Windows 10 reporting wrong hard disk free space

I have an external hard disk, and for some reason, it is reporting wrong free space.

In Windows Explorer, it is showing the used space is 378 GB.

I tried running chkdsk H: /f /r, it seems to report the same usage as Windows Explorer, and it says that there is no problem.

But when I tried selecting all the files inside this drive, it is showing much lesser usage.

I've already set the setting to show all hidden files and folders, also show the protected OS files, but it still cannot find about those missing files. And the difference is huge (282 GB). I've already cleaned the Recycle bin as well.

What I am missing here and how do I identify those missing spaces?

[UPDATE]: I used this tools to help identify and it seems to find some gigantic files, of which filename is quite weird. Anyone knows what this is and is it safe to delete?

rcs

Posted 2016-08-29T00:01:50.110

Reputation: 635

Free space and used space adds up? 368+162=540? – Moab – 2016-08-29T00:04:47.477

Used space is 378 and free space is 162, so it adds up to 540. So the total is correct. But the used space is not correct. – rcs – 2016-08-29T00:18:24.820

There are hidden files that never show up using properties.... http://superuser.com/questions/212647/missing-disk-space-in-windows-xp?rq=1

– Moab – 2016-08-29T00:24:44.183

If you look at the 3rd screenshot the checkbox for hidden has a square instead of a tick mark: that means not all hidden files are counted. Some are omitted, I'm not sure which ones but seems like a lot. What the show hidden files option does is display them in your file explorer, and does not necessarily count the in the adding up of used space. Try bringing up the dialog on the 3rd screenshot after launching explorer.exe as administrator. But I do not think it's designed to be an accurate measurement of all filed on disk. – user628797 – 2016-08-29T00:27:32.433

Possible duplicate of Almost half of disk space unaccounted for on Windows 7 computer

– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2016-10-19T20:35:05.800

slightly different. mine is Windows system restore point, not Lenovo backup files. – rcs – 2016-10-20T00:01:08.250

Answers

It appears to be the System Restore that take this space. I go to Control Panel > System > System Protection > (select drive) > Configure and find out the huge size of the system restore file. It is quite weird though that the file is found in (E:) instead of (H:), despite taking the size from (H:). After clearing the system restore then I manage to get back the free space. I did remove the system restore file from (H:) as well.

Another weird thing is that the system restore is disabled for this drive (see the radiobutton selected), but despite that, it still create the system restore file.

rcs

Posted 2016-08-29T00:01:50.110

Reputation: 635

1System Restores can be useful, so a good practice is to leave it on, with a relatively small usage like 10 GB . – Christopher Hostage – 2017-10-12T19:51:23.203

Agree, this answer really needs a caveat Disabling system protection will prevent you rolling back to a previous state when issues are encountered with windows, likely necessitating a full reinstall of Windows and ALL installed programs at the cost of many hours of work. System restore is always on the boot drive (one containing Windows), so that Windows can be sure if you are in the recovery environment (also stored on the boot disk), you should also have access to the system restore info, while not having to worry about RAID, or some other thing that complicates access to other drives. – user66001 – 2019-06-28T14:34:33.753

I had the same problem, but a different cause. In my case when I tried to select all the files on the C:\ partition, the used space was 70 GB, but the Windows Explorer was showing 210 GB of used space.

I have looked on the internet, but no answer seemed to be helpful. I didn't have backup enabled nor old copies of windows installed.

I decided to download a disk usage analyzer called WinDirStat and I instantly had the missing space. It was a MSSQL .mdf file that was taking about 140 GB. Deleted that file and everything got back to normal.

Marius Lazar

Posted 2016-08-29T00:01:50.110

Reputation: 51

But OP had already found the cause – yass – 2017-06-04T19:27:20.163

8Yes, I know. Just in case anybody look for this problem and the cause is different from the OP. – Marius Lazar – 2017-06-05T08:14:26.150

3@yass: The causes of this problem are numerous so this intervention from Marius is welcome. – AlainD – 2018-10-30T09:44:27.293

Properties is correct. Empty your recycle bin. On my system the $Recycle bin is invisible. Windows will then display the correct smaller number.

jiggunjer

Posted 2016-08-29T00:01:50.110

Reputation: 831

Get a decent file manager to show you what's where. Windows will show various things inconsistently, as explained in the other answers.

Alternately, utilities like DiskState can show you very detailed information in a very organized manner (as in per-subfolders).

Overmind

Posted 2016-08-29T00:01:50.110

Reputation: 8 562

I already found it, it is due to the system restore, and after I cleaned it, the free space is back. – rcs – 2016-08-29T13:05:22.003

-3

sometimes its hidden folders like an aria-debug files that can take huge space which of course are because of bugs in it . i deleted an aria-debug file that took 157 GB and my computer is still great i heard its something connected to Microsoft onedrive which is a cloud service so its realy cant harm to delete it..

nati

Posted 2016-08-29T00:01:50.110

Reputation: 1

Deleting something without proper understanding of what it is can leave the computer unbootable! – user66001 – 2019-06-28T14:20:45.733