HD usage report

[jose ramos]

I'm having a weird thing happening when I check one of my hard drives' usage either by using Ace Utilities Disk Analysis or Windows Explorer. Here is the problem: if I add all directory/file sizes in the drive as reported by Disk Analysis or Windows Explorer I get a total of about 47 GB usage. Disk Analysis or WE, report as 88 GB. The funny thing is that if I copy the whole hard drive to a third hard drive, it reports only 47 GB. I don't think it's Disk Analysis or WE fault, but can you help me discover why? I am using Windows 7 Pro and latest Ace Utilities, and the hard drive I'm talking about is not the system drive, it's just one of the 2 hard drives I use to keep all my data, personal files, and an image made by Windows 7 itself.

[Aneesh]

Well, it could be due to Volume shadow copy service. It could also be due to some kind of 'automatic system backup' service. The size occupied by such backups may not be taken into account while computing total drive size. You can google these terms and find out how to view/edit /gather info using appropriate command prompt functions.

Useful read:
http://blog.szynalski.com/2009/11/23/vo ... m-restore/

[jose ramos]

Aneesh, that was it!!! I reduced HD space used for restore points to 1%, and the system erased some of the saved restore points. Now properties show what I expect it to show, that is, the sum total of my files/documents/software plus 1% reserved for restore points. The article you recommended is very useful. Thanks very much for your support.