** Edited **
To recreate the issue:
Step-1:
Right-click drive C, click Properties.
"Used space" = about 201GB
Step-2: Open drive C, unhide all system files, etc. Select all files, right-click, click Properties Total file size of combined files = 104GB
There is a missing 97GB <-------
I've used these tools (see below) to examine my folders and file sizes and to look for any "hidden" files and/or folders, but there are none:
Tools: - TreeSize and WinDirStat
Notes: 1. I have no hibernate file 2. The swap file is only 3.5GB 3. Restore point approx. 5GB 4. There are no windows backups 5. This is not a Dell or HP, and there are no hidden partitions. I built the PC myself and loaded a fresh copy of Windows 10 Pro about 5 months ago.
I just now noticed the difference in size, but would like to fix it.
I remember seeing a tech blog on the web about two years ago for Windows-7 about some kind of hidden Windows "log" files under c:\windows that would mess up drive space used, but it was for win7, not sure if this would be the same for Win 10.
I can tell you that I did an image of my entire HD and it came to 149GB so the 104GB report isn't right. It must be closer to the 201GB. but I've used those two tools to search my drive and they are only coming up with the 104GB.
Any ideas anyone?
Thank you! :)
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** Added **
Thank you for your feedback…..Actually, the referenced thread is nearly the same as mine, however, that thread seemed not to have a final conclusion and had been up for a while. I’m hoping to refresh this topic with some new ideas for everyone including and hopefully fixing my issue. Here is what I've tried so far:
Here is my in-depth diagnostics into the file size mismatch:
Yes, I ran the folder and file size tools as an administrator.
I deleted and recreated the pagefile.sys file.
There is no hibernate file.
I ran disk cleanup and also selected "Clean up system files".
Drive has been defragmented, to reduce the number of waisted partially filled 4k blocks.
**I understand that the allocation of files on a hard drive are stored in 4k “Allocation Units”/Blocks, and that Drive Properties totals include partially filled 4k blocks for each file causing the total disk space to be inflated compared with the total actual size of all files combined. However, my hard drive has approximately 180,000 files, and assuming that each of these files have a 4k block at the end that is not totally full we can multiply 180,000 by 4k and come up with approximately 0.8GB of extra space, keeping in mind that I have defragmented my hard drive so there should be only one partially filled block at the end of each file. But even assuming that defrag does not completely unfragmented each file, we can assume each file isn’t fragmented more then 10 times after being defragmented, and if we multiply 0.8GB by 10 we still only come up with 8GB of waisted space, no where near the missing 97Gig I have.
No System Restores points.
Defragmented drive.
Recycle bin is empty.
Deleted 99% of c:\windows\Temp files.
Unhid: hidden files, swap files, System files, and Protected files.
No backup files created.
Drive not compressed.
Also, I imaged my entire drive and the stored file comes to 149Gigs. The total space reported by drive Properties is 201Gig, and after highlighting all files Widows explorer reports 104GB. I can only conclude that Windows explorer isn’t finding or displaying all files and thereby not including it in the total. However, after running both WinDirStat and TreeSize in admin mode both these tools show nearly the same size as Windows explorer with a gentle bump of around 8GB, but neither show the total missing size of 97GB.
Just for comparison I have 2 computers and have compared the totals between their:
PC-1(with issue): Drive properties = “201GB”, Explorer = “104GB”, WinDirStat = 119.2GB.
PC-2: Drive properties = “109GB”, Explorer = “106GB”, WinDirStat = 109.9GB.
Any fresh ideas anyone? :)
Thank you.
