Comments for Why does the space used by files on my hard drive show different numbers depending on how I look?

Comment from Bob Bennett on 2010-01-24

2010-01-24T20:10:21Z

Is it normal for all of my drives other than my "C" drive to show completely full and no available space? And if not how can I clean them up?

]]>

A comment on: Why does the space used by files on my hard drive show different numbers depending on how I look?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from tigasport on 2010-01-01

2010-01-02T02:08:26Z

Microsoft vista has a automatic back up & restore. It creates a back up point every day or every time you install new software, drivers, or updates. This back up & restore feature is only allowed to use 15% of hard drive space & automatically deletes old back up restore points once it has used up the 15% of space. Now on a 1 terabit drive that's huge. Your hard drive may only have 65 gigs used but with back & restore on it will show an additional 150 gigs used because back up & restore in on.
To turn off, right click "computer" than left click "properties". Now left click "system protection", from that page you will see available hard drive(s) or partitions. Remove the check mark next to the hard drive(s) or partitions you don't want automatic back up & restore on, then click apply. If you want it on, just put a check mark next to the hard drive & click apply. Now if you turn off this back up & restore it will immediately delete all back up points & you will see 15% of your hard drive now available again. A better way to run this back up & restore program is you can manually create them yourself when you want to not lose back up points. It's a great program but it will eat up 15% of you hard drive space, but you will have back up points. One other way which I do is to have a back up hard drive that I manually back up all my info, and store in a safe place. With Vista Ultimate only(not home or other editions & sure about windows 7) you can back up entire system. There are other way also to save back ups, like run two hard drive in raid 0 or raid 1, either raid 0 or 1 I forget now will actually mirror everything from one hard drive to your other hard drive at all times. But will slow down you system, just like running the back up & restore program vista has. My system: 2 terabyte WD hard drive 64 mega of cache (with 3 partitions), ASUS P6T6 mother board, intel i7 core 965 (3.2ghz), Microsoft Vista Ultimate with service pack 2 update, 2 evga gtx 260 superclocked in SLI, toughpower 1000 watt power supply.

IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION: "System Restore" is NOT NOT NOT a "backup and restore" in any general sense. Please read this article: Why can't I rely on System Restore for backups?

02-Jan-2010

]]>

A comment on: Why does the space used by files on my hard drive show different numbers depending on how I look?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from eindig on 2009-05-01

2009-05-01T12:09:42Z

in explorer go to tools, folder options, view. then, make sure to mark "display system folders". you will see a "recycler" folder directly under C-drive. a lot of deleted items are stored there for some reason. so you have to extra delete your files.

]]>

A comment on: Why does the space used by files on my hard drive show different numbers depending on how I look?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from khan on 2009-03-21

2009-03-21T15:07:39Z

in my computer the c drive size become less every day about 1 mb decrease in size of my 9.31gb hard disk, so what is the solution?

]]>

A comment on: Why does the space used by files on my hard drive show different numbers depending on how I look?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from James on 2009-01-22

2009-01-23T02:54:33Z

Is there anyway to make System Restore use less space if we would like to have the benefit of a restore, but not use up all our space? I just saved half my hard drive by taking System Restore off.

Thanks for that, by the way.

New article on that: How do I get System Restore to take up less space?

- Leo
23-Jan-2009

]]>

A comment on: Why does the space used by files on my hard drive show different numbers depending on how I look?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Anoop on 2009-01-12

2009-01-13T07:42:21Z

I am using a Lenovo T60 laptop and it has 60gb hard disk in it. The avalable harddisk space 55gb. I used to delete the unanted temporary files, temporary internet files, cookies, prefetch, etc to maintain good performance of the PC. And there was 20gb free space which one day gradually decreased to 3gb,1gb,712mb,400mb,100mb and even worse to KB of 156kb and finally to 0bytes of free hard disk space and pops up disk cleanup utility to clean up hard disk. So i am unable to run any programs or work on it properly. Even if i free up unwanted files as well as wanted data and free up space in it, the free space decreases immediately to 66mb or lesser free space which makes the PC slow. I have not installed any unwanted programs other than the usual wanted softwares an i am pretty sure about that. I suspect if this is a virus or spyware issue.

