Help!!! Drive suddenly has lots more space!!

[GamerOfEpic]

Okay, the title might be a bit confusing, but let me explain. I'm about to panic here, so bear with me. I previously (yesterday) had over half of my 1TB hard drive filled up, mostly game files and programs. I just turned my computer on a bit ago and all of a sudden it says I have 788 of 931GB free. Yesterday it was over half full. Where did all those files go?! Were they temporary files or something?

To clear some stuff up, I have decent knowledge of computers, my current one being a $1000 gaming rig I built myself. I know quite a bit, like how to RAID drives together, use the CMD console to check disks and drive paths, etc. I highly doubt it was a virus, since I use a good antivirus (Avast) and I always check the site URL before I click.

Any help would be appreciated. In case anyone asks, my drive is a Western Digital Blue 1TB. It's about 8/9 months old.

 

[thx1138v2]

They could have been temporary files but it's impossible to say for sure. Try running everything you have installed and if everything runs then you are OK. If not, your drive may be corrupted. Chkdsk may give you some more information.

BTW, a one byte file can be much larger depending on your allocation size. If your allocation size is 4k then a file with one byte of data takes up 4k because that is the minimum allocation size. So deleting a lot of really small files will free up more space than you think just by looking at the file sizes. You probably knew that but a reminder never hurts.

 

[darkone999]

Hi GamerOfEpic

If u continue to have issues check connection to sata port and change sata cable.Try connecting to another sata port. I once had a sata port going bad and almost pitched a HD because I was having read/write failures all the time. I tried switching sata cables and changing sata ports and that fixed my issue. Found out my #4 sata port was going bad I think due to wear on the connectors in the port its self.

Have you tried CrystalDiskInfo it is free software that will give u detailed info on your drive including hours the drive had been in operation during its lifespan and advise you on errors or issue that may be leading to a HD failure. I use it and it is a decent program. I hate to say this but tread lightly as I had this issue twice. Once on a WD HD 1TB and once on a 64gig USb pin drive. Both died without warning within two weeks and I lost everything on them. I know I am not telling you anything u do not already know but I would not trust putting many files on the drive until u know the HD is not the issue.

Good Luck
Tim

 

[GamerOfEpic]

They could have been temporary files but it's impossible to say for sure. Try running everything you have installed and if everything runs then you are OK. If not, your drive may be corrupted. Chkdsk may give you some more information.

BTW, a one byte file can be much larger depending on your allocation size. If your allocation size is 4k then a file with one byte of data takes up 4k because that is the minimum allocation size. So deleting a lot of really small files will free up more space than you think just by looking at the file sizes. You probably knew that but a reminder never hurts.

Perfect, thanks! The allocation size IS 4k, turns out. It probably was just temporary files, since I can still launch all of my games.

I'm not gonna worry about it too much, all my important stuff and games are still there. Thanks for the help!