Confused by disk usage

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rich Heimlich
  • Start date Start date
R

Rich Heimlich

I just took a Maxtor 120GB drive (one of the first Diamond 5400 RPM drives from
them) that I wasn't using and added it to my system as a second drive, formatted
with NTFS under WinXP Pro w/SP1 and the F: partition.

I then began storing music files on it as I'm getting ready to build or buy a
home theater component to replace my CD jukebox in my audio rack. Anyway, I've
ripped 9.45 GB of files so far and Windows Explorer shows the "Music" folder as
having 9.45 GB of files in 342 files (I'm using WMA9 Lossless format for now).

What's confusing me is that there's virtually nothing else on the disc (I have
one other folder with 30 MB (note MEGAbytes) of backed up data there and yet, a
Properties check of the partition shows Used space as 25GB. Where the heck is
the other 16GB????

*** RTH ***
 
I just took a Maxtor 120GB drive (one of the first Diamond 5400 RPM drives
from
them) that I wasn't using and added it to my system as a second drive, formatted
with NTFS under WinXP Pro w/SP1 and the F: partition.

I then began storing music files on it as I'm getting ready to build or buy a
home theater component to replace my CD jukebox in my audio rack. Anyway, I've
ripped 9.45 GB of files so far and Windows Explorer shows the "Music" folder as
having 9.45 GB of files in 342 files (I'm using WMA9 Lossless format for now).

What's confusing me is that there's virtually nothing else on the disc (I have
one other folder with 30 MB (note MEGAbytes) of backed up data there and yet, a
Properties check of the partition shows Used space as 25GB. Where the heck is
the other 16GB????
Click to expand...


Are you running System Restore on this drive? If it is only Data, turn
it off.

Mike.
 
Michael Hawes said:
Are you running System Restore on this drive? If it is only Data, turn
it off.
Click to expand...

How would I know? And yes, it's only data.

*** RTH ***
 
Rich Heimlich said:
How would I know? And yes, it's only data.

*** RTH ***
Click to expand...

System Restore: Control Panel, System, then select the "System Restore"
tab.

Also check you've emptied the recycle bin.

Mark
 
System Restore: Control Panel, System, then select the "System Restore"
tab.
Click to expand...

Okay. It was on for that drive.

Hopefully that was it. I decided to move the data that was on F: to D:
and format F: which worked. F: then managed to stay as it should even
after putting back the files. But then I started ripping more files to
it and by the end of the day, 21GB on the drive but 33GB taken up so I
just finished reformatting AGAIN before reading this post. Here's
hoping that's all it was.
Also check you've emptied the recycle bin.
Click to expand...

It's off for that drive.
 
Well guys. System Restore doesn't appear to be the issue. I've now
disabled it for Drive F and was sure that was it. I then resumed
ripping my CD collection and now I have 26GB in the Music folder but
the drive shows 34GB being taken.

So, so far the only thing to correct it has been a format but only
temporarily.

Any other ideas?
 
If you rip a CD with ':' in the title, NTFS shows a zero length file. However,
there are hidden data streams that take up space.

| Well guys. System Restore doesn't appear to be the issue. I've now
| disabled it for Drive F and was sure that was it. I then resumed
| ripping my CD collection and now I have 26GB in the Music folder but
| the drive shows 34GB being taken.
|
| So, so far the only thing to correct it has been a format but only
| temporarily.
|
| Any other ideas?
 
Rich Heimlich said:
Well guys. System Restore doesn't appear to be the issue. I've now
disabled it for Drive F and was sure that was it. I then resumed
ripping my CD collection and now I have 26GB in the Music folder but
the drive shows 34GB being taken.

So, so far the only thing to correct it has been a format but only
temporarily.

Any other ideas?
Click to expand...

You got any programs using it as a swap disk? Anything like Photoshop or
sound or video editing programs using it?

Also remember it could be a bug in Windows that it's misreading the free
disk space - maybe load something like Norton Speed Disk and get a rough
idea what percentage of the drive is in use from the picture... there may be
better ways though.

Mark
 
Mark Seeley said:
You got any programs using it as a swap disk? Anything like Photoshop or
sound or video editing programs using it?

Also remember it could be a bug in Windows that it's misreading the free
disk space - maybe load something like Norton Speed Disk and get a rough
idea what percentage of the drive is in use from the picture... there may be
better ways though.

Mark
Click to expand...


