Case of the missing space

[fellows]

First post in a while so please bear with me.

My basic problem is I'm not sure where my HD space has gone. Not the n00b type question, yes I understand that hard drives are never the same amount that they are quoted at.

(eg. 320gb HD really only has 298GB after partition, format, whatever)

More specifically, when I first did a clean install I took an image of my C (Main Drive)

Everything was fine. Now I've got my system to the point where I want to make another image, as all my programs are installed, and my overall computer is set up the way I like.

One thing I did notice however, is that my 40GB partition (yes it is 40.0gb [40x1028]) has about 10GB used up. I figured that too be quite a bit for a drive that only stores system programs etc. When I opened up the C drive and selected everything and hit properties the pie chart tells me that in fact only 6.79 GB are being used.

However right clicking on C drive under my computer shows me a Pie Chart with 10GB used.

I have tried all the usual suspects, Scan Disk, Defrag, CCleaner, and even Registry Mechanic.

Does anyone know why, how 4 extra GB of space are suddenly missing? i can't seem to understand what is being used, and for what.

Running Windows XP SP2

I appreciate any input you guys might have.

Thanks

 

[Vette5885]

Pagefile?

Hibernate file?

Shadow Copy Folders (Vista/Server OS's)

Could be one of those. Do you have 'Show hidden files and folders' and 'Show system files and folders' enabled?

 

[fellows]

Yes sorry I should have specified.

I do have Show all files, including hidden enabled.
Either by selecting all files, or hitting Ctrl-A to select everything
and then hitting properties yields me a result of 6.7 GB used

However, hitting properties when C is selected in My Computer shows 10.2 GB used.

Disk Cleanup shows that I can get back 500MB by compressing the drive, but what are the drawbacks of doing this. Also I know Disk Cleanup is not always accurate in measuring space but 500MB doesn't come close to 4GB

Thanks again

 

[unhappy_mage]

Try WinDirStat. It'll give you a graphical display of where your space is going.

Also, you might want to run chkdsk; sometimes Bad Things happen and space shows up as missing.

 

[fellows]

Thanks for all the help.

Wow WinDir is a really cool program.

Anyway, using it told me two things.


As Vette5885 kindly pointed out, pagefile was a major factor of the freespace.
Actually about 2GB worth.
My question is how important is the size that I set PageFile to. It is apparently set to Custom (2GB)
So it acts as Virtual Ram, but really how big should I keep this. Would I notice a significant decrease in performance if I reduced it to 1Gb or even 512MB?

Anyway it's not a huge deal for me since I do have the free space.

The real issue is that when I enabled "Show Unknown" a large chunk (1.7GB) was discovered by WinDir. It cannot be accessed or changed so I assume it is part of the C:\System Volume Information.

Anyone know how I can shrink it, and or recover the space it's using. What is it for and why is it so big.

Or do I need to just leave it alone and forget about the 1.7GB.

Thanks again guys

 

[Michael Daly]

As Vette5885 kindly pointed out, pagefile was a major factor of the freespace.
Actually about 2GB worth.
My question is how important is the size that I set PageFile to. It is apparently set to Custom (2GB)
So it acts as Virtual Ram, but really how big should I keep this. Would I notice a significant decrease in performance if I reduced it to 1Gb or even 512MB?

The pagefile should be at least 1.5 times the size of your RAM. If you have 1GB of RAM, that means 1.5GB of pagefile. I prefer two times, but that's based on references that I've long since lost track of.

Don't shrink it - it's a pretty small chunk of the 300GB drive and you need it.

It's adjusted by going to the Control Panel -> Performance & Maintenance -> System. Then select the Advanced tab and then the Performance Settings button, then the Advanced tab and finally the Virtual Memory Change button.

 

[tiuk]

The pagefile should be at least 1.5 times the size of your RAM. If you have 1GB of RAM, that means 1.5GB of pagefile. I prefer two times, but that's based on references that I've long since lost track of.

Don't shrink it - it's a pretty small chunk of the 300GB drive and you need it.

It's adjusted by going to the Control Panel -> Performance & Maintenance -> System. Then select the Advanced tab and then the Performance Settings button, then the Advanced tab and finally the Virtual Memory Change button.

Also, if its location is causing a problem (ie. it's on your small 40 GB partition and you'd rather it be on the larger 260 GB partition), you can always move it.

 

[Farva]

The pagefile should be at least 1.5 times the size of your RAM. If you have 1GB of RAM, that means 1.5GB of pagefile. I prefer two times, but that's based on references that I've long since lost track of.

Don't shrink it - it's a pretty small chunk of the 300GB drive and you need it.

It's adjusted by going to the Control Panel -> Performance & Maintenance -> System. Then select the Advanced tab and then the Performance Settings button, then the Advanced tab and finally the Virtual Memory Change button.

I know many years ago this was the way of artificially increasing memory and I won't argue to not do it, but in today's world in which you can buy 4GB of memory fairly cheap, page file don't need to be all that large. I have 2GB in my gaming machine and the page file is fixed at only 1024. I much prefer to have more memory in a machine as thrashing of a drive will shorten its life. And yes, even if you remove the page file from Windows, it still uses a page file (not sure how or where it puts it though, never had a reason to look into it further).

It does depend on what you plan on using the machine for. If it is just storage and only 1GB of memory, you can (and probably should) use a 2048 page file.

I know back in the days of PC133 memory and comparing to drives then, the memory was 12 million times faster than the drive, so as you can see, just adding more memory does increase performace. I haven't kept up on the difference in transfer rates since then, so I have no idea what the difference is in speed now.