Missing 75gb on Windows 7 with RAID0

[Lasherz]

So I've never posted on here before, but my dad has spoke highly of these forums so I thought I'd toss an interesting problem at you. First of all my computer info as detailed as I can get is as followed:

I'm running Windows 7 Professional with files on two 74.5gb WD Raptor drives, but the boot sector is actually on a 500gb Toshiba drive. I'm using an ASUS Striker II Extreme motherboard with an e8400+ core 2 duo processor and 8gb of ram (so yes, it's 64-bit windows). I assume the video card and the power supply etc aren't going to be useful, but they're sufficient. I run RAID0 between the Raptors through the BIOS for a quicker gaming drive to put the more speed intensive data on, while storing the more general stuff on the larger 500gb spindisk.

The problem: Ever since I got Windows 7 64-bit installed on the Raptors there have been space problems. It seems like Windows is really confused and treats it more like a RAID1 configuration, but yet says that I've got 138.5gb instead of 74.5gb. It's hard to explain, but the more information I get on the drive, the more information is "hidden" from me. I can go into my folder settings and set to show everything including things like the virtual memory file and hibernation etc, but selecting everything on the Raptors will only show 74.5gb of data, yet when i right click on it and go to properties it shows that almost the full 138.5 has been used. It wasn't such a problem until I ran into the space limitation, now I'm looking to cash in my other 74.5gb.

Can anyone explain to me why Windows seems to be confusing the size of my RAID configuration? Everything before windows seems to be set up correct, and it SEEMS correct until looking closely. When I go to disk manager under Windows there's only one drive listed for the RAIDs, so it seems to be keeping windows in the dark about there even being a RAID, which is what I prefer, but for some reason all of these problems are emerging. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance for any leads!

[JJ 3000]

but the boot sector is actually on a 500gb Toshiba drive

Why?

yet when i right click on it and go to properties it shows that almost the full 138.5 has been used.

Download TreeSize
http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/
See if that can tell you what's eating up all that space.

[Lasherz]

The reason I've got the boot sector off of the RAID is because for some reason the boot sector doesn't work on them. I've tried it quite a few times and it never works without keeping the windows disk inside constantly. I decided after over 5 installs to just go with the easier alternative, which is to install it on the RAID and then move the boot sector to the Hitachi (forgot it's Hitachi not Toshiba, but it's just a minor detail) drive.

Alright, after running TreeSize it comes as saying that 92,144.7 MB is used for "System Volume Information", 26,320 for Windows, the rest are divided with games, users and such.

[Lasherz]

I'm starting to find a lot of help sites on this now that I know it's from system volume information, thanks for the help! I'm still searching, but I'll let you know when I've found the solution with a link. Feel free to drop in some of your own advice if you think it'll help.

[Lasherz]

Well I looked around and my problem didn't seem to match up with others. What I narrowed it down to is over-archiving. Most likely what happened is that I searched my entire computer for some file that I forgot where I put and clicked the little thing that came up "make future searches quicker." I'm not positive about this, but that's the only explaination for "archive folder and subfolders for quicker searching" being checked on EVERYTHING. Right now the problem I'm running into is that when I apply the settings to remove the archiving I get admin warnings on every single file. I guess on 64-bit 7 it's not enough to be an administrator. It's kind of annoying. Any clue how to force these settings to take hold?

[JJ 3000]

Click start and type

cleanmgr

into the search box and press enter.

Select your drive's letter from the list and click OK.
Click on clean up system files. This will run the cleanup with elevated privileges. Click the More Options tab. Now click on Clean up under system restore and shadow copies and click OK.

See if that gets some of your drive space back.

[Lasherz]

I went ahead and did that. Usually I use CCleaner instead of the windows utility, but neither of them get more than a few MB. I've already tried the shadow-copy thing and setting it to use a maximum of 5% of the hard drive, but still I'm left with only 80mb of space. I removed the archive thing from as many files as i could and it's still huge, perhaps the shadowcopy thing really is the problem, but nothing I do seems to eliminate it, even the direct commands under an elevated cmd prompt.

Even after going over the instructions with a fine-tooth comb nothing seems to raise my free space to anything over 100mb.

[JJ 3000]

You deleted all but the most recent restore point and the System Volume Information is still taking up 92,144.7 MB?

[Lasherz]

Well the restore points were already disabled so I was trying to find space where there was none. I thought indexing would eliminate some of the clutter, but it remains at 92,144.7 as reported by treesize free. Even after a restart. I'm honestly not sure what to even try at this point. I've gone through System restores, Eliminating Indexes and Archives, and clearing everything that windows cleanup utility will allow me to. I'm starting to think it's a problem with one of my installed programs leaking, but the files are of the windows variety. I'll get you an example of one of them:

The biggest one is called {8417858a-f9b3-11df-8701-001fc63e3bd6}{3808876b-c176-4e48-b7ae-04046e6cc752} and it's described as a system file. 3.53gb. The rest are smaller, but there's 284 of them. It's pretty ridiculous in general. The system volume information alone is taking up 63% of my hard drive. I wish it could have at least affected a less important hard drive  I've got 830gb to spare and it's taking up the most valuable space.

[Lasherz]

Bump!

Hoping to get some fresh help please.