And... if you have a lot of Norton stuff installed, right click on the
recycle bin and click on:
1. Empty Recycle bin
2. Empty Norton Protected Files

If this doesn't help, try (TEMPORARILY) from Windows Explorer:
Tools, Folder Options, View (Tab), then....
1. Show Hidden Files and Folders
2. Unselect "Hide Protected Operating System Files"

I'd recommend you set these back afterwards, and DO NOT delete anything
unless you are sure you know what they are, and it is safe to do so. This
second point is mainly to see if you can identify any files that may be
there but hidden. Hopefully it might help to indicate what's using the
space.

Mark
 
If you rip a CD with ':' in the title, NTFS shows a zero length file. However,
there are hidden data streams that take up space.
Click to expand...

Hidden data streams???? The file is being converted from WAV to WMA
(WMA9-Lossless to be exact). So if the song has a : in it, and I
suspect a few do, why would that create subsequnet hidden streams? I
can see all the song files.
 
You got any programs using it as a swap disk? Anything like Photoshop or
sound or video editing programs using it?
Click to expand...

Not really. And I never use F: so I can't imagine pointing anything at
it, but I guess it's possible. Perhaps it's where my swap file is
going? Page file is set to go to C: from 1536-3092MB so I don't think
it's that. And what sort of utility would steal 15GB that I wouldn't
know about and make the file hidden even to command line DIR /AH
commands?
Also remember it could be a bug in Windows that it's misreading the free
disk space - maybe load something like Norton Speed Disk and get a rough
idea what percentage of the drive is in use from the picture... there may be
better ways though.
Click to expand...

Partition Magic shows the same situation.
 
And... if you have a lot of Norton stuff installed, right click on the
recycle bin and click on:
1. Empty Recycle bin
2. Empty Norton Protected Files
Click to expand...

I don't have anything of Norton installed except AntiVirus (temporary)
but somehow do have the Norton Recycle Bin. I haven't re-installed
Norton Utilities in ages but yet it's there. I did a purge and that
did it somehow. The funny part is it said 3,000+ files were protected
and it sat on C: for a LONG time. When it got to F: it nearly
instantly went away. I can't imagine anything 15GB going away
immediately.
If this doesn't help, try (TEMPORARILY) from Windows Explorer:
Tools, Folder Options, View (Tab), then....
1. Show Hidden Files and Folders
2. Unselect "Hide Protected Operating System Files"
Click to expand...

ALWAYS run that way. I'm an old DOS Network admin so I'm very confused
right now that nothing appears missing.
I'd recommend you set these back afterwards, and DO NOT delete anything
unless you are sure you know what they are, and it is safe to do so. This
Click to expand...

<grin> I'm generally a pretty good power user. I do admit that XP has
a few things in my root directory that I'm not totally familiar with
so they stay but aside from that I know what can and can't be deleted.

It almost appears as if something huge on C is getting re-mapped to F
but I don't see how.
 
I don't know about WMP, but CDex would create files with ':' characters.

NTFS interpets this as a kind of path separator and creates a bunch of data
streams, much like a uncompressed zip file. Dir and explorer do not show the
true size.

|
| Hidden data streams???? The file is being converted from WAV to WMA
| (WMA9-Lossless to be exact). So if the song has a : in it, and I
| suspect a few do, why would that create subsequnet hidden streams? I
| can see all the song files.
 
And... if you have a lot of Norton stuff installed, right click on the
I don't have anything of Norton installed except AntiVirus (temporary)
but somehow do have the Norton Recycle Bin. I haven't re-installed
Norton Utilities in ages but yet it's there. I did a purge and that
did it somehow. The funny part is it said 3,000+ files were protected
and it sat on C: for a LONG time. When it got to F: it nearly
instantly went away. I can't imagine anything 15GB going away
immediately.


ALWAYS run that way. I'm an old DOS Network admin so I'm very confused
right now that nothing appears missing.
This

<grin> I'm generally a pretty good power user. I do admit that XP has
a few things in my root directory that I'm not totally familiar with
so they stay but aside from that I know what can and can't be deleted.

It almost appears as if something huge on C is getting re-mapped to F
but I don't see how.
Click to expand...

Just thought I'd try to cover myself - hate to be the cause of a newbie
deleting something vital! And regarding the same problem, you've definitely
got me... I can't think of anything else... bugging, cos there has to be an
explanation!!

Mark
 
Rich Heimlich said:
Not really. And I never use F: so I can't imagine pointing anything at
it, but I guess it's possible. Perhaps it's where my swap file is
going? Page file is set to go to C: from 1536-3092MB so I don't think
it's that. And what sort of utility would steal 15GB that I wouldn't
know about and make the file hidden even to command line DIR /AH
commands?


