Solve : What's Taking Up All the Disk Space??

1.	Solve : What's Taking Up All the Disk Space??
Answer» This is specifically about a USB stick in Win 7, but I bet it's a larger issue. I put my stick in (!) today and tried to copy a folder, but was told there was no room on the stick. What? There's hardly anything on it! If I look at the stick in Windows Explorer, I see a small abandoned temp file and and two subdirectories: The subdirectories don't have much in them: \| But apparently Windows THINKS there's a lot on this disk: Now, before you can SAY "Hidden files": AND I have the "protected files" SHOWING, so anything weird ought to pop up, yes? It's not important - I will either just "wipe EMPTY space" in cCleaner or reformat. I just don't understand what's the cause of this. Thanks!USB devices can be annoying. That was true before Windows 7 came along. What about other USB sticks? What it you put it in another PC? Was the thing formatted in Win 7 ? I assume USB stick is larger than 128MB? All I can think of is FAT (FAT16) format has limited Volume size. Format to FAT32.It's showing as a 120MG stik.... Thats kinda small...and how large was the file you were transferring ? ?It is a 128 stick (it was a gift from a client, most likely formatted in XP). I didn't try the "usual" troubleshooting (other machines, other sticks), as I'm not really concerned about this specific instance. I was just wondering if there was a particular reason why something like this would happen. I mean, in most instances you wouldn't notice something taking up 120MB of "ghost" space, but here I did. So more curious than anything else.run chkdsk on the drive. There are likely lost chains consuming space that aren't connected to any files.It's 128 MG...no wonder it's out of space. Quote from: patio on June 29, 2011, 05:44:56 PM It's 128 MG...no wonder it's out of space. Right, those milligram drives don't hold much. Quote from: patio on June 29, 2011, 05:44:56 PM It's 128 MG...no wonder it's out of space. 2MB of space is used. The rest is STILL allocated, and unusable for new files. Quote from: patio on June 29, 2011, 05:44:56 PM It's 128 MG...no wonder it's out of space. ? You're missing the point. I will try chkdsk. What causes THAT? Thanks! Quote What causes THAT? Morphy's Law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_lawAnd I know the 128 mg drive is too small. The 4KG drive gets heavy after a while. I think I'm going to get one in the 1 - 2 tbsp range and see if that works. Usually I just need to share a pinch of data.A 2 GB flash drive is good for just a pinch of data.. For under $20 they will engrave your name on it. In my EXPERIENCE, Flash drives vary in duality. So by more that one.Obviously my puns weren't measuring up.... Hey - ran chkdsk, still telling me there's lots of space being taken up by something(s). What? Where? Quote from: rjbinney on July 26, 2011, 12:21:59 PM Obviously my puns weren't measuring up.... Hey - ran chkdsk, still telling me there's lots of space being taken up by something(s). delete the files that are now in the FOUND.000 folder on the flash drive. It might be hidden. What happened here was the space was taken up by Lost chains. A basic explanation of it is that as files are allocated, the system finds a empty area, marks it as used by the file, and if it still needs more clusters to finish storing the file, it will keep looking, and then basically put a marker at the end of the other one that says "there is more data over Here" and include a pointer to the next cluster. Lost chains are what you get when there are bits of files that are no longer being referenced- that is, there are chains of clusters storing file data, but no other chains say "there is more data here" and the File table doesn't actually use it. These are still allocated, and there is no way to delete them- chkdsk can find these, and can either delete them (if you press N) or convert them to individual files (if you press Y) typically, the files that result are each a single cluster (usually 4KB or so) and if you want to reconstruct it it would be like putting together a puzzle with a million extra pieces. I know because I actually had to reconstruct/recover some source code files from a flash drive that had similar symptoms.

Answer»

This is specifically about a USB stick in Win 7, but I bet it's a larger issue.

I put my stick in (!) today and tried to copy a folder, but was told there was no room on the stick.

What? There's hardly anything on it!

If I look at the stick in Windows Explorer, I see a small abandoned temp file and and two subdirectories:

The subdirectories don't have much in them:
|

But apparently Windows THINKS there's a lot on this disk:

Now, before you can SAY "Hidden files":

AND I have the "protected files" SHOWING, so anything weird ought to pop up, yes?

It's not important - I will either just "wipe EMPTY space" in cCleaner or reformat. I just don't understand what's the cause of this.

Thanks!USB devices can be annoying. That was true before Windows 7 came along.
What about other USB sticks?
What it you put it in another PC?
Was the thing formatted in Win 7 ?

I assume USB stick is larger than 128MB?
All I can think of is FAT (FAT16) format has limited Volume size. Format to FAT32.It's showing as a 120MG stik....
Thats kinda small...and how large was the file you were transferring ? ?It is a 128 stick (it was a gift from a client, most likely formatted in XP). I didn't try the "usual" troubleshooting (other machines, other sticks), as I'm not really concerned about this specific instance. I was just wondering if there was a particular reason why something like this would happen. I mean, in most instances you wouldn't notice something taking up 120MB of "ghost" space, but here I did.

So more curious than anything else.run chkdsk on the drive. There are likely lost chains consuming space that aren't connected to any files.It's 128 MG...no wonder it's out of space. Quote from: patio on June 29, 2011, 05:44:56 PM

It's 128 MG...no wonder it's out of space.

Right, those milligram drives don't hold much. Quote from: patio on June 29, 2011, 05:44:56 PM

It's 128 MG...no wonder it's out of space.

2MB of space is used.

The rest is STILL allocated, and unusable for new files. Quote from: patio on June 29, 2011, 05:44:56 PM

It's 128 MG...no wonder it's out of space.

? You're missing the point.

I will try chkdsk. What causes THAT?

Thanks! Quote

What causes THAT?

Morphy's Law
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_lawAnd I know the 128 mg drive is too small. The 4KG drive gets heavy after a while.

I think I'm going to get one in the 1 - 2 tbsp range and see if that works. Usually I just need to share a pinch of data.A 2 GB flash drive is good for just a pinch of data..
For under $20 they will engrave your name on it.

In my EXPERIENCE, Flash drives vary in duality. So by more that one.Obviously my puns weren't measuring up....

Hey - ran chkdsk, still telling me there's lots of space being taken up by something(s).

What? Where?

Quote from: rjbinney on July 26, 2011, 12:21:59 PM

Obviously my puns weren't measuring up....

Hey - ran chkdsk, still telling me there's lots of space being taken up by something(s).

delete the files that are now in the FOUND.000 folder on the flash drive. It might be hidden.

What happened here was the space was taken up by Lost chains.

A basic explanation of it is that as files are allocated, the system finds a empty area, marks it as used by the file, and if it still needs more clusters to finish storing the file, it will keep looking, and then basically put a marker at the end of the other one that says "there is more data over Here" and include a pointer to the next cluster.

Lost chains are what you get when there are bits of files that are no longer being referenced- that is, there are chains of clusters storing file data, but no other chains say "there is more data here" and the File table doesn't actually use it. These are still allocated, and there is no way to delete them- chkdsk can find these, and can either delete them (if you press N) or convert them to individual files (if you press Y) typically, the files that result are each a single cluster (usually 4KB or so) and if you want to reconstruct it it would be like putting together a puzzle with a million extra pieces. I know because I actually had to reconstruct/recover some source code files from a flash drive that had similar symptoms.

Solve : What's Taking Up All the Disk Space??

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