BleepingComputer.com: Where do the deleted files in my non-bootable Windows XP partition take from the disk free space?

I have a 40GB Hard Drive partitioned into two windows xp partitions and one hidden recovery partition. The C: Drive has my bootable Windows XP(16 GB),the F: Drive has a 19GB Non-bootable Windows XP logical partition, 1 GB is used by the hidden recovery partition. Recently, I downloaded big files to my non-bootable partition, extracted and zipped them into CD Size files for burning. After burning I deleted all these files BY Right Clicking on them then delete or highlighted them then used the Delete Key on the keyboard, ran disk clean up and then fragmented the non-bootable partion. To my surprise, the volume on the non-bootable partition shrank exponentially from almot 15 GB free space to 2GB. No matter how many times I cleaned the partition, fragmented it. These deleted files are still taking space from the partition and I don't seem to know where they reside. I cleaned the recycler that is showing in the same partition but to no avail. My question is, where do the deleted files in a non-bootable partition go after being deleted? Certainly, they don't go to C: Drive recycle bin because I already checked there.I even tried to work from Safe Mode but no luck yet. The volume is shrinking exponentially and every file I delete still subtracts from the partition's volume although when I selected all showing and hidden files, the volume is not even 10% of what is used from the partition.

If it matters here is some extra info:
* I am using, a company's Toshiba Tecra lab top and I am not the administrator.
* The cluster size on both the C: and F: are the typical 4k or 4096 bytes for XP. I thought of reducing this size to 512 bytes at least in the non-bootable to see if that helps any.
* These burnings/deletings happened when I was off the company's network which runs Trend Micro Client Server Security Agent, so definitely these deleted files are somewhere on this non-bootable partition or somewhere else on this hard drive.
* I am not using any Norton Firewall/Anti-Virus etc.. but I am not quite sure if the Trend Micro has a protected Recycle Bin.
* "System Volume Information" directory has 0 bytes, on both this non-bootable partition and the C: Drive
* When I run Diskeeper and defragment this partition I see all these contiguous deleted files in a nice compact blue line.
Could it be a virus that I am dealing with here?

Sorry for the typo in post title, it should read: Why do deleted files on my Non-bootable partition take from free space.

This post has been edited by Xtra Dark One: 08 December 2009 - 10:18 PM

Just my opinion: Since this is a company system...it seems (to me) that this is a matter for the company's IT personnel...not one for individual suggestions by an unknowing audience.

Especially so since an enterprise network may be involved.

Louis

Is there a folder named RECYCLER on this partition?

You will need to uncheck "Hide protected operating system files" under Tools > Folder Options > View tab in Windows Explorer.

This post has been edited by Budapest: 09 December 2009 - 06:29 PM