Vista - Unreported Disk Space Utilization

I have a strange problem trying to account for the space usage on my disk. The disk capacity is 186 GB, and there is about 12.5 GB of available space. However, when I look at file sizes using ShowSize, TreeSize, or just manually looking at folder sizes in the explorer, I can only account for 99 GB of space. I have backup/restore turned off. Where's the rest of the disk space?

Hi, pbrown12303.

That's a FAQ and there are a LOT of POSSIBLE answers.

First, the size on disk is almost always larger than the number of bytes in
a file. Even a 1-byte file might take a whole 4,096 "cluster", so a million
of those would add up to a million bytes - but 4 GB of storage space.

Then there are some hidden and system files; have you set your computer to
show those? For instance, most every system has a swap file and probably
hiberfil.sys; each of these uses as much as your installed RAM or more, by
default, and neither appear in Explorer normally.

There are other possibilities. No use in trying to list them all here until
you've checked out these first ideas.

I'm not familiar with ShowSize and TreeSize; do they account for these
factors that I've mentioned?

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

"pbrown12303" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
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Yes, I have covered the usual suspects: pagefile.sys, hiberfil.sys, archive.pst, local.pst, and so on. I have been working with the developer of ShowSize on this as well and he is baffled. Hence the posting. This is definitely something unique to Vista. ShowSize reports accurately on XP Professional.

Mystery solved. A Lenovo utility, Rescue and Recovery, was creating backups on the same drive. Not quite sure where these backups live, since they don't show up as consumed space in any of the folders (including the drive itself) on the OS, but they definitely reduce the amount of space available on the hard drive. Can anyone explain what is going on here at the disk drive/partition level?

Hi, pbrown12303.

Congratulations! And thanks for the feedback. Maybe we can remember to
check that the next time someone asks the same question.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

"pbrown12303" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
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