Greetings Posted July 16, 2007 Report Share Posted July 16, 2007 Got an unusual problem. I've got a 360GB hard disk divided into two partitions - 200GB and 160GB.The problem is that the main partition (on which the OS and all files are) is 145GB full, but there is only 75GB of files on it. So basically, 70GB of that hard disk is occupied by files which don't exist? Despite the setting in explorer which allows me to view all hidden files, I can't access certain folders which the defrag program accesses and which I think might contain the missing 70GB of data.The address of that folder is C:\$Recycle.Bin\ which seems to have about 40,000 files in it. Unfortunately, there is no way I can view the contents of this folder as windows says it's empty. Oh yeah, and before you ask, my recycle bin is empty. I've tried deleting the contents of that folder under DOS but it says that the folder is already empty.I'd really like to avoid formatting the hard disk. Unfortunately, due to the size of files i work on while capturing video footage, the drive needs to be pretty empty for them not to get fragmented into hundreds of smaller files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Nick Riviera Posted July 16, 2007 Report Share Posted July 16, 2007 dump the files onto an ipod or a portable hard drive, then format it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-Stop Junkie Posted July 16, 2007 Report Share Posted July 16, 2007 how is the disk formatted? fat32? NTFS? Do you have recovery settings or any kind of roll back turned on? have you tried running the disk clean up wizard? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poopipe Posted July 16, 2007 Report Share Posted July 16, 2007 A 360gb disk is probably only about 320gb by the time you've converted marketing gigabytes back to real gigabytes and accounted for FAT tables n stuff but that does seem like a bit more space missing than you'd expect. I'd hazard a guess that the disk has been used on another install of windows that broke or did something weird - it's the only way I can think of that a recycle bin you can't access got there. Are you or have you been dual booting by any chance?Either way, one of those low level disk management proggies people use for recovering/properly deleting data should sort you out. can't think of any names off the top of my head though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greetings Posted July 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2007 (edited) i'd rather not format it or reinstall windows, got a few programs which take half an hour each to install it's NTFS, haven't got a recovery disk as i'm used to re-installing windows every couple of weeks, but as i've done it a couple of days ago i wouldn't like to go through it again, takes ages to get all the settings and programs installed. used the cleanup wizard, saved about 5gb.and poopie, it's really 360gb (it says 400gb on the label but as you say, by that they mean 400,000mb)good idea with the recovery programs, will try that outthis is my 2nd install of windows on this hard disk without formatting it but from what i remember i already had this issue with my previous installedit: used this which allowed me to remove the old recycle bin, unfortunately it only added up to 5gb. So there's still 65GB lost somewhere. Edited July 16, 2007 by Inur Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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