Hard drive says it is full, but is it really??

[progressoid]

I have 250 GB SSD for my OS (win 7) and programs.

Then I have a regular old internal 2 TB hard drive for storage. I periodically transfer files from this internal HD to external HDs and then delete them from the internal HD. I have "show all hidden files" checked so I assume I'm seeing everything. It says I have only 51 GB of space left, but as far as I can tell there is only 574 GB of stuff on there.

Check disk says everything is fine.

Any ideas?

[trotsky]

1. Perhaps the sneaky critters known as Shadow Copies?

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-1891063/delete-shadow-copies-hard-disk-drive-free-space.html

[progressoid]

2. I'll give that a shot after dinner.

Thanks!

[progressoid]

9. That worked.

Duplicate backups hidden in there! Thanks fellow vermin!

[trotsky]

14. No problem! Glad to hear. n/t

[PoliticAverse]

3. "delete them from the internal HD." - do you delete them to the recycle bin?

Try something like WinDirStat...
http://www.fosshub.com/WinDirStat.html
or SequoiaView..
http://w3.win.tue.nl/uploads/media/Sequoia1.3Install.exe

to see where you are using all your space.

[progressoid]

10. Yep that worked.

Turns out there were duplicate backups of the SSD in there.

[hobbit709]

4. Windoze thinks TEMP means forever.

So it never deletes anything out of a TEMP folder. Empty the recycle bin too.

[lastlib]

5. Back in the days of Win 3.1.....

...when you could actually make a computer do what YOU wanted it to (instead of what Micro$oft wanted it to), I could direct all those TEMP files to a RAM drive, so they only hung around until the machine was turned off, de-activating RAM. It was very efficient, and I never had to delete .tmp files. Can't figure out a way to do that any more with the newer Windoze.... P. I. T. A!

[progressoid]

13. The Windirstat above found the offending files.

Bunch of duplicate backups.

[lastlib]

6. have you de-fragged it lately?

[bananas]

7. You shouldn't defrag SSD drives. edit to add: oops! I read the OP wrong

he can't be talking about the ssd because he says he has 574 GB on it.

[progressoid]

11. Yeah, defrags every week late Sunday night.

Solution above. Thanks!

[gvstn]

8. I would try Space Sniffer.

Run it as Administrator by right clicking the exe and selecting Run as Administrator. See what it says about where the space is going.

It seems to be a pretty good program for finding whats up with what is where. An unusually large folder could indicate a problem with Windows Update where it keeps downloading the same update over and over again.

Edit: just reread your post is this only about the external or 2tb internal drive? Space Sniffer could still tell you something but it wouldn't be about Windows Update.

[progressoid]

12. Just the internal drive.

Turns out my SSD is backed up there. And there were duplicate backups. (like 6 of them!)

[gvstn]

15. Glad Windirstat worked for you. It's an oldy bu a goody.

I only switched to Space Sniffer because it seems to be more actively updated.