Windows 10 Incorrect Disk Space?

[Formaleins]

Wonder if anyone can shed a bit of light on what might be the reason behind this anomaly? I have a WD Black 2.0TB internal 3.5" HDD, setup as my D Drive. On this drive I have all of my OneDrive files (Physically) and I have a dynamic link to a video folder on my 4 TB "E" Drive. When I look at my D drive in Windows using file explorer, it shows  875 GB out of 2 TB as being used. When I go into the D Drive again using file explorer and right click on the folders in the drive, they add up to about 370GB. All system and hidden files are showing and the OneDrive folder is only 267GB, then the actual video files that are linked from the E Drive are another 108GB which seems about right giving a total of around 370GB.

 

So where is the rest of the space being used? Almost 500GB difference is shown. I have checked all of the other folders on there and they are negligible in size. I then checked again using the Disk Management admin tools and it too reports 875GB used. The drive is a basic GPT drive, no splitting of partitions, just one big 2TB drive with one drive letter so I cannot understand where the 500GB is being used. Any ideas?

 

Cheers.

 

These are the "Properties" of each folder on the D Drive - Apologies for the way the screenshots have appeared, but that is the way they uploaded. The 6 snapshots of the properties are a capture of every directory in the D Drive, hopefully this makes some sense.

 

Edited July 14, 2019 by Formaleins

[Isaanbiker]

Why didn't you create a drive where your Operating system is, you could use 250 GB and call drive C.

 

    Now it looks like you've got a 2 TB hard drive the machine shows as drive D. 

 

     Without looking at all the details now, you'll be able to see and move space by using your Windows Disc Tool.

 

  It's a bit difficult when you don't see what you're talking about. Why don't you create a partition, if you have to format now, all on Drive D is gone.

 

 On your Windows Disk Screenshot I don't see much. But please look for not activated parts of the drive. That would all be easier when you make partitions.

 

 

Edited July 14, 2019 by Isaanbiker

[Formaleins]

9 minutes ago, Isaanbiker said:

Why didn't you create a drive where your Operating system is, you could use 250 GB and call drive C.

 

    Now it looks like you've got a 2 TB hard drive the machine shows as drive D. 

 

     Without looking at all the details now, you'll be able to see and move space by using your Windows Disc Tool.

 

  It's a bit difficult when you don't see what you're talking about. Why don't you create a partition, if you have to format now, all on Drive D is gone.

 

 On your Windows Disk Screenshot I don't see much. But please look for not activated parts of the drive. That would all be easier when you make partitions.

 

 

You lost me! I have a 250GB NVME drive as Drive C with the OS on it - Samsung 970, Drive D is a 2TB HDD, drive E is a 4TB HDD, Drive F is a 500GB Intel SSD and Drive H is another WD 4TB HDD with Drive G being another 250GB NVME. I has nothing to do with partitions or other drives, it is a question about where the missing space is on the D Drive, that's all.

Edited July 14, 2019 by Formaleins

[Beachcomber]

All those disks and partitions looks awfully confusing ????

 

Not sure if this will help, but noticed you've got at least one 4TB disk

 

Windows 10 only recognizes Disks up to 2tb.

 

I had this problem with a 3tb disk that Win 10 would not recognize. Forget now what I did but Google is your friend in this case.

 

 https://www.aomeitech.com/windows-10/windows-10-4tb-hard-drive-3889.html 

[Peterw42]

I think you will find its a known bug.

 

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-files/wrong-calculation-of-folder-size-by-windows/2da61a1b-d2fd-472a-ae12-a17a4cc8f7e2

 

https://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive-archive/suggestions/18416434-fix-incorrect-calculation-of-remaining-free-space

[Formaleins]

2 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

I think you will find its a known bug.

 

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-files/wrong-calculation-of-folder-size-by-windows/2da61a1b-d2fd-472a-ae12-a17a4cc8f7e2

 

https://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive-archive/suggestions/18416434-fix-incorrect-calculation-of-remaining-free-space

Thanks, I will spend a bit of time looking over these, I thought it was a simple question, I ended up with answers from Win 98 about 2 TB disk recognition, probably get warnings about Y2K soon!

[Formaleins]

38 minutes ago, Beachcomber said:

All those disks and partitions looks awfully confusing ????

 

Not sure if this will help, but noticed you've got at least one 4TB disk

 

Windows 10 only recognizes Disks up to 2tb.

 

I had this problem with a 3tb disk that Win 10 would not recognize. Forget now what I did but Google is your friend in this case.

 

 https://www.aomeitech.com/windows-10/windows-10-4tb-hard-drive-3889.html 

No it doesn't! You can clearly see that there are two 4TB disks that Windows recognizes in a friendly manner. It is a question about capacity discrepancy, nothing to do with that old chestnut.

[Formaleins]

Never mind, rather than get a headache over disk space, far better watch Natalie Avalon....simply perfect! Looks like Two Titabytes to me!

 

 

Edited July 14, 2019 by Formaleins

[bendejo]

Well, partitioning does have something to do with it.  Drive letters are assigned to partitions, not disks.

A hard drive can have one single partition taking up the whole thing, which I guess is what you mean by

 

10 hours ago, Formaleins said:

I has nothing to do with partitions or other drives

Also, don't assume that a new disk drive will have only one partition.

 

Myself, whenever I get a new disk the first order of business is to zap the partition table.  I use lots of partitions, just a personal preference.

 

 

[maccra]

Have you looked at the size of Recycle Bin. If you do not need the files in the Recycle Bin, in case you need to restore some files, then you could empty the Recycle Bin and see how much space is reported on D Drive.

 

Otherwise, is there some program which could be using D Drive as a cache location which maybe storing some file in the cache?

Edited July 14, 2019 by maccra
typo

[maccra]

Otherwise use a storage analyzer software to scan the D Drive. I like spacesniffer. It is portable and does not need installation. Run it as administrator to scan the system files/folders also.

[chrisinth]

11 hours ago, maccra said:

Otherwise use a storage analyzer software to scan the D Drive. I like spacesniffer. It is portable and does not need installation. Run it as administrator to scan the system files/folders also.

Would also suggest a 3rd party storage analyzer; haven't trusted Windows file explorer for a long time now as for used/free space.

 

My preference would be WinDirStat (Window's Directory Statistics). This is a (free) portable application which will define any area on any of your installed HDD/SSDs that you ask it to.