[bettyli]

Please help me to solve this puzzle:
Recently I found from the "properties" of my hard drive that I have used 29.6G (total 31.9G). Then I open this C drive in brower. I selected everything including hidden files and folders and surprisedly found the total size is only 7.62G. Before this I have cleaned my disk using cleanup. I am now really confusing: where did the rest 20G go?

Could anyone help me on this? Thank you!

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Please go to the malware forum and follow the instructions at the top....Especially the CLICK HERE .

That will give you several steps that will help you clean up 70 percent of all problems by yourself. If at the end of the process you are still having difficulty--and you may not be-- then post a hijackthis log in THAT forum.

If you are still having problems after getting a clean bill of health from the malware expert, please return to this thread.

[Kat]

Please go to the malware forum and follow the instructions at the top....Especially the CLICK HERE .

That will give you several steps that will help you clean up 70 percent of all problems by yourself. If at the end of the process you are still having difficulty--and you may not be-- then post a hijackthis log in THAT forum.

If you are still having problems after getting a clean bill of health from the malware expert, please return to this thread.

[bettyli]

OK, I have my system checked with bunch of softwares listed in the malware section, nothing found. Currently nobody replied my post there as well. But I have checked my disk, it shows that "free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap" (see attachment). I guess that is the problem. I tried to use "CHKDSK /f" to fix it, it told me I cannot do that since I am using this volumn and then I scheduled this at restart. After restart, this problem still exists. Could anyone suggest me a method to fix this? Thank you in advance.

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[Michael]

Boot form the Windows XP CD when it asks you what you what to do press R to enter the recovery console, chose form the list to enter the command prompt and type

chkdsk /x /f

Hope this helps

[Retired Tech]

This will work provided there is not any malware on the system

Click start, all programmes, accessories, system tools to run disc clean up, click more options then clean up restore points, click confirm, click OK. Then from system tools, run disc defragmenter.

Click start then run, type prefetch then press enter, click edit then select all, right click any file then click delete, confirm delete, then reboot

When it has loaded to the desktop, click start then run, type sfc /scannow then press enter, you need the XP CD and get a blue progress bar, after the bar goes, reboot.

When it has loaded to the desktop, click start then run, type chkdsk /f /r then press enter, type Y to confirm for next boot, press enter then reboot.

This will take an hour, it will appear to load normally then either the monitor will show progress or the screen will go blank, do not disturb this.

When it gets to the desktop, the system files and the hard drive will be as they should

If no change, the next thing to do would be a repair install, this will leave all data and settings intact, and repair XP

http://www.geekstogo...ws_XP-t138.html

Beyond this it is likely to be a hardware fault

[mic77]

Check that your recyle bin is not set too high:

Right click on the icon and select properties, should be set to between 2 and 10%

Check that the swap file (virtual memory) is not set too large:

Control Panel/System/Advanced/Performance Settings/Advanced, most users should let the system manage the size.

Mic

[wossie]

have you tried reducing the amount of restore settings,you will be surprised at how much space these take up.

[bettyli]

Thank you all for the advices. I have tried the chkdsk in the way you suggested, did not work. The trash can and virtual memory spaces are less than 2G. The restore space is 4G. I still cannot fill the discrepancy. At last, I formatted my disk ...

[Michael]

You have formated?

[bettyli]

Yes. I backuped everything and restored my system (It is 3 monthes old, so kind of easy). I need this laptop working now, cannot spend more time trying options. But I really appreciate the help I received here, thanks to everyone!

[Michael]

Ok, I can understand why you did that. I just thought that you might think that we can't fix it, which we could given the time. I normaly format every school holodays.

Edited by Michael Buckley, 17 October 2005 - 08:39 PM.

[bettyli]

Sure, one of the great things in this forum is that there is a staff group which is very helpful with prompt response. I have used the help here to remove some vundo virus twice.

OK, just some update: I have found where the disk space went: I downloaded a lot of IBM's updates in September. There is a ThinkVatage Rescue and Recovery software in it, which by default backup the WHOLE hard drive every week without any warning about the space it takes. I have movies, games ... so no wonder the disk was eaten so fast and there is no way to "find" the deep buried backups.
Toooooo late to find out this...