Partition Magic shows the same situation.
Click to expand...

In late to the thread, but do you have lots of small files or at least files
that are smaller than the cluster size?
I have an NTFS disc which has 4k clusters and a folder on that disk has 758
files properties shows size as 769KB (787,800bytes) but size on disk of
3.23MB (3,391,488 bytes). The size on disc is much greater than the sum of
the parts. The file system does not use the the leftover bits of the unused
clusters so each file will take up a min of 4K even if its only one byte
long. The DOS DIR shows the file size <not> on disk size so does windows
explorer neither gives the disk usage of the files.

So is the question, not where are the 12G of "missing files" but how did you
add up the total file size for the music and backup data.

I also assume that scandisk etc report no errors ie no crosslinked files etc

regards
ted
 
Just thought I'd try to cover myself - hate to be the cause of a newbie
deleting something vital! And regarding the same problem, you've definitely
got me... I can't think of anything else... bugging, cos there has to be an
explanation!!
Click to expand...

It appears to have been Norton Protected Recycle Bin. When I wiped the
"protected files", the drive returned to normal size. What's odd is,
there shouldn't BE any protected files on a drive with nothing but
song files on it.

The other oddity is that the system, since installing the drive,
insists on running CHKDSK every boot on that partition even though it
never finds anything and never crashes. I've since managed to kill
that by disabling checking of the partition on boot but hopefully only
temporarily.
 
In late to the thread, but do you have lots of small files or at least files
that are smaller than the cluster size?
Click to expand...

No. These are all LARGE files, like 25MB each on average.

It appears to have been Norton Protected Recycle Bin doing its thing
with "protected files" which also makes no sense as there are only
songs on that partition. There is nothing that needs protecting there.
I've now turned it off and flushed it and the drive seems okay.
I also assume that scandisk etc report no errors ie no crosslinked files etc
Click to expand...

Correct. However, as I just mentioned in another post here, something
has gotten the system to trigger CHKDSK to run against this partition
on every boot for no reason. I had to temporarily disable checking of
the partition to have it stop annoying me until I figure out what
caused that.
 
Rich Heimlich said:
It appears to have been Norton Protected Recycle Bin. When I wiped the
"protected files", the drive returned to normal size. What's odd is,
there shouldn't BE any protected files on a drive with nothing but
song files on it.
Click to expand...

Excellent - glad that solved the problem. Norton's recycle bin isn't
great - I'd suggest didabling Norton's recycle bin at least on that drive,
if not on the others too - esp as you're a DOS user so are unlikely to
delete any system files. I found it a little annoying. Yep - it does
protect non-system files - not sure why, but seems to be one of Norton's
weaker points. (Having said that, there's probably a reason that I don't
get... and despite this I still like Norton!!)
The other oddity is that the system, since installing the drive,
insists on running CHKDSK every boot on that partition even though it
never finds anything and never crashes. I've since managed to kill
that by disabling checking of the partition on boot but hopefully only
temporarily.
Click to expand...

If you leave CHKDSK to run through to the end and complete successfully,
does it still run again next time you reboot?

Mark
 
Excellent - glad that solved the problem. Norton's recycle bin isn't
great - I'd suggest didabling Norton's recycle bin at least on that drive,
if not on the others too - esp as you're a DOS user so are unlikely to
delete any system files. I found it a little annoying. Yep - it does
protect non-system files - not sure why, but seems to be one of Norton's
weaker points. (Having said that, there's probably a reason that I don't
get... and despite this I still like Norton!!)
Click to expand...

I mainly like Norton System Information and Norton Speed Disk. Outside
of that I don't use much of it anymore. In fact, as I noted, I really
am struck by the idea that it's even in my OS. I've re-installed XP
from scratch on this system. Somehow it's gotten here. I don't recall
it coming as part of XP and I haven't re-installed Norton in at least
2 years!
If you leave CHKDSK to run through to the end and complete successfully,
does it still run again next time you reboot?
Click to expand...

EVERY time. I just solved that this morning. Do a search on 'chkdsk
dirty bit' and a more on 'chkntfs' and you'll get quite a bit of new
tutoring. Apparently, once the OS sets the partition to be seen as
"dirty", there is no other way to clear that then to run "chkdsk /f"
on the partition, which the OS doesn't do. It just runs the default
chkdsk so the drive continually is seen as dirty and thus, needing
chkdsk to run again and again and again....

Live and learn....
 
Back
Top