Where is my disk space going?

[wooleysdad]

OK - I know this type of question has been hashed, re-hashed and re-re-hashed, but I will ask anyway.

Disk properties on my 300 GB C drive show:
· Used space 185GB
· Free 94GB

When I check folder by folder using any number of methods it adds up to about 105 or so GB used. This includes hovering over folders in Explorer, and using a utility called Free Disk Analyzer. So where's my missing 70 to 80 GB?

I would swear up until a few weeks ago I was using only about 1/2 that space - around 100GB. I did not add anything that would make up even a fraction of the additional usage.

I am using Windows 7 Pro.

I know there can be a number of explanations, but I am still wondering if anybody has suggestions. I did a bunch of analysis but with the huge number of files on drives these days, you really have to know what you are looking for or you’ll be slogging through forever.

Thanks for reading this.

Wooleysdad

 

[Mike Connor]

OK - I know this type of question has been hashed, re-hashed and re-re-hashed, but I will ask anyway.

Disk properties on my 300 GB C drive show:
· Used space 185GB
· Free 94GB

When I check folder by folder using any number of methods it adds up to about 105 or so GB used. This includes hovering over folders in Explorer, and using a utility called Free Disk Analyzer. So where's my missing 70 to 80 GB?

I would swear up until a few weeks ago I was using only about 1/2 that space - around 100GB. I did not add anything that would make up even a fraction of the additional usage.

I am using Windows 7 Pro.

I know there can be a number of explanations, but I am still wondering if anybody has suggestions. I did a bunch of analysis but with the huge number of files on drives these days, you really have to know what you are looking for or you’ll be slogging through forever.

Thanks for reading this.

Wooleysdad

Try this;

WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics

Restore points and a lot of other stuff can use a lot of space.

You might also like to try this;

http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

This can remove old restore points, and a lot of other stuff.

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[wooleysdad]

MIke - Thanks very much. I will try those. I have CCleaner but have probably not made optimal use of it.


I just wanted to add - is it possible that slack space because of allocation unit/cluster size could cause this? It doesn't seem likely to cause such a discrepancy..

Wlooeysdad

 

[Mike Connor]

MIke - Thanks very much. I will try those. I have CCleaner but have probably not made optimal use of it.


I just wanted to add - is it possible that slack space because of allocation unit/cluster size could cause this? It doesn't seem likely to cause such a discrepancy..

Wlooeysdad

Cluster sizes can affect the used space, especially if you are using a large number of small files. But it wont normally make much difference on a "Standard" home user PC.

Usually, the "lost" space is being taken up by all kinds of system files. Windows ( and unfortunately Windows 7 as well), is a very "dirty" system, it produces all kinds of rubbish that just eats space. You have to give it a clean now and then.

You should also use the built-in disk cleanup utility. Right-click on the drive you want to clean, choose "Properties";

and then "Disk Cleanup" in the box to the lower right of the pie-chart;



The space which can be freed up will be calculated,




and you will be given checkboxes for items you wish to delete;



Just check them all and let the utility delete them.

If you have never done this before it can take a while, and will free up a lot of space.

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[wooleysdad]

I like Mike

Mike - You nailed it!! It was the restore points. I just added about 46 GB of disk by removing about 15 points. Of course I now realize I probably have this set much too high. And now I see how CCleaner can do other stuff. And I can't spell my own nickname (last post).

Thanks again Mike!

Eliot (easier to spell - yes, that's how it's spelled)

 

[Mike Connor]

Mike - You nailed it!! It was the restore points. I just added about 46 GB of disk by removing about 15 points. Of course I now realize I probably have this set much too high. And now I see how CCleaner can do other stuff. And I can't spell my own nickname (last post).

Thanks again Mike!

Eliot (easier to spell - yes, that's how it's spelled)

I don't mind how you spell your nickname. "Wlooeysdad" or "wooleysdad". It must be you, or the user nickname would be different !!!

My pleasure. Run the disk cleanup and you will get even more back.

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[Mike Connor]

Also, although you may get varying opinions on this, I prefer not to use system restore, or Windows Backup either. I use imaging and file backup as my backup strategies, and I want to keep my system images small.

Restore just bloats the image size, and I have never found it to be very reliable anyway.

I don't use Windows Backup for the same reason. I have these things disabled.

I keep my system and my data separate. I can image my system in just under three minutes, and I use an incremental file backup for data.

This is what I use to do it;

Free Download EASEUS Todo Backup Freeware and Trial version. Complete Backup and Restore Software for Windows & Linux.

it is free for home users, and I have found it to be first class. I image at least once a day, more often if I am installing or trying various stuff. ( Which I do a lot). The Windows stuff was just too unreliable.

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[whs]

The Windows stuff was just too unreliable

That is my observation too. Even since XP times all Windows backup facilities were flawed. It all seems to come out of the same MS development group - and they do not seem to learn.

The OEM products are a lot better and reliable. I use this one for imaging. But Mike's option is good too. With Windows imaging I trashed 3 CDs in the first step trying to burn a recovery disk. Now I image thru cmd (Wbadmin) if I want to use windows facilities - which is rare.