I'd start with this article: Where's my disk space going?

- Leo
13-Jan-2009

]]>

A comment on: Why does the space used by files on my hard drive show different numbers depending on how I look?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from tom finch on 2008-12-29

2008-12-29T21:08:36Z

hello i am having the same problem on my new laptop i intalled some updates and the coputer was telling me that i had used 50g of space how can i fix this i dont want my hard drive filled up thx

]]>

A comment on: Why does the space used by files on my hard drive show different numbers depending on how I look?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from tiove on 2008-12-20

2008-12-21T02:08:41Z

AHOI!!!! ok so i turned off the 'hide protected operating system files [recommended]' and my used space went up from 170gb to 260 [this is opening c drive, selecting all folders and as you know right click properties] but still i had 399 used space in the actual properties of the c drive in my computer, anyway thanks to the user: Poo i turned off my system restore and WHAM free space 670 and used 260 bada boom! very happy but i have rechecked my system restore...aww common its *in gollums slimy voice* 'too risky.. too risky!!!' well yeah so if i see an incremental drop in free space i know what its about now, so thanks a lot

]]>

A comment on: Why does the space used by files on my hard drive show different numbers depending on how I look?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from tiove on 2008-12-20

2008-12-21T01:51:12Z

yes i have same problem with my hard drive seagate 1tb it start to decrease incrementally every day then it stopped at 599. i think if i did not laugh my head of insanely, every time i saw the gb's go down [lol thought of marry poppins then] my pc would be quite cripple by now. It is now showing 399 used space with 531 free space [i recently added all the star trek next gen episodes {this explains the change from 599 to 531}]
Please help me my email is [personal email address removed].

]]>

A comment on: Why does the space used by files on my hard drive show different numbers depending on how I look?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Poo on 2008-11-08

2008-11-08T15:54:51Z

To say it better,System Restore Points are calculated in size when you right click your drive and see the properties,but when you go into the drive and select all and right click and see properties they are not added to the total size you see there.My 60gb HDD had a 8gb difference, turning off System Restore fixed the discrepancy.
But you also lose the benefits of system restore.

]]>

A comment on: Why does the space used by files on my hard drive show different numbers depending on how I look?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Poo on 2008-11-07

2008-11-08T04:10:47Z

A lot of space can be cleared by turning off system restore in control panel

]]>

A comment on: Why does the space used by files on my hard drive show different numbers depending on how I look?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Matrix on 2008-11-07

2008-11-08T03:06:04Z

I have exactly the same scenario. I downloaded a program called HDGraph from SourceForge to analyse the disk space. THe program says that it cant read 40G of data due to permission issues/bad sectors adn what not. I have tried posting it to Vista forums as well with no replies. Plz help

]]>

A comment on: Why does the space used by files on my hard drive show different numbers depending on how I look?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Holden Kripacz on 2008-08-12

2008-08-12T15:34:35Z

I have a much more confusing problem than that. Whenever I delete something on my computer, I LOOSE space, not gain it. I've done several virus scans and nothing has been picked up. For example, I had 194 GB of free space on Disk Drive C. I deleted a 2 GB file (using windows vista's uninstaller) and I suddenly had 193 GB of free space left. I dont think this makes a huge difference but im running Vista Home Premium 64-bit.

Try emptying your recycle bin. It's possible that the uninstaller is "deleting" by moving the files there.

-Leo

]]>

A comment on: Why does the space used by files on my hard drive show different numbers depending on how I look?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from David Kahn on 2008-08-03

2008-08-03T20:30:07Z

So frustrating. This comment is describing to a tee the situation I am facing but unfortunately the solutions others have found don't seem to apply or resolve my 44G discrpency.

I have no hidden backups, I'm showing hidden, system and OS files, I do not believe that I have RAID, and my %temp% folder has only 343MB in it.

I am assuming that the Directories, MFT, and log file referenced above do not accound for 44G of space. Is there a way to see how much space is used for these three items?

Any other suggestions?

