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General discussion

Losing free space on harddrive

Jan 6, 2005 8:09PM PST

I have laptop with WinXP with service pack 2, 512MB ram and a 40GHD. I don't know how long this has been going on, but I have noticed that when I delete some of my files - the file name is gone but the space is not freed. Basicly the free space after the delete is the same as before. Also, when I do a CHKDSK, I get a 'Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.' message. I do a 'CHKDSK /F' then reboot the computer. During startup, it goes through CHKDSK without showing any errors found. I then run CHKDSK again and still get the same error. I have also tried DEFRAG and ended up losing 30MB and Norton Utilities 2003 does not find any errors. So far I have lost 500MB (that I know of). The problem seems to be with my older files. Any new file seem to delete properly.

Discussion is locked

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2 issues.
Jan 6, 2005 9:15PM PST

1. It sounds like you are runing on a FAT32 volume. I've asked and there are no plans to "fix" FAT32 issues. Sorry.

2. The space is likely in a few areas. I don't teach this OS so you can fish for deeper meaning on google.com

a. The System Restore area. Disable, re-enable to reclaim space and to create a new restore point.
b. The PREFETCH directory.

And all the areas that disk cleanup cleans...

Bob

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The type of the file system is NTFS. OS is XP w/SP2
Jan 7, 2005 1:14AM PST

As for the rest of your answer - I do not understand.

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Ask in the Newbies Forum these questions.
Jan 7, 2005 1:36AM PST

First, tell what OS and such you have, then...

1. How do I disable then re-enable System Restore?

I noted its in Start, Help and Support, but many don't look.

2. How do I empty the PREFETCH folder?

3. How do I run Disk Cleanup?

Bob

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I have the same problem.
Feb 12, 2005 8:41AM PST