Computer Hope

Microsoft => Microsoft Windows => Windows Vista and 7 => Topic started by: Coco423 on February 06, 2018, 09:29:39 PM

Title: Unnacounted used space on Win7 laptop
Post by: Coco423 on February 06, 2018, 09:29:39 PM

Hello again. I have a Lenovo Thinkpad W500 running Windows 7 Home Premium Service Pack 1 64-bit. (Same one with overheating problem) My personal files account for about 10 - 20 GB used, th OS accounts for about 10 - 20 GB used also, so roughly I have 10 - 15 GB unaccounted for. What files are in this space, and where are they located?

HDD: 98 GB free out of 148 GB
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
RAM: 4 GB
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 2.53 Ghz
Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 - 512 MB

Will try and provide additional specs if needed

Title: Re: Unnacounted used space on Win7 laptop
Post by: DaveLembke on February 06, 2018, 11:24:40 PM

What size is your page file... Paging/Virtual Memory can be a large value like that.... with 4GB of RAM your page file/virtual memory might be 6GB or more. Depends on if you set it to a custom value or if its windows managed size.

Title: Re: Unnacounted used space on Win7 laptop
Post by: Salmon Trout on February 07, 2018, 02:06:58 PM

Also if hibernation is enabled there will be a hiberfil.sys file equal to 75% or more of RAM size.

Title: Re: Unnacounted used space on Win7 laptop
Post by: Mark. on February 07, 2018, 08:37:59 PM

there's a couple of great little utilities that may help TreeSize and WizTree.
I use and find WizTree that bit more user friendly, and definitely faster as it only goes as far a scanning the MFT rather than the whole drive.

Title: Re: Unnacounted used space on Win7 laptop
Post by: Coco423 on February 10, 2018, 10:11:48 AM

Um... I think the pagefile/hibernate.sys is Windows managed.

Title: Re: Unnacounted used space on Win7 laptop
Post by: patio on February 10, 2018, 10:54:48 AM

Quote from: Coco423 on February 10, 2018, 10:11:48 AM

Um... I think the pagefile/hibernate.sys is Windows managed.

Pagefile can be set...

I turn hibernation off anyways...

You should also check System Restore points....that can be set as well...

Title: Re: Unnacounted used space on Win7 laptop
Post by: BC_Programmer on February 10, 2018, 10:59:47 AM

I notice you consider the OS and your personal files, but what about Programs?

Title: Re: Unnacounted used space on Win7 laptop
Post by: Coco423 on February 10, 2018, 01:15:58 PM

Programs? 0.5 - 1 GB

Title: Re: Unnacounted used space on Win7 laptop
Post by: patio on February 10, 2018, 03:28:24 PM

Thats a pretty low total for Programs...

At any rate nothin a new larger HDD won't fix...

Title: Re: Unnacounted used space on Win7 laptop
Post by: Coco423 on February 11, 2018, 12:39:31 AM

That is because I only have iTunes installed and a few iTunes optional components. Can't afford a larger HDD.

Title: Re: Unnacounted used space on Win7 laptop
Post by: patio on February 11, 2018, 06:42:43 AM

Then turn off hibernation...and adjust the other components listed above accordingly.

Title: Re: Unnacounted used space on Win7 laptop
Post by: Coco423 on February 11, 2018, 11:38:15 AM

I use hibernation occasionaly to cool down the laptop.

Title: Re: Unnacounted used space on Win7 laptop
Post by: Coco423 on March 17, 2018, 10:45:10 AM

I found what has been extra storage(more than it needs). I went into Windows Media Player, and found hundreds of duplicate tracks that I did not put on there. I know I son't have 14 GB of music. Hundreds of duplicates somehow were created or got in there and used the storage! Somehow, wierdly, windows sounds in the Windows folder were recognized to be part ofmy music libary. Any ideas on how to get rid of the duplicate tracks? Any Windows sounds that were recognized are there to stay. Better safe than sorry.

Title: Re: Unnacounted used space on Win7 laptop
Post by: Mark. on March 17, 2018, 04:18:48 PM

only you can decide which tracks are deemed 'duplicates'.
there are dup finder programs and if you trust those, then that's another option.

Title: Re: Unnacounted used space on Win7 laptop
Post by: patio on March 17, 2018, 05:28:15 PM

And if he runs one of those on the entire HDD he will bork his Windows install...just sayin..

All this could be solved by learning the basics of file management...

Title: Re: Unnacounted used space on Win7 laptop
Post by: Coco423 on March 17, 2018, 10:36:24 PM

I kept the Windows sounds on, and got rid of the true duplicate non-Windows sound files. Windows stays intact. Weirdly, I found some 0 byte files (all non-Windows) which went in the recycle bin, and most recovered the data (PC by itself) when they went into the Recyle Bin. However, I have seen threads that files start tymurning 0 bytes and the PC goes, so backing up most important now. Freed up 4 GB space, by the way.

Title: Re: Unnacounted used space on Win7 laptop
Post by: Coco423 on March 17, 2018, 10:40:45 PM

Do you think this is related to my problem where the speakers don't go loud enough in iTunes? I have a seperate thread for this. I have seen threads on sites where files go 0 bytes then the PC goes. Backing up most important files now.