Windows 7 : Disk space : windirstat shows 88 GBs used : Windows shows 143 GBs used

The total disk space shown by the "scanner" program is 232GB and the innermost circle shows used space is 143GB.

When I check with WinDirStat the total files used are 88GB.

Does this mean that the filesystem tree structure is taking the rest of the space ?

That doesn't sound correct. Since it would mean the NTFS data structure is using about 55GBs!

Edit : Just showed SpaceSniffer is showing 53.9 GB as `Unknown (not yet scanned) Space``

PlanetUnknown

Posted 2011-05-06T02:17:19.667

Reputation: 381

Are you taking into account reserved space for the MFT? Also something to consider is the Journal file, which is invisible to many scanning programs. – None – 2011-05-06T02:35:21.590

True, but doesn't 55 GBs sound too much ? – PlanetUnknown – 2011-05-06T02:41:43.160

1Not for the Journal file. Something else to consider is space consumed by the System Restore. Of course, to be really sure, you could run a chkdsk /r on your machine. – None – 2011-05-06T02:42:54.940

having the same issue, what was the problem?, running check disk at the moment – Miau – 2011-06-12T16:03:13.287

Miau : Living with the fact that it indeed uses all that space. – PlanetUnknown – 2011-06-12T21:51:04.707

Answers

Data not found by WinDirStat could be:

Owned by users whose folders WinDirStat doesn't have permission to access. Run WinDirStat as administrator.
Stuff in the Recycle Bins owned by various users? Look at the size of the C:\$Recycline.Bin folder (you may need to disable "hide protected operating system files"
Volume Shadow Copy / System Restore / System Protection. Check out System Properties --> System Protection to configure it.

eug

Posted 2011-05-06T02:17:19.667

Reputation: 724

Thank you so much for this tip. I found out that my restore points were taking up nearly 1/3 of my drive. – Dan W – 2015-02-14T04:12:31.837

3One additional thing to note is that if you've ever moved your system partition (between drives, or within the drive), System Protection seems to keep the files from the "old" partition and never start protecting the new, unless you manually set it up. I found that System Protection was off for my drive, but it had an old snapshot eating up 10GB until I told it to stop protecting the nonexistent partition. – Nick – 2012-05-21T22:41:02.800

Windows takes up disk space for Shadow Copies... here is where to find it:

Right click on My Computer -> Click Manager -> expand System Tools -> right click on “Shared Folder" -> All Tasks -> Configure Shadow Copies…

Select on the entry showing the disk space take NOTE: if the "Next Run Time" is Enabled you may want to consult the person who enabled it; otherwise there is a big chance to lose data. If it is disabled continue to the next step.
Go to settings
Change the "Maximum size" to "Use limit" and set it to 1000 MB or whatever you want and click OK.

All the disk space that was showing as "Unknown" in WinDirStat is added to

NOTE: The amount of disk space taken by shadow copies shown under "Used" takes a couple of seconds or even up to a minute to go down to the point to you set it to. To refresh and see the change one can click OK then Settings... again.

Abiy

Posted 2011-05-06T02:17:19.667

Reputation: 1

Right clicking on "Shared Folder" does show me an option for "All Tasks". I only see view, Export list & customize. Am I missing something ? – PlanetUnknown – 2013-12-17T23:54:22.207

Can you please tell up what OS you are using? The above solution works for Windows Server 2003; for windows server 2008 and 2012 the step is different. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Computer Management. In the console tree, expand System Tools then right-click Shared Folders, click All Tasks, and then click Configure Shadow Copies. If you are using Vista or Windows 7 then check this sit: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/how-do-i-configure-and-use-shadow-copy-in-microsoft-windows/

– Abiy – 2013-12-18T22:59:10.087

Windows-7, will check the site. Not sure if that is the problem though.. – PlanetUnknown – 2013-12-28T16:44:01.193