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Hard Disk Capacity Problem

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 5:08 am
by girish
I have problem :?: on my C drive. If i select all the files after clicking show all hidden files and find out the memory taken by it is only 20GB used space but when i viewed whole drive without selecting files any files (i e whole drive) bar shows 40GB used space. I don't know what is the cause my 20GB is missing. I have 60 GB hard disk.

Mine is T60.

Please suggest me.

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 6:22 am
by dr_st
Do you use Rescue&Recovery? Sometimes its hidden backups take lots of gigabytes.

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:13 pm
by girish
Does it runs default?
Where could i disable it?

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 12:32 am
by Johan
Girish:

Just to make to sure that you are not (partly) being confused by "decimal" Gigabytes versus "binary" Gigabyes: A HDD sold as ”60 GB” will hold 60 GB if counted in ”decimal bytes”, but only 60 GB/2^30 = 55,88 GB if counted in ”binary bytes” (and as reported by e.g. Windows). This is one of the "Top 10" FAQ’s on all HDD verdors sites; see e.g. Storage Capacity Measurement Standards (by Seagate) or Why does my hard drive report less capacity than indicated on the drive's label? or My drive does not show its full capacity. (Samsung) or Why is my drive displaying a smaller than expected capacity than the indicated size on the drive label? (Western Digital).

So, your ”60 GB” HDD is actually (only) 55.8 GB, and the R&R (Rescue & Recovery partition, if you have that?) takes up further 4.3 GB (as far as I recall). Then, after that, you have Windows and your own programs and data...

Still, I admit that you seem to have some amount of "missing Gigabytes" - maybe hidden R&R backups?

Johan

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 4:34 am
by yak
Another thing to note here is the fact that in the first case (measuring size of all files) you are only adding the space occupied by files data whereas in the second case you are getting this and the space occupied by file information (name, dates) including some file system internal block alignments and stuff.

Still, the difference shouldn't be that big unless you have millions of very short files.

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 10:47 pm
by girish
Thank you for your suggestion i know that capacity of HDD is never full as it shows.

Where do i stop R&R on thinkpad? If it is running.

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:50 am
by WojtekJ
girish wrote:Thank you for your suggestion i know that capacity of HDD is never full as it shows.
Where do i stop R&R on thinkpad? If it is running.
It's nothing you can stop - it's just another partition (which you can delete) that takes about 7 GB from your harddrive.
I suggest you creating R&R partition backup on probably 5 or 6 DVD's (using Lenovo's application designed for it) before deleting the RR partition.

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:42 pm
by girish
Where are those setting? Tell me not just another suggestions.

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:11 pm
by WojtekJ
girish wrote:Where are those setting? Tell me not just another suggestions.
I can't lead you by the hand - it's very simple thing and you should manage it. I deleted R&R particion and installed 'fresh' system the first day after buying my laptop so I can't see where that application is.
Look, you need to look for it in menu start, run "Rescue and Recovery" application and you have to create backup on DVD's with it (about 5-6 DVDs).
You can make it just once (the application doesn't allow to burn more DVDs).
Once you do it - you can open "Disc Management".
I have no idea if you use Vista or XP but in Vista you can enter menu start and right click on "Computer", then select "Manage" and after expanding "Storage" just select "Disk Management".
There you can see all partitions created on your harddrive - one of them should occupy about 7 GB and should have rescue and recovery stuff on it.
If you have all DVD's written (without errors) - just delete this partition and you have your 'new' 7 GB free.