I lost 100 gigs of hard space with no explanation

[rcbeach]

Hello,
I am using windows 7 pro. I have a 320 gig hard drive and within a 2 hour period, the available hard drive space went from 156 gigs to 53 gigs without me doing anything. I lost 100 gigs! After searching through all the files, it appears that there is 100 gigs worth of space that is not actually being used. i have done some searching and it appears that this is a windows 7 problem with no real resolution. I have emptied my recycling bin and i don't have any restore points or backups. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[henydiah]

control panel -Windows Management u can scroll looking your 100Gb HDD & Than u format it NTSF
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Create-and-format-a-hard-disk-partition

 

[das_stig]

You only lose 100MB that W7 creates for diagnostics and recovery, don't touch it.

 

[hang-the-9]

Before you mess with formating your drive, download and install windirstat http://windirstat.info/ Check for any odd large files it comes up with, or directories taking up space. Don't delete anything without posting what you find here first though so you don't accidentally cripple your system.

 

[aford10]

control panel -Windows Management u can scroll looking your 100Gb HDD & Than u format it NTSF
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Create-and-format-a-hard-disk-partition

http://i1238.photobucket.com/albums/ff496/BOSDOT/image04.png

http://i1238.photobucket.com/albums/ff496/BOSDOT/sshot-2009-08-27-15-50-21.png

The OP said 100GB of space lost, not 100MB. So the problem isn't with the recovery partition. Please read very carefully before advising people to format parts or all of their hard drives. This could do much more harm than good.

 

[henydiah]

yes aford... i know 100GB my pic just example disk management, I revisi that
rcbeach can search in windows managemenet maybe still RAW formatted

 

[aford10]

If the OP stated the issue correctly, the space was there, and now isn't. That would indicate that something ate up a bunch of the storage space.

The 320GB total was showing, with 156GB free. Now only 53GB free. That doesn't mean that the OP needs to create a new partition. On a 320GB hard drive, there wouldn't be any unallocated space to create a partition.

 

[rcbeach]

Thanks for the replies. I am not comfortable formatting or partitioning my hard drive and frankly, don't understand why i would need to do so. I had 100 gigs of space and then it was gone. As suggested, I downloaded windirstat.info and it shows that between my c drive (130.7 gb used) and q drive (partition for recovery - 7.2 gb used) I have 137.9 gb used. I also scanned using TreeSize Free and found that my c drive has 131 gb used and q drive has 7.2 gb used. So both of those programs are consistent. However, according to windows my c drive has 219 gb used and the q drive has 7.25 gb used (which is consistent with other scans). So, I am still missing a large number of gb.

 

[Ijack]

Did you run these programs as Administrator (right-click and select "Run as Administrator")? There are some files and directories that a normal user won't be able to enumerate. Try it and see if you get the same results.

 

[aford10]

Try running JDiskreport. You can analyze which drive/folder is/isn't eating up all the space.
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/

 

[rcbeach]

I just ran TreeSize Free as administrator and have 132.3 gb used on C drive (i've been working since last post and added files) and 7.2 gb used on q drive. I then ran WinDirStat as administrator and have 130.9 gb used on c drive and 7.2 gb used on q drive.

I tried running JDiskreport but have been able to get it to run.

 

[rcbeach]

I finally found my lost gbs. My Lenovo backup ran and backed up my hard drive (100 gigs worth) but not only was the file hidden (even when I could see other hidden files) but it didn't even show up in the backup and restore for Lenovo or windows. So, it took up all the space, but if i needed to use the backup to restore my hard drive, it wouldn't have done anything. A friend of mine took the hard drive out of my laptop and went in using linux and was able to see the file. He deleted it and voila, my space is back! I haven't contacted Lenovo yet to find out what to do about invisible back ups. Thanks for all the input.

 

[FknWak]

Hello,
I am using windows 7 pro. I have a 320 gig hard drive and within a 2 hour period, the available hard drive space went from 156 gigs to 53 gigs without me doing anything. I lost 100 gigs! After searching through all the files, it appears that there is 100 gigs worth of space that is not actually being used. i have done some searching and it appears that this is a windows 7 problem with no real resolution. I have emptied my recycling bin and i don't have any restore points or backups. Anyone have any ideas?

I have recently had the same deal with my laptop running windows 7 ultimate. I am referring to my external hard drive though, I have a 1tb and when adding up all the folders i come up with 7/10ths of what is used and no account for the other 3/10ths (700gigs and 300gigs). I have done some research and have found that there is overhead(managed space by your MFT (manage file tray) and it seems like the larger the drive, the more files, the more managed space it needs. Kind of like space that you cannot access or see. Thats the best I have come up with for now, hope that helps a little... Just for the record, I think its excessive but then again I am not a hardware guy so.......

 

[backhome84]

Before you mess with formating your drive, download and install windirstat http://windirstat.info/ Check for any odd large files it comes up with, or directories taking up space. Don't delete anything without posting what you find here first though so you don't accidentally cripple your system.

I ran windirstat and I found a huge file pagefile.sys 390GB on my C drive, I lost almot all of my drive space, can I delete this file?

 

[inthemoodfor2046]

I finally found my lost gbs. My Lenovo backup ran and backed up my hard drive (100 gigs worth) but not only was the file hidden (even when I could see other hidden files) but it didn't even show up in the backup and restore for Lenovo or windows. So, it took up all the space, but if i needed to use the backup to restore my hard drive, it wouldn't have done anything. A friend of mine took the hard drive out of my laptop and went in using linux and was able to see the file. He deleted it and voila, my space is back! I haven't contacted Lenovo yet to find out what to do about invisible back ups. Thanks for all the input.

Hi,
I am having the exact same problem but it is with a Acer. I then decided to format my hard drive, and the problem appeared again. How/where did you find the files? It would be a great help. Thanks.

 

[The_Prophecy]

This topic has been closed by The_Prophecy