I have an 80g drive w/recovery partition, that reads as 70g's in my computer. my free space is 10.6G, but when I open the drive from My computer and add all the items in it, including system, and hidden, it only adds up to about 18 gigs. that's 42gigs missing! any ideas on how to find out what is causing this would be great. Thanks.

Hi sunrise, Welcome to BC.
What OS are you using and what make and model of computer? There are BIOS and OS partition limitations. There is software to eliminate some of it.

Thanks for the reply, hope this is enough info. The drive is partitioned, but shows up as a 70gig partition that is healthy.

Operating System

Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 (build 2600)

Processor Main

2.20 gigahertz AMD Athlon XP

512 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. Explorer4 Rev 1.xx

Bus Clock: 200 megahertz

BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 3.01 02/10/2004

Drives Memory Modules c,d

80.01 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
12.18 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

ST380013A [Hard drive] (80.03 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 5JVDNT6F, rev 8.01, SMART Status: Healthy 448 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'DIMM0' has 512 MB (serial number SerNum0)
Slot 'DIMM1' is Empty
Local Drive Volumes

c: (NTFS on drive 0) 75.22 GB 11.36 GB free
e: (FAT32 on drive 0) 4.78 GB 823 MB free

You have a modern computer and the issues I described should not effect your computer. Have you checked to see if you have a hidden partition?

Perform a search (Start...Search) for All Files and Folders. Under "What size is it?", select Other and enter 999,999 in the kB box. Then, under "More Advanced Options", ensure that the first 3 boxes are checked (Search system folders, Search hidden files and folders, and Search subfolders) - then click on Search.

Let us know what the largest files are (you can sort the list by clicking on the size column of the search results).

This will let us know if it's System Restore Data or Temporary Internet Files that are taking up the space (and it may give a clue as to any other programs that have very large files).

Can't see anything but the full 70, + the recovery partition.

Well, that sure shoots the heck outta my theory!

Have you looked at the drive in Disk Manager? (Start...Run...type in "diskmgmt.msc" (without the quotes) and press Enter) Are there any other drive listed that could be taking up this space?

Have you tried running chkdsk from the Command Prompt (Start...Run...type in "cmd" (without the quotes) and then press Enter - then type in "chkdsk" (without the quotes) and press Enter again)? It'll perform several tests on your disks. What does it say?

Has there been any changes to the system since the last time you can recall that the disk size was correct?

"chkdsk" - Errors found. chkdsk cannot continue in read-only mode.


The only large file in the search that seems odd to me is an errors log for Microsoft Antispyware which is a 4gig text doc.

A 4 gB text file? Sounds bogus to me, I've been running the MSAntiSpware beta since it came out and don't have any files that large on my entire system! - go to http://housecall.trendmicro.com and run the free, complete online test (about 15 minutes on a cable/dsl connection) to see what it finds.

What kind of anti-virus, anti-spyware and internet protection are you using?

Afterwards (presuming that everything comes up clean), run chkdsk again, but this time type in "chkdsk /f" (without the quotes) and tell it to scan your system when you reboot - then reboot and see what comes up.

Yep, sounds weird to me also, can't even open it, to big for notepad, and word pad, and MSword won't open it.

running Housecall now will get back to you on that.

Running Norton system works 2005, AVG free, MSAntiSpware beta, and Adaware

Checked one of my other computers for MSAntiSpware beta error text doc, it's there, but is only 254 kb. Why would this file be so big, and can I delete it?

A 4 gB text file is huge beyond reason - that's why I suggested the online scan. I'd get rid of the thing, and then empty your Recycle Bin to be sure it's gone (don't be surprised if it comes back tho' - the bad guys are tricky!). I started to study the anti-spyware trade a while back - but never finished - so I'm not really proficient at it. I'd suggest posting your HiJackThis log in the HiJackThis forum to have it analyzed by an expert.

Are you running the anti-virus component of Norton System Works and AVG at the same time? If so, this could be problem and could have let something bad slip through.

