Missing HDD space - says 65GB used, selecting all folders shows 40GB used

windows-server-2008 hard-drive disk-space-utilization

9,736

Solution 1

Try this free program and see if it can help you. Should show you amount of space used per directory.

Also check how much your hard drive is fragmented, this surely didn't take your 35GB but could loose you couple of megs.

Solution 2

Are you looking at hidden folders too?

I'm willing to bet you've got something like shadow copies or system restore points enabled on that volume which is taking up stupid amounts of disk space and putting it in a hidden folder, which your Select All, Properties method isn't picking up.

9,736

Admin

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

Admin over 1 year

Running Windows Server 2008, 74GB raptor drive and noticed we only had about 500MB left - yikes!

So deleted some old backups we don't need, but can't track down where about 25GB seems to be taken up. If I go to C: and select all folders and go to properties, this comes to around 40GB but in My Computer I can see 65GB is used.

How can I find out whats eating the space?

Just IIS + MSSQL Express + Smartermail on the server

EDIT Checked to show hidden folders plus protected operating system files - 41.8GB usage, so 24.6GB is missing somewhere. Theres no system restore even installed on the server
- MDMarra almost 14 years
  
  Off topic, but saving backups to the drive that you're backing up is a waste of space and very dangerous.
- Admin about 9 years
  
  Check the size of your pagefile, 10+ gigs reserved is not uncommon.
Admin almost 14 years

Can't possibly lose that much space because its de fragmented, plus Microsoft says de fragmenting isn't good for MSSQL.
Admin almost 14 years

I'll double check the hidden folders, will check restore points, thanks
MadBoy almost 14 years

Well check the program I've showed you. It should show you what takes all the megs.
Admin almost 14 years

Unfortunately, didnt work. Says the complete C drive is 39.4GB, but windows says 66.4GB is used.
Admin almost 14 years

Ok, this time I checked to include hidden folders AND protected operating system files - total usage (on disk) 41.8GB. So there is a black hole of about 24.6GB.
Ben Pilbrow almost 14 years

Does that include a folder called C:/System Volume Information? That's a critical system folder which by default Windows goes to great lengths to hide (I've just checked on my laptop - Windows says it's empty) but I guarantee that it's got stuff inside.
Admin almost 14 years

It says 0 bytes but clicking on it shows Access Denied. I wonder if its UAC - how can I open explorer with Admin privileges?
Admin almost 14 years

Got access to it by adding the user account to the Security tab, only 20KB in there!
Admin almost 14 years

Re-running this with admin privileges
Admin almost 14 years

Thank you, found the Culprit - Plesk's own backups which don't seem to be executing properly...
Aashraya Singal almost 14 years

I don't think a fragmented drive takes up any more space than an unfragmented drive, even with extreme fragmentation. A block is a block.