Where has all my hard drive space gone?

[Wilber_Stool]

I’m running Win XP Pro with an 18 gig hard drive. I have two gigs in windows, six gigs in program files, one gig in my docs and the rest couldn’t come to more than two gigs, So where is the rest of it. I’ve right clicked on properties, and checked them all. I don’t store images, mp3s or vids, I burn them to CD as fast as I get them.
I must be missing something here but I don’t know what it could be. Help.
Thanks.

[bemildred]

1. There are many possible answers.

One does not know where to begin.

[SlackJawedYokel]

2. How much actually shows up?

The http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=615&p_created=1034613413&p_sid=BH6VTd9h&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD0zNSZwX3BhZ2U9MQ**&p_li=">*real* amount of space for an 18GB drive will be 18000/1074 = 16.8GB.
So you've lost almost a gig and a half before you start figuring.
Have you emptied your recycle bin and your Temp folder?

Cletus

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

3. Several things take large chunks of space from you

If you have System Restore on, it reserves a percentage of your drive and creates a hidden file. I recommend it be turned off for several reasons.



There's also the "swap file" (which is another large hidden file named "pagefile.sys"). This cannot be eliminated.

The system also reserves a generous percentage of the hard drive for system purposes. This cannot be adjusted (to my knowledge). NOTE: This is present only on NTFS file systems. It is not present on Fat32 systems.

[SlackJawedYokel]

4. Actually, it can.

The system also reserves a generous percentage of the hard drive for system purposes. This cannot be adjusted (to my knowledge). NOTE: This is present only on NTFS file systems. It is not present on Fat32 systems.
Actually you can.
You must be careful, however.
Go to System Properties/Advanced/Performance/Advanced/Virtual Memory.
I've got 512MB of Ram and my page file is set at 767MB.
You can check out sites that explain just what that number should be.
Most people leave Windows to manage it.
Let me repeat... adjust this *carefully*.

But, yea, I'd completely forgotten about System Restore and the Page File.
He might also want to adjust the amount of data stored in his Recycle Bin.

Cletus

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

6. The page file IS what I called the "swap file"

(That was the old Win3x term for it.) It's the physical component of the virtual memory. It's called pagefile.sys. It's size is adjustable as you say. The NTFS reserved area of the hard drive is separate and has nothing to do with it. Note on my posted image they are two different things.

On a Fat32 file system (in XP/Win2K), pagefile.sys still exists. The NTFS reserved space does not. THe page file also exists in Win98, but it's named differently. I can't recall at the moment what it's called. I believe it was something like 386spart.par

The virtual memory mechanism also exists in Win3x/NT (Fat16).

[Princess Turandot]

5. To find 'hidden' files..

go to the explorer window, then to the Tools| Folder Option|View menu. Click on the button for "show hidden folders & files".

There is a utility in windows which might help you find things to delete: Start| Programs| Accessories| System Tools | Disk Clean-up.
Choose the advanced mode.

Do you have a lot of email messages on your PC? They are not in the Windows folder anymore, but in the documents & settings folder, which is a separate item on the C drive. You should probably check the amount of items in that folder. You can check on the amount of space being taken up by email messages in OE by going to Tools|Options| Maintenance. Click on the 'clean up' tab: it won't do anything initially other than tell you the what your volume of messages are.

BTW, I use Windows XP home, and assuming the stuff above would be the same in the Pro version.

Was there an SP2 upgrade to the Pro version? That also created a huge folder in the event that you wanted to uninstall SP2.

[Wilber_Stool]

7. Back from the salt mines

Well I really have a 20 gig hard drive(18.63gig) but I just rounded down for convenience.
I have my restore at minimum so I only have,at most, two restore points.
I use FAT32 file system.
I have the KMCS utilities the deletes all temp files and defrags the swap file at boot.
I checked OE and found 500megs of mail.
I looked at the hidden files and did find a few folders with a lot of temp files. Can I delete them? I think I remember reading that you can always delete a temp file but I'm not sure.
It still doesn't explain where a my space went.