How can I confirm that there is no RAID setup on my machine?

]]>

A comment on: Why does the space used by files on my hard drive show different numbers depending on how I look?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Matt on 2008-08-01

2008-08-01T18:37:19Z

Thanks for this post. The comment from the user above led me to a solution for my situation. I was working on a Lenovo T60 with a 120GB hard drive. Only 16GB were showing free in the C: properties, yet selecting all files, including hidden and system on C:, showed only 46GB in use. There was a hidden Rescue and Recovery program built into the laptop. It had automatic backups that presented no notification. I turned off the scheduled backups and deleted the backup files. This resulted in the drive having 60GB free! Thanks!

]]>

A comment on: Why does the space used by files on my hard drive show different numbers depending on how I look?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Jesus L. Saavedra Jr. on 2008-06-03

2008-06-03T13:43:33Z

I'd got the same problem but I just resolved just to searched about new features in vista. When I saw this Volume Shadow Copy, OS automatically backup my C drive every night by default so I did delete my recent backup. 20gb of unknown data were gone.:D

]]>

A comment on: Why does the space used by files on my hard drive show different numbers depending on how I look?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Curt on 2008-02-19

2008-02-19T23:02:16Z

Charles,

I have this problem with both my C: and D: drives.

The properties of my D: Drive shows "Used space: 214 GB". The properties of all the files and folders show "Size: 133 GB".

The properties of my C: Drive shows "Used space: 135 GB". The properties of all the files and folders show "Size: 90 GB".

Where are the temp files on the C: drive? I have Windows Vista, and the folders are organized differently than XP. My files/folders are in C:\Users\Curt. In this folder, there are these folders:
Documents
Downloads
Pictures
Videos
etc.

Approximately 80 GB is used up somewhere on my D: drive. Does anybody know how to get it back on a Windows Vista PC?

]]>

A comment on: Why does the space used by files on my hard drive show different numbers depending on how I look?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Charles L. Grubbs on 2007-08-27

2007-08-28T06:22:38Z

I recently had a problem similar to the poster here. I have a 75 gig hard drive and only about 2 gigs that were available for me to use. I checked with Windows Explorer where all the space was being used, it sure wasn't the Programs or Photos or Videos, all but Programs are Space hogs. I usually always store my videos and photos on another drive besides my System drive. So I look and look and finally I found where most of my available space was used, as weird as this is it was in the Windows temp files....a huge amount of space was being used by the temp files, like 26 gigs of space!! I wasn't sure if I could just delete these files and why it was keeping so many temp files anyway. I called the Microsoft Tech dept. 800 number I have handy and just asked if I could delete these files, first they gave me the run around and that I might delete something important, so I asked for someone that knew more, they connected me to a tech guy and he told me to just delete the files it was nothing important and that it shouldn't cause any problems. He did walk me thru it and at first we tried from the normal start up to delete the temp files and it kept bringing up files that it said it was using, hmmmm, anyway he had me boot into "Safe Mode" and from there I was able to delete the whole thing, he had me type in %temp% into "Run" and it deleted the files with no hang up's or problems, it worked wonderful, no problems afterward and it created a huge amount of free space on my system drive. What a relief, but as far as a good reason why there were so darn many temp files I have no idea...all I know is that is stupid if you ask me and it should limit the temp files it keeps, and should in no way, shape, forum, or fashion keep that many temp files. I looked at the temp files before deleting them, it had photos, videos, system files of some kind and just about anything was in there. Their gone now, haha, anyway it helped me a bunch and it sounds like what the poster here might have, I found the temp files buried under "my documents", and its not the temp files listed in the breakdown in Explorer towards the end under the system drive. Good Luck and I hope this helps someone else.

]]>

A comment on: Why does the space used by files on my hard drive show different numbers depending on how I look?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Amol on 2007-08-22

2007-08-23T05:06:39Z

I agree with your opinion But If somebody uses RAID if it shows like that how you solve this actual folder size 305 GB and properties shows 545 GB how what are the possiblities

]]>

A comment on: Why does the space used by files on my hard drive show different numbers depending on how I look?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.