several thousand times and you get quite a lot of wastage.
3) Something is broken (which I doubt).
Hope this helps.
Edited by -DeaDLocK- on Monday 26th February 11:45
-DeaDLocK- said:
I bet you a pint this will account for the "missing" 3gb.
Possible reasons for the discrepancy:
1) You are not actually selecting all files and folders in the count. For example the system restore folder, recycle bin folder and page file do not show up in Explorer by default.
2) There is a discrepancy between actual byte size of files and size taken up by cluster allocations on disk. Think of a cluster as a physical room on your disk, with the rule being that each cluster can only be filled by one file or part of one file. So if the cluster sizes on your disk are 16k, and you have a 1k text file, that text file will be allocated to one cluster and the remaining 15k will never be able to be used and is wasted. Multiply this several thousand times and you get quite a lot of wastage.
3) Something is broken (which I doubt).
Hope this helps.
Possible reasons for the discrepancy:
1) You are not actually selecting all files and folders in the count. For example the system restore folder, recycle bin folder and page file do not show up in Explorer by default.
2) There is a discrepancy between actual byte size of files and size taken up by cluster allocations on disk. Think of a cluster as a physical room on your disk, with the rule being that each cluster can only be filled by one file or part of one file. So if the cluster sizes on your disk are 16k, and you have a 1k text file, that text file will be allocated to one cluster and the remaining 15k will never be able to be used and is wasted. Multiply this several thousand times and you get quite a lot of wastage.
3) Something is broken (which I doubt).
Hope this helps.
Thanks Deadlock.
1) I think a lot of it is to do with the Windows 'hidden' stuff. Recycle bin kept under control, so not that.
2) Possibly, but I was working in Windows Explorer and using the 'size on disk' figures which IIRC account for the cluster dead-space.
3) I doubt that too.
The computer has been used almost exclusively for surfing and for word-processing since it's last rebuild 3+ years ago. If the link Peter provided is 100% true and not anti-MS exaggeration, I suspect this will be the root cause - I guess I've noticed the used space slowly creeping up MORE than I would have expected given I was keeping my Temp files and Recycle bin under control, but up until now not really paid it any attention...it's only now that the C-drive has about 1GB free space left that it's a problem.
Does it have Hibernate active? That'll swipe enough disk space for the RAM image. Swap file, is again hidden on the root of C: and can be rather large.
Bosh System Restore on the head and then turn it on again and reduce the amount of space it can use (i.e. clear out it's cache and make it behave itself), it is actually really useful. Purge IE/Firefox cache.
3GB of missing space isn't all that much; you'll probably find it being taken up by the above things.
Bosh System Restore on the head and then turn it on again and reduce the amount of space it can use (i.e. clear out it's cache and make it behave itself), it is actually really useful. Purge IE/Firefox cache.
3GB of missing space isn't all that much; you'll probably find it being taken up by the above things.
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