Solved Missing HD space on laptop

[DavidE]

That is the free space ~ 10GB

That is strange. Normally WinDirStat lists only files/folders. That must be a file too.

Right Click on free space and click Explorer here.
See where that opens Explorer, and what is there.

I would run a System File Check and a Check Disk.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html

 

[whs]

Quick question. if I have to look at Folder-Properties to check for size, How is it different from selecting all folders of C:\ and checking their size at one go?

Then you don't know where the elephant is.

 

[nkaufman]

That is the free space ~ 10GB

That is strange. Normally WinDirStat lists only files/folders. That must be a file too.

Right Click on free space and click Explorer here.
See where that opens Explorer, and what is there.

I would run a System File Check and a Check Disk.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html

I ran chkdsk before and it ran fine without any problem. No issues found.

Will run SFC and post.

 

[DavidE]

Did you right click on free space in WirDirStat and click Explorer here to see what free space is ?

 

[nkaufman]

Did you right click on free space in WirDirStat and click Explorer here to see what free space is ?

In the picture that I uploaded for WinDirStat, I clicked on <Free Space> in the top left pane. doing that selected the big grey space in the bottom panel. However, there is no option to choose "Explorer" from this <Free Space> or the "Grey Area".

This could be an issue.

 

[DavidE]

In WirDirStat Options there is a Show Free Space option, that's probably checked and would explain seeing Free Space listed.

In the Options there is also a Show Unknown option.
Make sure that is checked, and see what is listed for Unknown.

 

[nkaufman]

In WirDirStat Options there is a Show Free Space option, that's probably checked and would explain seeing Free Space listed.

In the Options there is also a Show Unknown option.
Make sure that is checked, and see what is listed for Unknown.

That was gold

Yes, Option for Free Space was selected.

Selected Show Unknown in Options and SEE the missing 26.9GB as Unknown space.and total space in WinDirStat is now 95.7GB which is consistent with explorer, disk mgmt etc.

Right click on either on top left pane or bottom pane do no show any context menu to choose Explorer.

So, now that we know that this space is "Unknown Space" what is the solution to make it "Known Space"

Thanks,

 

[DavidE]

So, now that we know that this space is "Unknown Space" what is the solution to make it "Known Space"

I found an article that someone posted with:

Richard says:
2014-12-28 at 21:17
Hey guys, in response to my own post of 12-28, I found VSS was NOT the problem, as it was already off. I did find the problem though.

WinDirStat seems to have an issue with VERY long filenames (as in recursive directories). So I found another utility that is very similar to WinDirStat which could handle the long filenames (so long that Windows will not delete them nor recycle them).
I love WinDirStat, so I am not going to be brash about competitive products, but I DO SINCERELY HOPE this gets fixed soon. If you want more info, you might search SevenForums.com. Thanks guys, LOVE your product despite the bug.

Source: What is “<Unknown>”? | WinDirStat propaganda blog

Unfortunately he doesn't say what other product he found, or give links to SevenForums threads.
You could try TreeSize Free and see if it shows more info for the WinDirStat Unknown Space ???
TreeSize Free - Quickly Scan Directory Sizes and Find Space Hogs
If you want the portable version, download the Zipped Executable version.

 

[whs]

If you right click on the unknown space, is there a Delete option ?

 

[nkaufman]

If you right click on the unknown space, is there a Delete option ?

No. There is no context menu when I right click on either the space (in bottom pane) or the listing in top left pane

 

[DavidE]

Did you try TreeSize Free ?
Here are a couple of threads i found where using it helped solve the issue:
http://www.sevenforums.com/performa...ace-67-5gb-unknown-cab-file-wasted-space.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/performa...-space-external-drive-lost-1tb-2tb-drive.html

 

[nkaufman]

Did you try TreeSize Free ?
Here are a couple of threads i found where using it helped solve the issue:
http://www.sevenforums.com/performa...ace-67-5gb-unknown-cab-file-wasted-space.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/performa...-space-external-drive-lost-1tb-2tb-drive.html

Worked!!!

TreeSize did what WinDirStat could not. It gave a folder - VMWareDnD (in Temp Folder) - that seemed to be having a bunch of files. I know where the issue is, who the culprit is now and have now fixed it.

Thanks DavidE and whs for your suggestions.

 

[whs]

Very good. The honors go to David. Please give him reps because I can't yet.