Missing GBs?

radio1_mike · December 14th, 2005, 07:38 AM

So, I was trying to install BF2:SF on my computer last night, and halfway through the install- it drops, saying: I need at least 2400MB to update BF2.

This is weird, I think, because my games are installed on a separate partition. I go into my boot partition (in Desktop) and switch my d/l folder to another partition; this frees up 7GB. End of story? No.

I travel to C: in explorer, and see that on my ~50GB partition about 9GB is free. I think, Hmmm... I expand the the folder view to details and start tallying the sizes of each folder. The biggest culprit is my "Documents and Settings" folder with 26.2GB used. WTF? I look in those folder and I do not see anything adding up to 26GB. It seems like I am 'missing' ~10GB...

Where is it?
Any ideas?
Anyone know of any freeware explorer mods that give size on all folder and files?

PC TECH250 · December 17th, 2005, 04:11 AM

When you partitioned the drive you apparently forgot to format one partition which would
then make that drive space accessible.

large_nostril · December 17th, 2005, 04:49 AM

Check out TreeSize Pro... it'll help you visually see what's takin up the space. If that doesnt help you find the "missing" space, maybe you should try running checkdisk on the drive. Other than that, I'm at a loss :\

PC TECH250 · December 17th, 2005, 01:39 PM

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Active_Par...ery_d1017.html here's another one in
the area of drive ultilites.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads8.html offers quite a few drive utilities.

Peter M · December 17th, 2005, 02:40 PM

The one thing to realize is that data is organized in clusters. Files take up more space than their actual size, because clusters can't be split to hold multiple files. Hence, each file creates unused residue space of half a cluster (statistically).

With many many small files, and large clusters (FAT file system on really large disk?), that residue quickly amounts to several gigabytes. That's exactly what's missing if you compare actual free space to total space minus the sum of all file sizes.

EXreaction · December 17th, 2005, 02:45 PM

Clear your temp folder...that is usually the problem.

PC TECH250 · December 17th, 2005, 09:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter M

The one thing to realize is that data is organized in clusters. Files take up more space than their actual size, because clusters can't be split to hold multiple files. Hence, each file creates unused residue space of half a cluster (statistically).

With many many small files, and large clusters (FAT file system on really large disk?), that residue quickly amounts to several gigabytes. That's exactly what's missing if you compare actual free space to total space minus the sum of all file sizes.

Yet even with the NTFS format clusters also take space there. On the 250gb hd
used here the initial partition and format of the drive brings the total available to
238gb approximate. Windows also reserves space in each partition for hidden not
visible files. XP loves to hide backups in the primary.

radio1_mike · December 17th, 2005, 09:46 PM

Hi all,

I forgot to set up email notification for this thread. Thanks for heads up on the freeware proggies. I do know that all available space was allocated, and how the clusters etc... etc... are set-up... But I can not for the life of me think, so much is just lost...

I'll report back...

Thx

Peter M · December 18th, 2005, 06:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PC TECH250

Yet even with the NTFS format clusters also take space there. On the 250gb hd
used here the initial partition and format of the drive brings the total available to
238gb approximate. Windows also reserves space in each partition for hidden not
visible files. XP loves to hide backups in the primary.

No. And no.

The fact that a 250GB drive has only 238 GiB of space isn't due to "formatting and partitioning", it is due to the fact that drives are advertized in decimal GB, while software usually calculates binary GiB. The difference is about 7%. Your "250GB" drive doesn't hold more than those 238 GiB.

Hidden files are handled and created just like normal files, only with a "hidden" attribute set. Other than that, they are handled just like normal files; space is only allocated when they are created, nothing is being reserved beforehand.

The delta is ONLY due to the fact that the last cluster of each file is only partially used.

PC TECH250 · December 18th, 2005, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter M

No. And no.

The fact that a 250GB drive has only 238 GiB of space isn't due to "formatting and partitioning", it is due to the fact that drives are advertized in decimal GB, while software usually calculates binary GiB. The difference is about 7%. Your "250GB" drive doesn't hold more than those 238 GiB.

Hidden files are handled and created just like normal files, only with a "hidden" attribute set. Other than that, they are handled just like normal files; space is only allocated when they are created, nothing is being reserved beforehand.

The delta is ONLY due to the fact that the last cluster of each file is only partially used.

Well, that partition information must be wrong when it says there is 8gb of free space left on the drive that wasn't formatted by XP. Then there's a boot partition
in there somewhere that stays hidden from due to the attributes. But, you know
these totals advertised are usually rounded figures anyways.