Vanished hard drive space has me confused

Using a WD 1Tb backup hard drive. After using the windows backup function in control panel the properties for the BU drive says it has used 540gb of space. However when I open the HD to view the contents there are only 3 folders. "owner pc" "WindowsImageBackup" and "MediaID.bin" the owner folder says "empty" the windowsimagebackup says "empty" and the mediaID.bin says 528 bytes. Where are the 540gb of backup!!!!!!!!!!!! I can find no folders or anything in the drive when I open it. When the properties are opened it claims 540gb have been used. FOR WHAT!!!!!!!!!!


thanks

Windows Image Backup may show empty if you do not have permission to read it.

whs said:

Tookeri said:

I think this is normal because these files have special permissions. Use Backup and Restore in Control Panel to verify the size of the backups.

If I remember correctly and you try to double-click an empty backup folder you'll see a permissions dialog like this one:

That is correct. But if you click 3 times on "Continue", you will eventually get to the images - provided you are the admin.

I hope I'm the admin, I paid a lot for this machine

Tookeri said:

I think this is normal because these files have special permissions. Use Backup and Restore in Control Panel to verify the size of the backups.

If I remember correctly and you try to double-click an empty backup folder you'll see a permissions dialog like this one:

That's the box I see. I'll follow up with the advice here.

Thanks!!!!