18GB of storage space on SSD has vanished without trace

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  1. MarkC0
    Posts : 153
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       New #1

    18GB of storage space on SSD has vanished without trace


    This picture best explains the issue:


    - I have "show hidden files and folders" enabled and "hide protected OS files" disabled.

    Just a few hours ago this issue was not around. I had about 55-60GB left the last time I checked today. I then transfered 20GB of data over to my Steam directory, launched Steam so it updated my games into it's Library, used Driver Cleaner to remove leftover NVIDIA drivers from a previous uninstall, and then restarted.

    When the computer started up I noticed I was missing the space, but the Steam folder was still the same size (~20GB) and nothing seemed out of place. That is when I decided to look at the file properties and noticed the discrepancy.

    What is the issue here?
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  3. Pauly
    Posts : 2,573
    Win7 Ultimate X64
       New #2

    Good free app to track disk usage WinDirStat check it out
    WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics
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  4. Pauly
    Posts : 2,573
    Win7 Ultimate X64
       New #3

    One other thing windows backups will report their size as 0 bytes even though they are many GBs in reality, manually opening them and closing them again will allow them to reveal their true size when looking at disk usage
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  6. Brink
    Posts : 72,049
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       New #4

    Hello Mark,

    In addition, you might also check the items listed in the tutorial below to see how much space they are using and if you may be able to trim it any.

    Hard Disk Space - Free Up and Recover

    Hope this helps, :)
    Shawn
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  7. MarkC0
    Posts : 153
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       New #5

    Using WinDir:
    By default it shows 73.5GB of used space.
    After enabling the "show free space" tab, it shows 93.5GB of used space.
    None of the folder sizes increase. They still add up to just 73.5GB

    o_0
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  8. braddersz
    Posts : 427
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
       New #6

    I don't think this is the issue your experiancing.

    But i've seen this before, Where a Virus had been writting 100,000 's of files to the system Using up GB's of space.

    I dont think this will be your issue. But if everything else fails. Just investigate it.
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  10. Pauly
    Posts : 2,573
    Win7 Ultimate X64
       New #7

    It seems strange that you copied 20GB of data now you are short exactly 20GB
    have you emptied recycle bin for old files ?
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  11. MarkC0
    Posts : 153
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       New #8

    It's a coincidence heh, I was actually short only 18.5GB but ended up deleting some random installation files. The 1.5GB saved from that adjusted the same from each reading so I didn't mention it.
    As for other things I didn't mention, I used CCleaner as well and it's not finding more than a few hundred MB.

    How do restores work? I recently changed it to use a lot more space as I was installing dozens of things... could it be the culprit?
    EDIT: Holy smokes 37 restore points are saved...
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  12. braddersz
    Posts : 427
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
       New #9

    What Size partition have you allowed SYstem Restore to have?.

    Check:

    Click on Start menu - Right click on my computer go to properties - then click system protection, then selectthe System Protection Tab - then click on Configure.

    what size is it set to?.
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  13. MarkC0
    Posts : 153
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       New #10

    22GB
    System Volume Information folder is showing itself as 0 bytes.

    Unfortunately I can't delete my restores just yet to test, but looks like it must be that...
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