What's going on? (large amounts of data missing)

I looked at the available room on my HDD, there was a lot of space used that shouldn't be.

When I did a disk defrag I noticed a huge amount of files were fragmented. When it finished it said there was ~16GB that it couldn't defrag. Picture

How did that happen, and how can I fix it? It says the problem file is named local, but that file doesnt exist within the Fred file.

Also sometimes when I turn the volume up on the computer and it's playing a song, the HDD light will come on and the computer will lock up (even though it isn't doing anything) and will stay like that untill the song gets to a quiet spot. Is it possible that the magnetism of the speakers is inerfering with the HDD and / or other components?

 

Do you use a program that "shreds" data (those powerful eraser programs)?

If so, that can cause problems with your HD.

 

Sounds like the might be been damaged, have you run scan disk or some other diagnostic? I would back up all important data, then try a full format, you might not get full capacity, but it might reolve stability issues, it could be as simple as a virus, or something like exessive heat or sudden shock/impact. Has it been dropped, even from as low as a few inches? Being subjected to sudden tempreture drops can be very damaging to, such as a few hours in a cold car, then being brough in and fired up immediately.

As stated, first thing backup all your important stuff, then play around with it, hard drives are fairly cheap and easily replaced, so you've got that going for you, and if you replace it, you could always pick up a cheap $10-$20 external enclosure and use the old one as a portable , though perhaps not too reliable back up drive. Good luck with it.

 

Actually it's the subdirectory 'Local Settings' under your XP account name. So there must be a file or several files that total up to 16GB that cannot be defragmented, but I am not sure why there would be so much data sitting there. Can you find out what kind of data files are in 'Local Settings' that takes up so much space?

 

I would just run Defrag again. And a scandisk first. I defragged my drive once under XP and when I hit analze afterward it told me to do it again!

 

Well, the Fred folder says it is 38 GB. But all the folders within the fred folder add up to only 18 GB. It's like there is another folder that is invisible. Even when I did a search for "local settings" nothing came up.

 

Actually there are 6 folders and 3 files under your account directory that is set to "hidden" by XP by default, unless you have set the option under Folder Options to Show Hidden Files and Folders. "Local Settings" is one of those folders set to hidden. It still doesn't explain why Defragmenter couldn't defrag 16GB unless those are system files (which tend to be un-defragable).

 

Ok now that I can see the file, the one named temp is 25 GB :|

Do I actually need anything in there? The big files are from adobe named "photoshop temp". Those range from 300 MB all the way to 16 GB.

 

Yes, anything in Temp folder is for temporary use during some applications. It's safe to delete everything in there. I recommend installing CCleaner and let it clean your PC every once a while, as it is quite good at finding un-used and old files and deleting them for you. Hopefully this takes care of that 16GB problem.