 

[Mike Connor]

The Windows stuff was just too unreliable

That is my observation too. Even since XP times all Windows backup facilities were flawed. It all seems to come out of the same MS development group - and they do not seem to learn.

The OEM products are a lot better and reliable. I use this one for imaging. But Mike's option is good too. With Windows imaging I trashed 3 CDs in the first step trying to burn a recovery disk. Now I image thru cmd (Wbadmin) if I want to use windows facilities - which is rare.

I still use Macrium on a couple of my XP machines, mainly because I never got around to changing it, and it works!

Unfortunately, Macrium will not run on this machine. Or to be more accurate, the boot recovery media will not run. It also does not run on a lot of machines with certain graphic cards, or on-board graphic chips.

I have messed on installing it using BART PE, ( the Macrium forums had a link showing how to do this, don't know if they still have), but this is an awful mess on, and not at all suited for the average user.

If it runs, then great. I also found it to be reliable.

I do find the incremental file backup in the Easeus product to be very good indeed, and the new version ( 2.5 ) has further added enhancements. Also, it is very fast. At least as fast as Macrium, possibly a tick faster, ( which up to using the Easeus product, and testing many others, I thought was the fastest). This incidentally includes various professional commercial products.

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[whs]

Mike, you made me curious. I think I will try Easeus one day. A long time ago (on Vista) I had a bad experience once with it. Since then I had not touched it. But I am sure that was either my own mistake or it has been corrected.

But the Macrium boot disk problem I have not seen myself. I run it on 6 PCs (desktops and laptops from 2007 to 2010) plus on a few of my friends systems. And have made recoveries on all those systems. Must be a driver restriction in the Linux part.

 

[Mike Connor]

Mike, you made me curious. I think I will try Easeus one day. A long time ago (on Vista) I had a bad experience once with it. Since then I had not touched it. But I am sure that was either my own mistake or it has been corrected.

But the Macrium boot disk problem I have not seen myself. I run it on 6 PCs (desktops and laptops from 2007 to 2010) plus on a few of my friends systems. And have made recoveries on all those systems. Must be a driver restriction in the Linux part.

Vista was one of those things I personally "skipped" ! Like "2000" and "ME". I had to mess about with them occasionally on other machines, but that was never a particularly enjoyable experience!

The boot disk problem with Macrium occurs a lot here. It doesn't like a lot of the low-end on-board graphic chips, and a number of the ATI cards as well. I corresponded with Macrium about it, and they did offer some solutions, but they weren't worth my time to implement.

I still think the product is good, I just accept that it wont work on some machines. I have not yet found a machine where the Easeus stuff does not work. I like their partition manager too.

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[dsperber]

Just in passing, I'd like to recommend a NON-FREE software product named "Treesize Professional", which I've been using forever.

This is a super-slick, useful, worthwhile, helpful, informative, user-friendly (and anything else you can think of that's a positive adjective) to provide exactly the kind of information which will tell you EXACTLY what your usage is, on all of your drives (including network drives if you want).

Detail lists, pie chart, bar chart, ownership details, create date, modify date, last access date, analysis, history, etc., and you can perform standard Explorer functions within its own standard Explorer interface.

Click on column headings, and sort the rows by the information in that column (click again and it's in reverse sequence by that column)... so it's either alphabetical, by-size, by date, by whatever... Or, you can just push one of the buttons on the button bar to sort accordingly.

Customize the columns shown. Customize the flyout help.

Ok. I have no personal interest in this software, but I use it so much and have done so for years that I really must recommend it. It gets 5-stars from me.

And it would have easily shown the "System Volume Information" folder as the "culprit". And yes, clearing out old unneeded restore points as well as reducing the setting for the creation of new restore points is the obvious proper long-term solution.

Again... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for exactly this kind of use, not to mention just a terrific utility to have in your arsenal.

Treesize Professional. Try it. You'll like it.

 

[Mike Connor]

Looks pretty good, but I like this;

GetFolderSize download and reviews from SnapFiles

integrates into explorer if desired, and is free.

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[whs]

Mike, now that you mention it I remember it was their partition manager that mucked up my Vista OS partition. Fortunately I had Ghost14 images and could easily recover.

There is one restriction I had noticed with the Macrium recovery CD. It does not work with USB3. I had made images on a USB3 external disk and had to restore via USB2 - but that worked. I suspect that this is also a Linux driver problem.

 

[Mike Connor]

Mike, now that you mention it I remember it was their partition manager that mucked up my Vista OS partition. Fortunately I had Ghost14 images and could easily recover.

There is one restriction I had noticed with the Macrium recovery CD. It does not work with USB3. I had made images on a USB3 external disk and had to restore via USB2 - but that worked. I suspect that this is also a Linux driver problem.

Indeed, I think some of the earlier versions were not too reliable.

I only tried Easeus on Windows 7 because I had problems with Macrium, ( as you say, a Linux driver problem most likely), and some other programs. I am really pleased and satisfied with the results, and would not now revert even if I could.

Regards....Mike Connor