Windows mis-reporting space used

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I'm using Windows 2000 Server with a 4 GB NTFS System partition. Recently, I've noticed that the disk usage being reported is much higher that it ought to be, by about 600 MB. I highlighted all of the files and folders (including hidden & system files) and went to Properties. Sure enough, the "Properties" screen only showed 3GB being used, while the Properties for the C: Drive showed 3.6 GB being used

Does anyone know what could be causing this, and how to fix it?
 
When you look at properties, it doesn't include the MFT size, the MFT
mirror, and the protected range. It also does not necessarily include
hidden files (e.g. pagefile.sys, hiberfile.sys).

You can run NTFSInfo (www.sysinternals.com) and it will tell you about the
MFT. Check the c:\ dir to see if you have a page file or hiberfile that is
taking up the space.

Pat
 
The MFT is taking up 199MB, and there is no pagefile or hiberfile (I moved the pagefile to a different drive). That still leaves 400MB unaccounted for

----- Pat [MSFT] wrote: ----

When you look at properties, it doesn't include the MFT size, the MFT
mirror, and the protected range. It also does not necessarily include
hidden files (e.g. pagefile.sys, hiberfile.sys)

You can run NTFSInfo (www.sysinternals.com) and it will tell you about the
MFT. Check the c:\ dir to see if you have a page file or hiberfile that is
taking up the space

Pa
 
David said:
I'm using Windows 2000 Server with a 4 GB NTFS System partition. Recently, I've noticed that the disk usage being reported is much higher that it ought to be, by about 600 MB. I highlighted all of the files and folders (including hidden & system files) and went to Properties. Sure enough, the "Properties" screen only showed 3GB being used, while the Properties for the C: Drive showed 3.6 GB being used.

Does anyone know what could be causing this, and how to fix it?
Click to expand...

Large sector size = wasted space.

I.e., if you have a 4K sector size, and a lot of files much smaller
than 4K, the remainder of each sector is unused by those files, and
unusable by any other file. E.g.,

Size of file Space used on disk
------------ ------------------
1 byte 4 KB
1 KB 4 KB
3 KB 4 KB
-------- ------
Tot: ~4 KB 12 KB

or 67% wasted space.

Properties should show you both "Size:" *and* "Size on disk:"
E.g., for the files on my primary partition, Properties reports:
Size: 10.6GB and Size on disk: 10.7GB or 100MB wasted.

Nothing you can do about it.
Fortunately, HDs are relatively cheap and getting cheaper by the week.

-Jeremy
 
Does that include the MFT mirror (there are 2 MFTs per volume for
redundancy)? That would leave only 200MB unaccounted. Also, what is MFT
reserve size (it is 'reserved' but not used, if the drive runs low, it will
be freed up for other apps, this is to minimize MFT fragmentation).

Pat

David S said:
The MFT is taking up 199MB, and there is no pagefile or hiberfile (I moved
the pagefile to a different drive). That still leaves 400MB unaccounted
for.


----- Pat [MSFT] wrote: -----

When you look at properties, it doesn't include the MFT size, the MFT
mirror, and the protected range. It also does not necessarily include
hidden files (e.g. pagefile.sys, hiberfile.sys).

You can run NTFSInfo (www.sysinternals.com) and it will tell you about
the
MFT. Check the c:\ dir to see if you have a page file or hiberfile
that is
taking up the space.

Pat

David S. Rubin said:
I'm using Windows 2000 Server with a 4 GB NTFS System partition.
Recently, I've noticed that the disk usage being reported is much higher
that it ought to be, by about 600 MB. I highlighted all of the files and
folders (including hidden & system files) and went to Properties. Sure
enough, the "Properties" screen only showed 3GB being used, while the
Properties for the C: Drive showed 3.6 GB being used.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
----- Jeremy Winston wrote: -----
Properties should show you both "Size:" *and* "Size on disk:"
E.g., for the files on my primary partition, Properties reports:
Size: 10.6GB and Size on disk: 10.7GB or 100MB wasted.

Both "size" and "size on disk" are reasonably close, but the discrepancy has been with the "size on disk" number, not the actual "size" number
 
David said:
Both "size" and "size on disk" are reasonably close, but the discrepancy has been with the "size on disk" number, not the actual "size" number
Click to expand...

Hrmm, that's a new one by me.

Now that you mention it, my C: properties show
Used space: 10.8GB

whereas when I select all files & folders in C:\,
their properties show
Size on disk: 10.7GB,

or *another* 100MB unaccounted for.

IHNI.

Please post if you find an answer.

-Jeremy
 
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