[obsolete]

So.....Why is it that people like WD Raptors? What is so great about them? haha j/k......

Couple weeks ago I was browsing about in windows & as I do quite frequently, I opened up my computer to check my WD Raptor's free space.......Well I noticed it now said 34.4 gigs instead of 36.7 gigs. I didn't do anything abnormal, like I said just browsing around windows & one day I lost 2.3 gigs?!?! Anyone have any input on that? I have rebuilt the partition, ran WD diagnostics disk, reformatted etc.... everything checked out fine. I can't figure out why all the sudden I have 34.4 gigs of free space where as before I had 36.7.........Thanks

[larva]

Could it be the recycling bin?

[obsolete]

Thanks for the response. I always keep everything real clean on my HD's so three seconds after I delete something from a given HD, it gets removed from the recycling bin. It basically appears as though 2.3 gigs of usable space just disapeared for no apparent reason.

This really wouldn't be a huge deal if the drive was not so small. But I find myself watching how much of the drive is full all the time, because it doesn't take to many things to install to fill up the drive. After couple-3 games, burning software & such, your lookin at 15-18 gigs left.

Before this happend, I had just enough "stuff" installed for diskeeper to report my drive has a good amount of space available & after this happend, diskeeper reported that I should free up space because my drive is so full. Now how relevant/accurate diskeepers report is another story. That extra 2.3 gigs could allow for another game or something else. lol small drive......And you know that when your diving up what you can & can't install, makes me laugh.

[larva]

Aside from whether you have deleted anything or not, I believe the recycling bin reserves a portion of the disk's capacity for the recycling bin function. I'm not sure if this is your exact issue or not, but the OS is reserving that space for some reason and the recycling bin and swap files are the leading candidates.

[dark_15]

And on XP (unless you disable it) there is always a significant reserve for System Restore (anywhere from 5-10 percent of your drive).

[larva]

Good point, I forgot the system restore (which I tend to disable).

[Airbornederekc]

try running a defrag and then wipe your free space. one time i had a drive that had zilch for free space wheich i knew to have atleast 20 gigs free. ran a defrag and it all came back. sometimes weird things happen with windows

[obsolete]

I get what your saying now Larva. I don't believe thats the issue here although it is something I'll check out. Not really sure how or why the recycling bin would one day decide to take space away. Plus I reformatted & it's the same.......

I always keep system restore disabled, one of the first things I do when I reinstall.

I'm not saying my drive has space that is getting ate up. I'm saying it no longer has the availabe capacity it once did (dropped 2.3 gigs). It doesn't register at 36.7 anymore, anywhere. I'll post some more info when I get home.

**EDIT** just seen another reply, I defrag my HD anywhere from once to twice a day (obsessive) depending on how many files I have moved around. Thanks for the replies!

[Airbornederekc]

u have a 36.7 gig raptor and its not registering as 36.7? are u positive that it did in the first place because the way windows formats drives they never report as advertised capacity. i got a 74 gig raptor thats 69.2 gigs. its not that ur loosing space. but im pretty sure might be mistaken on how much u actually had to start

[obsolete]

I'm so absolutely sure it registered 36.7 before. The reason I'm so absolutely sure is I defrag my HD once or twice a day like I said. One day after playing a game, I decided to defrag the HD. I always read the report it says in diskeeper & all the sudden I only had somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 gigs left. Since I check so often, I know I had 11 gigs the day before. And further more on that one, diskeeper gave me a message that my HD space is low & that I should remove files from my HD to improve performance.

I thought maybe I had left a movie I encoded on the C drive instead of moving it to my 111 gig drive. But after looking into it further, I discovered a 34.4 gig drive instead of 36.7. I actually didn't know what the deal was at first, just knew I had less space then the day before.

And I do know that when you partition a drive you lose some space. I have a WD 120 giger that only allows 111 gigs of space to use......

I guess I should have said that in the first place instead of, "I was just browsing around, " was kind of hoping someone had run into this since there are some many WD-R 36.7 users.

[theELVISCERATOR]

formatted drives never give the raw space mfrs quote.

[larva]

Originally Posted by obsolete

I'm so absolutely sure it registered 36.7 before. The reason I'm so absolutely sure is I defrag my HD once or twice a day like I said. One day after playing a game, I decided to defrag the HD. I always read the report it says in diskeeper & all the sudden I only had somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 gigs left. Since I check so often, I know I had 11 gigs the day before. And further more on that one, diskeeper gave me a message that my HD space is low & that I should remove files from my HD to improve performance.

I thought maybe I had left a movie I encoded on the C drive instead of moving it to my 111 gig drive. But after looking into it further, I discovered a 34.4 gig drive instead of 36.7. I actually didn't know what the deal was at first, just knew I had less space then the day before.

And I do know that when you partition a drive you lose some space. I have a WD 120 giger that only allows 111 gigs of space to use......

I guess I should have said that in the first place instead of, "I was just browsing around, " was kind of hoping someone had run into this since there are some many WD-R 36.7 users.

There are, but that 36.7GB is 36.7GB in exactly the same fashion that your 120GB drive holds 120GB. In device manager your 120 shows 111, and your 36.7 shows less than 36.7.

The difference is that the drive manufacturers define a GB as 1,000 MB. The OS is going on (to my mind the correct) base 2 definition of GB, where 1GB=~1074MB. Your drive is 36.7GB in base 10, but that is not "true" GB.

I don't know where you witnessed the 36.7 before, but wherever it was, it was by the same measure that WD uses to proclaim your drive a 36.7GB device, not the measure by which the OS views storage.

[I.M.O.G.]

Well, looks like I got to the party late, but missing disk space is also often due to hibernation... It creates a file much like pagefile.sys, but named hiberfil.sys when hibernation is enabled. This is space which you can recover by disabling hibernation.

Figured I'd mention this since page file, recycle bin, and system restore were all mentioned - hibernation was overlooked.

As for defragging, you should let diskeeper set it and forget it be obsessive for you - I hardly ever find my drive fragmented with this set.