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Message started by sluggo on 10/31/04 at 10:39:44

Title: off topic question
Post by sluggo on 10/31/04 at 10:39:44

i was cleaning up thumper and came up with
this off topic question, but since we are such a diverse (or is that perverse) :P group i bet someone's got the answer.

why does my computers "c" drive show 17 gigs used.
when i add it up it only comes to 10 gigs.

i first noticed the missing space with "98" it got more progressive in "m.e" and now with "xp" it's huge. these are different machines not upgrades to same

in view options i even told it to show "hidden" files so i could add those up also..

any answers. and remember to keep the explanation in lay terms.. i'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. :-[

Title: Re: off topic question
Post by Paladin on 10/31/04 at 13:00:44

Start> all programs >accessories >command prompt

c:\>chkdsk
blah blah
16,384 bytes in each allocation unit.
1,831,516 total allocation units on disk.
1,061,391 allocation units available on disk.

c:\>exit

The "allocation unit" is the smallest amount of disk space that can be used by a file. A 15K file will take up 16K of disk space. A 1K file will take up 16K of disk space. A 17K file will take up 32K of disk space (two allocation units.)

Ever file will, on average, be taking up 8K more disk space than it claims. I have over 160,000 files on my disk which translates to over a gigabyte of lost space.

Larger drives will have larger allocations and larger lost space per file (along with more files.)

Title: Re: off topic question
Post by Greg_650 on 11/01/04 at 04:02:53

That's somewhat true, but real the reason that you see more "used space" than what you expect from your math results is because of virtual memory and what Windows calls a paging file.

A paging file is a section of your HDD that Windows reserves and uses as RAM (mine currently says that I have a paging file size of 720 MB)

If you go to your control panel, and click on "System" you will get a window called "System Properties". Then click on the "Advanced" tab at the top. Now you see an option called "Performance" and a button called "Settings". Click that for "Performance Options" and at the bottom is "Virtual Memory". There is your explanation....you have a button called "Change", but it is better to just let Windows manage this space.

You haven't lost the space, it's just that Windows XP is reserving that space for system functions.....

Click safe ::)