# Windows 7 reports wrong free disk space



## nikchris (Dec 6, 2004)

I have this really weird problem.

As seen here








Windows explorer reports that i have only 3.36 free space.

I have selected to be able to see all hidden folders (including system etc) and i right click on all the contents of the drive to see how much space they occupy.









There should have been 20GB free, and not 3.

System restore is off, i tried Checkdisk, diskcleanup and checked my pc with MSE.

Any ideas?


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi there appears to be 17Gb in the recycle bin


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## nikchris (Dec 6, 2004)

Everything is selected not just the Bin


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## DT Roberts (Jun 22, 2009)

Have you tried clearing the recycle bin as Joe mentioned? That does seem to be what's going on.


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## Old Rich (May 31, 2007)

To see what else is taking space try Space Sniffer


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## nikchris (Dec 6, 2004)

Recycle bin is empty!

The strange case is that on one other pc, the opposite happens, it shows more empty space!!

ill try Sniffer!


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## DT Roberts (Jun 22, 2009)

I'm thinking that this has something to do with VSS - *Volume Shadow Copy Service*. It silently makes copies of files which of course takes up space. If that does appear to be the problem that *Sniffer* tells us, you can follow this guide to disable it: http://en.kioskea.net/faq/2679-disable-volume-shadow-copy


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## nikchris (Dec 6, 2004)

i tried Sniffer but it didnt show me anything important.

*On another pc*, when u right click the contests of 'C:', it shows that they occupy 15.7GB.
If you right click on 'C:', it shows that only 12GB are occupied.

I cant find out why there is such difference!!!

It has happened to me before, when using XP, but back then it was a simple index problem, that a checkdisk would easily solve.


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## DT Roberts (Jun 22, 2009)

Let's try to find something to work with here. Please follow the instructions here: http://cid-120d9bfa03f629fd.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!120D9BFA03F629FD!184.entry

Run only tasks 9 and 11, please.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi DTRoberts a tool jc often uses is treesize just thought I would mention it


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## DT Roberts (Jun 22, 2009)

joeten said:


> Hi DTRoberts a tool jc often uses is treesize just thought I would mention it


Yeah, I know about *TreeSize*, but I also wanted to see the *msinfo32* regarding how much memory he has installed and all of the VSS information - that's what I think is really going on here. Looking at his paging file in the picture he posted, it's only 2 GB which is normal for an installation with only 1 GB of RAM. That's very uncommon to see in a Windows 7 computer or even Vista, so I just wanted to make sure all is well there. 

As far as I know, *TreeSize* only shows the sizes of folders. I'm not sure how it would do with giving us the technical information about things like VSS and memory. You're absolutely right, though, and if all seems well there then I'll give *TreeSize* a try.

Devin


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi yeah I see where your going,I was looking at finding out if what treesize should tallied with the info reported already if so then Vss would be my guess if not then we have a new area to look at


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