Where are all the files?

StewartR

StewartR

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I'm trying to help my mother-in-law sort out her PC. It's running Win 7 so she's got a decision to make in a couple of weeks re upgrade / ditch / take offline.

It has a 1TB hard disk, and Windows Explorer reports 640GB free and 291GB used. I'm trying to work out what that 291GB is. I've got Windows Explorer configured to show me all files and folders including hidden/system ones. I've checked the size of each top-level folder on the drive and the breakdown is:
9GB Program Files
3GB Program Data
63GB Users
9GB Windows
which totals only 84GB. So where is the other 207GB which Windows Explorer reports to be used? Where could/should I be looking?

(It's potentially an important question because one option is to buy a new laptop, and SSD sizing comes into play.)

Thanks in advance for your help.
 
Swap/Pagefile? Hibernation file? Other crud in c:\

Restore partition?

What does disk manager have to say about the partitioning of the HDD?
 
hunnymonster said:
Swap/Pagefile? Hibernation file?
Click to expand...
Ah. Interesting. I couldn't see the page file or the hibernation file. I needed to unheck the 'Hide protected operating system files' option. Having done that, I found the page file is 4GB and the hibernation file is 3GB - both in line with expectations, since the PC has 4GB of RAM. So that means I now have 87GB accounted for, but still over 200GB unaccounted for.

hunnymonster said:
Other crud in c:\?
Click to expand...
Doesn't seem to be. The root folder is commendably empty.

hunnymonster said:
Restore partition?

What does disk manager have to say about the partitioning of the HDD?
Click to expand...
There are no visible partitions other than C:\. Intuitively, the idea that there might be a hidden partition is attractive, but Windows Explorer was telling me that 291GB is used on C:\, so that suggests a hidden partition isn't the answer.

She doesn't seem to have the disk manager utility. I'll try to find that, or download it, and explore the partitioning directly after we get back from the current round of tedious family Christmas visits.

Stay tuned to this channel.
 
Disk manager is within control panel / admin tools

Assume you've run the disc check tool (check for errors) and there isn't 200GB of broken directory entries?

Which browser is in use? Tried emptying the cache in it?

Tried running a crud cleaner? (like CCleaner or whatever is in vogue these days)
 
hunnymonster said:
Disk manager is within control panel / admin tools
Click to expand...
Yeah. I had been trying to run it from the Win+R prompt, or at least find it from the Start Menu search box, but I've discovered that in both situations typing "diskmgmt" doesn't help Windows find the utility. You have to type "diskmgmt.msc" in full. Nice one, Microsoft!

But anyway: one partition, formatted to 931GB. A hidden partition would have been a neat solution, but not to be.
 
twist said:
Use treesize, it will give you a breakdown.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Problem solved.

Treesize showed the Windows folder as 28GB, not 9GB. The 19GB which I hadn't been able to see with Windows Explorer was the 'winsxs' folder which apparently stores old versions of Windows components that have been updated. Windows 8 and 10 delete these automatically after a month or so, but Windows 7 doesn't.

But the BIG find was the System Volume Information folder, which was 184GB. She has about 40 restore points there, going back a year or so.

Whoever set up this PC for my mother-in-law was very conservative. Every Windows update creates a restore point, and restore points are saved for a year or more. Whenever a Windows component is updated, the old version is saved in the winsxs folder, not deleted. It would be entirely feasible, and probably quite straightforward, to return the state of the PC to any configuration it's had in the last year or so.....

..... but there are no backups of user data. 58GB of photos and no backup. Go figure.
 
StewartR said:
Thanks. Problem solved.

Treesize showed the Windows folder as 28GB, not 9GB. The 19GB which I hadn't been able to see with Windows Explorer was the 'winsxs' folder which apparently stores old versions of Windows components that have been updated. Windows 8 and 10 delete these automatically after a month or so, but Windows 7 doesn't.

But the BIG find was the System Volume Information folder, which was 184GB. She has about 40 restore points there, going back a year or so.

Whoever set up this PC for my mother-in-law was very conservative. Every Windows update creates a restore point, and restore points are saved for a year or more. Whenever a Windows component is updated, the old version is saved in the winsxs folder, not deleted. It would be entirely feasible, and probably quite straightforward, to return the state of the PC to any configuration it's had in the last year or so.....

..... but there are no backups of user data. 58GB of photos and no backup. Go figure.
Click to expand...

Glad you got it sorted (y)
 
StewartR said:
Thanks. Problem solved.

Treesize showed the Windows folder as 28GB, not 9GB. The 19GB which I hadn't been able to see with Windows Explorer was the 'winsxs' folder which apparently stores old versions of Windows components that have been updated. Windows 8 and 10 delete these automatically after a month or so, but Windows 7 doesn't.

But the BIG find was the System Volume Information folder, which was 184GB. She has about 40 restore points there, going back a year or so.

Whoever set up this PC for my mother-in-law was very conservative. Every Windows update creates a restore point, and restore points are saved for a year or more. Whenever a Windows component is updated, the old version is saved in the winsxs folder, not deleted. It would be entirely feasible, and probably quite straightforward, to return the state of the PC to any configuration it's had in the last year or so.....

..... but there are no backups of user data. 58GB of photos and no backup. Go figure.
Click to expand...
I think that was default behaviour and Windows would prioritise user data and suggest deleting these older files if necessary (when the drive got close to full).

glad you got it sorted.
 
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