Can't figure out my hard drive space

[db61102]

I have a five year old or so Lenovo laptop running Windows 7 32 bit. I am always at the edge of my hard drive being full, but I can't figure out where it has gone. It's a 320GB drive, and in My Computer it shows it has 7 Gb of 287 free, and a Lenovo Recovery partition, drive letter Q, which I don't really think I need is using 3 out of 9 Gb.

I am looking at the drive in Disktective to see where it has all gone, and most of it is in Users, with an identical size Documents and Settings, both of which are listed as being 121Gb. On another disk space utility, the ancient Disk Space Plus, both show 115Gb. Viewing the Properties of the Users folder in Windows Explorer shows a mere 86Gb.

I understand that Users and Documents and Settings are essentially virtual mirrors of each other, because D&S is shown as a shortcut. But it appears they are both taking up space. Or something else is which I don't see.

So out of 320Gb I have a max of 121Gb in Users/D&S, and then small stuff: Windows 22Gb, Program Files 10Gb, and other misc. data about 30Gb. adding up to 183Gb. Add in my Q partition and it's only about 195Gb or so out of a 320Gb drive. So where did the rest go? Unless both Users and D&S are hogging up equal amounts of space. (The whole folder structure for Users, D&S, My Documents, etc. have always confused me. I like the old school method of having the OS, programs, and data easy to find in their separate folders.)

I'm sure I'm missing something simple. Any help appreciated.

Thanks,

David

 

[aparnell572]

Documents and settings was the users folder used on windows xp and users has been the standard vista and beyond. Those folder hold local data to the users. Have you dug into the folders to see where the space is being used up? Large downloads etc?

PS I wouldn't suggest removing the recovery partition since would remove your only easy way out to reinstall the OS.

 

[db61102]

I have thoroughly dug through my folders to see what's in there. My question, again, to paraphrase was:

Why don't the numbers even come close to agreeing, from the sum of the folder sizes to the hard drive space used?

Users and D&S aren't each counted, since they are identical, are they?

David

 

[mjslakeridge]

Download WinDirStat. It has a graphical feature that when you drag your mouse over each "box" it shows the file name and size. Then you can click on "show parent" (or something like that) and it will go to the parent folder in list view.

I have use this several times to see what was filling up my HDD. Microsoft had downloaded some huge file related to Office 2013, which I don't even have installed.

 

[db61102]

I somehow didn't ask my question clearly.

I have looked into the folders on my hard drive to see where my disk space is gone, and can see it clearly. Unless Documents and Settings, and Users both contain actual duplicate files of each other, and are actually using the exact amount of disk space as each other, there is no other explanation about where my disk space has gone.

If someone has an answer to my question, I'd appreciate it.

David

 

[aparnell572]

Without having the pc in front of it's difficult to give the exact answer which is why we are offering troubleshooting advice. I'm assuming this pc is a dinosaur from the wins 7 32 bit. The easiest fix would be a fresh install, I know you're not getting the answer you want but it's a solution. I had a pc I hadn't formatted in over 5 years and I discovered that was just 100gb of unaccounted space just missing. Good luck