Properly checking HDD free space?

Only had my machine a couple of weeks and have barely installed anything bar Firefox and Steam.

Was casually checking HDD used space, and noticed that it says (for a 500GB HDD) that there is 354GB used of a possible 458GB. Now I know that when an HDD is formatted that you lose some space, hence the 458GB figure (I could be a couple of GB out with that 458, but it is close to that)

But, checking my folders, I have only used something like 60GB of space with my steam stuff - with Firefox and a DVD burning program being the only other things I have installed.

I seem to be about 30GB out from what I actually seem to have used. So where is that 30GB gone and how do I accurately check HDD space usage? Thanks.

 

Did you already include the space for your OS plus its updates? I use windirstat to check my hdd usage because it breaks it down really well to folders, and free!

 

Do you kids/people actually call the base 2 to base 10 conversion "formatting? I really want to know as I think I might be very far behind the times. If you do so be it, I will give in but I absolutely think it is a major concession to a reduced level of intelligence.

On your 30GB not sure. Consider the size of files vs space used to store are not the same. But I think Windows tells you all that.

 

This "kid" is 48 I can only apologise for my puny brain and think it best I lock myself away in my home and never again attempt to communicate with anyone for fear of insulting them with my lack of intelligence.

 

Perform a Disk Clean up (under your hdd property), select all the options, then go on the "more option tab" and click on clean up under "system restore and shadow copy". If you have never done this you may be surprised by how much space it will free up.

Also consider the space used by your Swap File.

 

There will be a factory partition on the HD which will account for some of the original size difference to the actual available - use disk manager to see it. Windows also has some hidden files such as a swap file and a hibernate file that can also account for some space 'loss', but not 30Gb worth! I use a program I found years ago called spacemonger that gives you a graphical representation of usage and shows everything - maybe worth tracking down and checking out.

HTH, and no idea why the earlier poster got so annoyed, not like you made any dumb statements IMO

 

Hi Retro,

did you get this sorted and do you know where the missing space has gone too? The restore partition will probably account for why you only have 458 available on C Drive. If you go to Admin Tools and then select Disk Management it will give you a breakdown of your disks and partitions and tell you the size and amount of free space.

 

Couldn't find anything obvious to be honest. I have checked all folders (both visible and hidden) and totted up pretty much spot on how much space each folder takes, and I still seem to be missing 25-30 gigs somewhere.

Even allowing for recovery etc, it is still way off. And as it is only a couple of weeks old, stuff like system restore doesn't take up much room yet.

I'll sit down properly at the weekend when I have more time and check it all thoroughly. It isn't the end of the world, bu part of me just got concerned because my cousin has a dell which suddenly started giving him warning messages that he had no HDD space left.

Now, he only ever uses his laptop for internet access and has never installed any other programs other than Firefox and also downloaded a couple of hundred photos off his camera.

Despite that, his HDD showed as being full and we could never figure out what caused it and had to do a fresh install of windows. Just don't want my HDD space getting slowly sucked up for what appears to be no reason

 

Check out shadow copies as well. It keeps copies of changed files that you cannot see and you can turn it off....

 

edit: double post!

 

This thread reminded me to delete my system restore points.

 

Well I just checked my computer to see how it compares and I found something really interesting and possibly the answer to your question. Firstly in folder options I checked to show hidden files as you did and went in to look at my C Drive.

The drive size is 223GB as listed in My Computer and it has 87GB free so I should be able to find approximately 136GB of files and programs. Firstly I just moved the cursor onto a folder (Program Files) click on it but don't open and after a couple seconds I get an information window telling me it is 17.9 GB so I do this for all folders and find I have 72GB of files. 72+87=159GB so I have lost 64GB.

So I go back to Program Files but this time I right click and select properties it tell me 19.3GB so I do this for all folders and I add everything up again and I get including the free space 195GB; 28GB short of what it should be and very close to yours.

I go back into folder options and uncheck 'hide protected operating system files' and suddenly on the C Drive two big fat files appear; pagefile.sys and hiberfile.sys and these combined add up to 29GB and I can account for all my space. Try unchecking 'hide protected operating system files'.