Missing HDD space, about to call 911

[dezonio2]

I have a pretty seagate 300 GB HDD and on it I have Vista RC1.... when i check drive usage (as in right-click to check drive capacity) it shows 149GB used...ok so far so good..... but when i go into the C drive and highlight all folders (including system and hidden files) it shows that the total size of folders and files in them is 109GB. it's not like i really need the space but does anyone have any idea where the other 40 gigs might have disappeared? Thanks

 

[The-Darkening]

That's an easy one. The drive capacity shows the real amount of data stored. When you highlight all the folders and check the space, it will only count the files that you have access to. Some folders (like System Volume Information) have no permissions set and they show as 0 bytes when you check its properties, even if there are some GBs worth of data inside.

Advanced info:

If you wanna take ownership of all files in a disk (Only recommended in a single-user environment) go to properties on your disk, security tab, advanced, owner tab, and take ownership of everything from there. It may cause some "Access denied" if you reinstall your system, as the new user won't be the same, even with the same name and password. But you can give ownership to a group, and administrators should be that group.

I have a 300 GB Seagate myself and I gave ownership of every file and folder to the Administrators group so I can access every file on the volume and reinstalls are not a problem.

Damn, I'm pretty sure I murdered some grammar up there, but this isn't my native language. Sorry in advance!

 

[dezonio2]

Thanks, but 40 gigs is bit wierd so onto corrupting the system by deleting files that i have no idea what they do

Damn, I'm pretty sure I murdered some grammar up there, but this isn't my native language. Sorry in advance!

get firefox 2.0, it checks grammar

 

[Zoron]

You're also going to lose space because of simple mathmatetics. With computers, 1MB = 1024KB, not 1000KB. Hard drive manufacturers use base 10 math to express hard drive size... in other words 1MB = 1000KB. The bigger the hard drive... the more space that is "lost".

 

[dezonio2]

You're also going to lose space because of simple mathmatetics. With computers, 1MB = 1024KB, not 1000KB. Hard drive manufacturers use base 10 math to express hard drive size... in other words 1MB = 1000KB. The bigger the hard drive... the more space that is "lost".

I know, thats why my HDD is 279 GB instead of 300.... but that doesn't explain figures windows is giving me