Vista calculate used space wrong???

Hi,

I have a HP dv2700t: core2 T7250, 2Gb ram, 160 HDD, Vista home premium. When i view properties of C:, it show 32 GB used space. But when I choose all of files and folders in C: (included hidden files and folders), total space calculation is just 15.8GB. So where is the rest of space? Vista calculate wrong? Anyone know the reason, please help me explain.
Thank you in advance.

 

A large part of it is that the "System Volume Information" shows up as zero size because you do not have permission to access it, but in reality it is many GB large.

Read more here: http://www.technologyquestions.com/...asure-size-svi-system-volume-information.html

 

Data that is not shown (in the files and folders in C: 15.8GB), is the space used for Rescue and Recovery backups. This is used for System Restores. To see a more accurate display of space used you also have to uncheck - "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)" from the View Folder Options (see attachment), not just the ("include hidden files and folders"). You can always Hide the operating system files after you experiment if you wish (I recommend you recheck and HIDE the protected files again after you finish). Remember, you will never get the two sets of total space used to be exactly the same. It is just the way files and space are seen in the two views.

If you want to see a more detailed view of your directories, files, and space you can use a program such as TreeSize which is free.

 

I don't know what version of Vista you have, but Shadow Copy (Vista's Backup and Restore) will take 15% of your partition size by default. So with a 137GB partition, it will take up 20GB roughly. I'm sure if you enable view system files as deeastman states, it will show you the entire amount of data. Microsoft hides these files because it doesn't people to have access by default and screw up the OS by accidentally deleting or modifying system files.

 

Thank you very much for your explain.