HDD showing incorrect free space, wasn't last night!

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  1. Posts : 9
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #1

    HDD showing incorrect free space, wasn't last night!


    Hi,

    I just signed up and this is my first post, I have checked into this already but I'd figure I'd send my issue out here and maybe someone has an answer.

    My system specs:

    i7 920
    Asus P6T SE
    6GB ram
    Hitachi 4TB 7K4000 (Storage/back up drive)
    WD 2TB Caviar Black (OS drive)
    WD 2TB Caviar Green (back up)
    ATi Radeon HD 3870

    Don't think they are quite necessary but there they are, now my issue basically started last night/early this morning. My 4TB drive (3 weeks old) had about 1.38TB left of free space, I was using about 2.3TB on it of different things, now it is showing up as only 448KB of free space! I checked different forums online and it could really seem like a number of things, which I have tried but no luck yet, last resort is moving things off and format the drive.

    I actually noticed that some of my video files last night would not play at all in any video player, but they were working fine literally several days before, btw last night the drive was showing correct space too. Now the only difference is that I re-installed Windows a few days ago and something happened to my 4TB drive since certain files were not playing, mainly all newer files and conversions were the ones corrupted.

    So, I ran the error checking in Windows last night and let that run overnight, when I awoke I noticed that it had finished (did not take a snapshot - wish I had) and there was no issue with the drive according to the report, it showed correct space free. I also noticed during the recent installation of Windows, while booting and installing, a couple times I saw the "error checking" go through before booting up Windows, I had not seen this previous times installing Windows, but it always finished and showed the correct space and always for the same Hitachi drive, never for my Caviar Green or Black.

    After running the error checking last night, my Hitachi drive basically lost all it's space. Now here's where it gets weird or tricky in defining the issue. I grabbed WinDirStat and ran that, it shows the same info as Windows, 448KB free of 3.6TB, when I click on my 4TB in WinDirStat to go to the second window, it shows nearly 100% usage, but says 2.3TB in space!

    So this is where I'm scratching my head, Windows and the first screen of WinDirStat show the same info, 448KB free of 3.6TB, then when I go into my 4TB drive through WinDirStat, it shows nearly 100% usage of 2.3TB??? This is half correct, it should show 2.3TB being used but not that it's 100% full, I'm just confused here, why in one screen does it say 100% full of 3.6TB then in the next screen it says 2.3TB 100% full.

    I also enabled hidden files, deleted the trash bin of that volume, but nothing. I literally cannot see what is taking up 1.3TB of space that I had available last night. I think manually running that error checking screwed it up somehow and why certain files have just stopped playing, I have no idea.

    So any help would be great, the drive is new so I'm hoping that it's not failing already, but could be, since that was the only drive to automatically go through error checking during win7 installation. If anyone has any idea, how I can locate these hidden or corrupted files and what I can do or what I can delete, that would be greatly appreciated.

    Oh last question, if I do end up formatting this drive, should I do a quick format or full?
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 2,362
    Win7 H.Prem. 32bit+SP1
       #2

    Hi dextrose, welcome to Seven Forums.
    Have a look in

    HDD showing incorrect free space, wasn't last night!-rr.png
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 6,668
    Windows 7 x64
       #3

    I'm sorry I don't have a clear answer for you outside of the format, as something goofy is going on and while I know at least 3 ways to possibly clear up the misreporting for you.
    You really need to find out if the drive is reliable.
    To that end I do suggest the format, following this method (after backing up data of course)
    SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

    After that I would run to Hitachi and get their drive diagnostic tool and check the drive with that before reinstalling windows.
    Downloads

    While as suggested above, this may be fixable through standard disk management it doesn't deal at all with how it happened int he first place. As drives aren't generally keen on paritioning themselves randomly and losing data integrity in video files.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 9
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Hi,

    Thanks for the welcoming and thanks for the quick response. I guess I forgot to mention that, I did check on my drive to see if there were any hidden partitions, it just shows 3759.20 GB NTFS - Healthy Primary Partition.

    I'm quite baffled at the moment, I can't seem to locate this 1.3TB of mysterious space.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 9
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Are you saying I should re-install Windows on my Caviar Black? I am using that as my boot drive and the Hitachi just as storage/back up imaging, but are you suggesting to still redo that install?
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 9
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #6

    Thanks for the links btw, but is there any drive fitness tests for drives over 2-3TB? Hitachi makes a 4TB drive but doesn't have a fitness test for it, haha - or would it actually work still?

    EDIT: Found one, here is a link for people who want to test larger drives:

    http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/sup...loads/seatools
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 6,668
    Windows 7 x64
       #7

    no the fitness one has to be for that specific series or the numbers will appear off even if it runs.
    I misunderstood.
    If it's not the boot drive
    then no don't reinstall windows.
    that wouldn't be required here.
    I do suggest using a more aggressive than normal format method on it when you clean it up though.
    Personally I would disable system restore for that drive.
    It's pointless to try and use system restore for that much data anyhow. Only real option would be an identical mirror drive.

    Finally a random thought inspired by coffee hit my head, have you simply tried doing a complete power cycle down, and swapping out the data cable for the new drive?

    Did it come with it's own cable? because my new ssd did, and the cable was garbage, got all kinds of problems until I replaced the cable.
    The power cycling could also clean up any bad buffer/cache data and other things that could potentially mess with this.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 9
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #8

    Okay, well basically that's what I had in mind if no other options, I will probably have to do a full format for this drive.

    For the cables, I bought some sata cables from monoprice and they have been performing well, I could try swapping them though and see if that makes any difference. I'll give that a try and see if powering down helps.

    I just doubled checked and I have system restore off my non OS drives. Will post any updates if I get this back in order, full format of 4TB is going to take a looooooong time haha.

    Thanks again for the replies.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 2,362
    Win7 H.Prem. 32bit+SP1
       #9

    dextrose, as its only 3 weeks old get a refund/replacement. My choice of HDD is WD.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 644
    Windows 7 home premium x64
       #10

    Roderunner said:
    dextrose, as its only 3 weeks old get a refund/replacement. My choice of HDD is WD.
    Sounds a likely plan to me.:)
      My Computer


 
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