Lost disk space in Windows 7, cannot find the missing

Posted by Tsanders on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Tsanders
Published on 2010-08-07T08:30:18Z Indexed on 2012/11/14 11:07 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 491

Filed under:

windows-7

|

disk-space

My hard drive is complaining it is low on disk space, but a strange thing seems to be happening: Explorer reports 10Gb of available space (on a 120 Gb hard disk), chkdsk in the command prompt does the same but if I use a disk space tool such as SpaceSniffer or WinDirStat, only 50Gb of data is found.

My guess is that there somehow is a hold on a large block of disk space (but that's just a guess) because of a prior very large (40 Gb) download attempt that didn't complete.

There isn't 40Gb of files on the drive (hidden or visible), yet Explorer insists that something is there. How can I claim back this hard disk drive (without formatting my hard disk)?

SpaceMonger is providing a clue, reporting four unscannable folders which add up to 43Gb:

C:\RRBackups
C:\System Volume Information
C:\Windows\Csc\v2.06
C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\Wmi\RtBackup

Does anybody know what these folders are for, and how I can claim back at least some space?

Restore point claims about 4Gb, so that doesn't seem to be the main problem.

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about windows-7

Server 2012 DFS New Member Issue

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I am trying to add a new member to our DFS topology. We have 3 DCs (VMs - VMware) running Windows server 2012, two servers are located in or Primary site and the third at our DR site. Currently the two servers at our primary site are currently replicating DFS (full mesh) and are working fine. I have… >>> More
error in IIS7 but not on IIS6

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a website that is we are now deploying to windows 2008 servers that has worked in the past on IIS6 without a problem. It is using .net 2 framework. Most of the website works. Just when we create a screen report over a certain size on the server we get this error. Event code: 3005 Event… >>> More
error in IIS7 but not on IIS6

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a website that is we are now deploying to windows 2008 servers that has worked in the past on IIS6 without a problem. It is using .net 2 framework. Most of the website works. Just when we create a screen report over a certain size on the server we get this error. Event code: 3005 Event… >>> More
Microsoft Management Console stops working when I add snap-in to it

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have Windows 7 Ultimate OS. I'm opening mmc.exe as administrator and trying add Certificates or any other snap-in, then while loading that snap-in MMC breaks and displays following message and after that it closes automatically once I click on close button on that message. What could be the problem… >>> More
Handling keyboard and mouse input (Win API)

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
There is a number of ways to catch mouse or keyboard under Windows. So I tried some of them, but every of them has some advantages and drawbacks. I want to ask you: Which method do use? I've tried these: WM_KEYDOWN/WM_KEYUP - Main disadvantage is that, I can't distinguish between left and right-handed… >>> More

Related posts about disk-space

SQL SERVER – Disk Space Monitoring – Detecting Low Disk Space on Server

as seen on SQL Authority - Search for 'SQL Authority'
A very common question I often receive is how to detect if the disk space is running low on SQL Server. There are two different ways to do the same. I personally prefer method 2 as that is very easy to use and I can use it creatively along with database name. Method 1: EXEC MASTER..xp_fixeddrives GO Above… >>> More
Program complains not enough disk space even if the disk space exists

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have an EXT3 partition mounted in ordered data mode. If a power failure occurs when a program is creating files on that partition, I see that space usage reported is normal and I don't see any partial written files. But when I try to run the same program again after the system comes back up it complains… >>> More
Determine which table takes most disk space in MySQL

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
What is the easiest way to determine which table takes most disk space ? A handicap: I have no MySQL server, only the file with all data (dump.sql) >>> More
[MySQL] Determine which table takes most disk space

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
What is the easiest way to determine which table takes most disk space ? A handicap: I have no MySQL server, only the file with all data (dump.sql) >>> More
Web-based disk space visualizer

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a number of Linux webservers for which I'd like to track where disk space is going and keep disk space to a minimum. Typically I login on SSH and use du to find out where disk space is wasted but this is cumbersome and slow. A visualisation tool like KDirStat would be ideal, but it requires… >>> More