Also, in earlier versions of Norton (I dunno about yours) there's a hole that can let viruses through. By default Norton would only scan the first 3 layers of a compressed file - once the virus writers discovered this, they started burying their files deeper than 3 layers to prevent detection. I only found this out by getting infected and finding out, by accident, in a routine scan of my system using HiJackThis (the baddie had spawned onto my system, was lurking in several places, and had even invaded an anti-spyware program that I was using).

I'd advise you to install a software firewall to prevent connections to and from your system without your permission. They're a bit tricky at first, but after you get used to them they'll protect your system quite well

The tricky part is knowing what to Allow, what to Deny, and when to apply the Allow/Deny - Always or Each Time. But, a simple rule of thumb is to Deny permission when in doubt - you can always change it later. And, if you Deny and find that something doesn't work - you can always change it later.

I use the Sygate Personal Firewall (available for free here: http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm )

I don't like to recommend the Zone Alarm free firewall because of problems that I've had in the past. I've got several friends who use the Kerio free firewall and are happy with it also.

Whoops! Confused your post with another one - here's the link for the HiJackThis forums: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/forum22.html

Please read all the stuff at the top, and the pinned topics at the top before submitting your log (I'm new here, so I don't know all the rules yet).

There's something in there that's eating up your system's resources - and, IMO, HiJackThis is the best tool for fixing it!

Thank's for the advice, I'll check into the firewall. Yes I'm running Norton, and AVG together, I'll stop one of them, didn't know it could be a problem.

Housecall scan was clean.

Thanks again for the help, gotta go to work now, if you think of anything else, let me know.

Well, if that don't beat all! I was sure (with the 4gB file) that there'd be spyware there! Hmmmm????

Well, since you're clean of spyware and the chkdsk indicated errors - let's try the chckdsk /f.

- Start...Run...type in "cmd.exe" without the quotes - press Enter
- In the black window that shows up, type in "chkdsk /f" (without the quotes) and press Enter
- The system should say that it can't be done now because the volume is in use. Then it'll ask you if you want to schedule it for the next time the system restarts - Press "y" and then Enter.
- Then, reboot your system. When the chkdsk /f is finished running, check your disk properties again and see if this fixed it.

You should scan with your security programs, while in safe mode.

Info. at this link should prove informative.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic1628.html

* You should not have more than one Antivirus. There is no need for more than one at all. Doing so can slow down your computer. You should decide which one you would like to keep. And uninstall the other.

Have you deleted the huge text file yet? If not, have you right clicked on file then > properties? Curious as to what that might reveal.

Sorry, already deleted it. kinda wish I hadn't now, would like to know what it was also.

I have a feeling there will be some cleaning on your log that you posted in the Hi Jack This. Please be patient and do not bump the thread. They are trained to look for threads with a 0 count, and that will put you on the list to be looked at. One other thing I would recommend is, when you are waiting for a response for the log, do not have alot of applications open. It is possible that you will need to restart your computer. The faster you can do the requests, the faster they can get back to you.

Good luck

Edited: The reason why you couldnt open the txt file is because it had a 4 GB size. The computer wants to load the entire file into memory. If you do happen to get it again, have it zipped up, then delete the original. I would bet that it would even be small enough to put on a cd. If so, and you have a burner, please burn it. That file may be useful in helping find the actual cause.

Might want to try SequoiaView downloadable at http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/ . It's a nice little utility that helps you picture what files are taking up how much space on the drive.

I tried SequoiaView, very hard to read how it's put together. I also looked at it my drive in TreeSize, and noticed in Documents and settings, that there are two folders for old user names I hade before a crash, and reinstall of xp. I know the passwords for these names, so I thought I could use "run as" to access them, but the option is not available. Any ideas how to access these folders?

Accessing old profiles is a bear! Here's some references to help get you started:


Just found this one today: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechn...t/dataprot.mspx

Good Luck!

Thanks for all the help, solved the problem already, if you're curious, you can check here. http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/ind...ndpost&p=179129

Thanks again everybody.