Where Are All My Gigs?

xptowindows7 said:

Dzomlija said:

According to your screenshot, you have more than enough free space on the drive (254GB), so I'm going to assume that you have a 320GB hard disk, and are concerned about why the system is only showing 254GB free of 298GB?

There are various explanations, but the most common is because drive manufacturers count drive capacities in decimal units of 1000MB (1GB), but Windows (and every other OS in existance) uses binary units of 1024MB (1GB), and this is where the imbalance comes from.

What also affects total reported capacity are various houskeeping allocations on the hard disk, such as partition tables, boot records, file systems, etc.

The following table shows what my own hard disks are reportng:
No code has to be inserted here.You shouldn't be too concerned over this, as this is perfectly normal.

Yes, it is a 320 gigs listed,so according to your xplanation here,which I am aware of, I should be "actually" getting around >>298 gigs, but that does not xplain the 40 + missing Gigs?

I can understand a couple of gigs for Windows 7 and programs,but 40 gigs?

How many programs did you install? Also do you have outlook w/lots of emails?
40GB's is not unreasonable for an updated windows 7 with a lot of programs.

You may want to try accessing your temporary files folders...

type the following into the Start Menu search box, pressing enter each time

%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Temp
%systemroot\Temp

select all files in both locations and delete them (holding shift)

   Note

Windows disk cleanup tool does not get rid of ALL temp files so this is the best approach when it comes to cleanup. You may be prompted that some files are in use, just skip them and continue

OS

This tutorial at the link below shows how to run an extended disk cleanup.


Disk Cleanup : Extended

WinSXS will take up a lot of room after all updates have been applied.
BUT DO NOT MESS WITH THIS FOLDER, LEAVE IT ALONE.

Also,,, are you running Win7 32bit or 64bit? Is it ultimate or Pro, or actaul Enterprise?

Temp Inet files and Cookies can take up some space.
Installed Programs
Temp Files
Virtual Data Folder under your profile.
WinSXS
Update Uninstall folders
Possible hidden update folders that didn't get removed properly after updating, (which does happen on rare occasions).
Page Files
Hibernation File

Will all take up space.

Minimum HDD space for 32bit is 16GB, but that is way way way too small, you will eat through that real fast.

Second, 64bit requires 20GB, again, that will go quick.


Also, As recommended, Get WindirStat or Xinorbis, they will tell you everything you want to know about all the space taken up on your system.

@"Missing Gigs"
It could be Hidden and/or System Folders you have not checked (I.E. System Information)

Also, it could be because of cluster size. Explaination: Different in File Size & Size on Disk