Hi, Niek.
You've told us the total size (40 GB) of your Drive C:, but not the total
bytes reported as used by all the files and folders. Does your computer
report over 50 GB used in your 40 GB partition? Or just 40.01 GB used? In
other words, could this be simply a rounding error? Or might it be
explained by the difference between "marketing" GB, where 1 GB = 1,000 MB,
and "computer" GB, where 1 GB = 1024 MB?
MY Win7 Drive C: is nominally 60 GB. Right-click on it and select
Properties and it shows the pie chart with 47.5 GB used (51,035,348,992
bytes) and 11.0 GB still unused for a total disk capacity of 58.5 GB
(62,915,604,480 bytes). When I use Windows Explorer to open Drive C: then
Select All, then right-click one of the highlighted files and select
Properties, the window reports 48.0 GB total used, with Size on disk 48.5 GB
(52,079,145,116 bytes). Note that my "60 GB" partition has room for over 60
billion bytes, but that is only 58.5 GB by the computer's calculation. (1
GB = 1024*1024*1024 =
1,073,741,824, NOT 1 billion bytes. So 60 GB = 64,424,509,440 bytes, not 60
billion.) When I told Disk Management to create a 60 GB volume, it rounded
that down to some size that would use an even number of whole clusters - or
some such technical adjustment that I did not bother to try to understand
since the size I ended up with was fine for my purposes.
(You probably know all this, Niek, but we're never sure who is "reading over
our shoulders" and may be able to benefit from this explanation.)
So, what are the equivalent numbers for your partition size? And for your
total usage on that partition? In GB and in bytes? Is there a big
difference, or a small one that might be explained by rounding or by the
different definitions of GB?
There are a few tricks to reduce Vista's appetite for space on its boot
volume, such as moving the Page File to another drive. But let's not get
into those yet.
RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2010 (15.3.2804.0607) in Win7 Ultimate x64
"sobriquet" wrote in message
Hi, Niek.
I don't have a "for sure" answer, but there are a number of possibilities.
Speaking of numbers, how about some? Are you talking about 200 GB of data
on a 150 GB HDD? Or maybe 155 GB on that 150 GB disk? In other words, is
this a giant disparity, or just a minor difference?
Some of the possibilities:
1. You've chosen to let Windows compress files to save disk space.
(It's
a checkbox near the bottom of the Properties window.)
2. Do you use any kind of file compaction, such as RAR or ZIP files?
3. How are you determining the size of all files and folders? Might
you
be double-counting the contents of Libraries by counting the files once in
their actual location and again in one or more Libraries?
4. We usually see the opposite question: "My disk is full but my files
add up to only 80% of capacity." This is often explained by "slack space"
wasted at the end of each file; this can add up to a half-cluster (usually
2
KB) times the number of files.
If you give us more details, such as the actual numbers involved, we might
make better "shots in the dark".
RC
"sobriquet" wrote in message
Hi.
Something baffles me. Perhaps someone here can explain it.
If I go to the properties of the C drive on my laptop, the size
reported is smaller than the total size of the files and folders on
drive C:
http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/2843/dataa.jpg
How can the size of all selected files and folders on the C drive
exceed the total capacity of that same C drive?
Greetings and thanks in advance for any explanations, Niek
I have a 160 gb harddisk partitioned (roughly speaking) in 40 gb for a
vista partition, 30 gb for an xp partition and the remaining 90 gb for
a data partition (where I also have located the virtual memory).
I often have issues with partitions that are a bit too small for the
operating system and that presents a perpetual problem of the disk
getting too full and me exploring the drive for potential things to
delete to get some free diskspace.
On this laptop, I have this issue with vista, but it's hard to find
stuff in vista to delete. I guess I should have reserved 50 gb, rather
than 40 gb for the vista partition, as I have some big software
packages installed (like the adobe cs4 master collection).
In the windows explorer, I have ensured it displays hidden/system
files and folders and I determine the size of files on disk by
selecting all files and folders in C:\ and right-clicking the
selection to obtain the properties where it lists the collective size
of all the selected files and folders.
Compression is not enabled (in the properties for the C drive), and of
course there are rar and other archive files on disk, but windows is
supposed to list the compressed size of those files, so that shouldn't
result in any inconsistencies between the reported size of files and
folders on disk and the total capacity of the drive.
