Solved Disk space?

[u5cevryday]

I just noticed recently that my D drive (50 gb capacity) has been filled up ridiculously. I was surprised because I only have the things that I really need in there.
Problem :
When I right click on the drive and click properties, it says: 43.3gb used and 11.1 gb remaining. However when i go into the drive select all its contents then right click and properties, everything in the drive adds to 24.5 gb. So technically I should have 25+ gb remaining. What happened to the 14 gigs?? (no hidden files). thanks in advance.

Edit: Empty recycling bin and yes i do fragment and spyware removal and all that other stuff regularly.

Edit: I just realized the same holds true with my C drive. If i select everything including hidden files, I should have 100gb+ free space but it says i have only 50.

 

[townsbg]

What are each of those drives for? Wildirstat will tell you what is taking up space on the hard drive and where it is: WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics

However when i go into the drive select all its contents then right click and properties, everything in the drive adds to 24.5 gb.

I have a feeling that restore points are taking up a vast majority of that space; it doesn't show up under properties. Try cleaning your temp files with ccleaner. If you aren't having any problems with your system you can have windows delete all but the most recent restore point. Under accessories, system tools select disk clean up. On the next pop up select All files from all users, select your drive (the one with windows on it), and then ok. After disk cleanup has scanned your hard drive click on more options. Now under the heading system restore and shadow copies click on clean up and then delete.

Also check memory dumps; you can do so from disk cleanup. After you've done all of this tell us how much is free. I also suggest that you scan for Viruses.

 

[Slammer]

When you open the properties windows for very large drives or file systems, it usually takes a very long time to go through everything and find the total size. Try selecting everything, open the properties window, and then leave that window open for about 10 minutes. See if it shows the correct free space (or at least gets closer) after being open for that long.

 

[u5cevryday]

Yep, I defintely waited till it had gone through everything. I'm trying townsbg's solution right now

 

[u5cevryday]

I tried to use disk cleaner to remove memory dumps but nothing happens when I click delete. C drive is anything that I would not mind losing and reinstalling. My D drive contains all my music, pictures, and a word documents.

Edit: Nevermind, it did delete restore points, but nothing happened. About to windows directory stats.

 

[wither 3]

Try running Windows Disk Cleanup utility in Accessories and then rebooting.

 

[u5cevryday]

Alright so I found what was taking up so much space. In WinDirStat it shows me that $RECYCLE.BIN has 14 gigs worth of files. however, when i try to open it to delete it, nothing is there... How can i permanently delete the things in this folder. I cant see it my normal D:\ drive. I'm guessing these are files I've previously deleted, but I cant find any of them in the regular recycle bin.

 

[Brink]

Hello u5cevryday,

You might see if using METHOD ONE in the tutorial for each HDD that has a drive letter may help to fix your corrupted Recycle Bin.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/131294-recycle-bin-corrupted-cannot-delete-file-folder.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[wither 3]

Just wanted to note that the Windows Disk Cleanup utility will delete temporary files and empty the recycle bin. You can specify which things you want it to clean.

 

[u5cevryday]

Thanks for the input. I tried using both Disk cleanup and through command prompt. It only deleted what i could physically see in my recycle bin. I had to delete the files in my recycle bin that was actually taking up spaceby navigating through WINDIRSTAT.

 

[Brink]

I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted.