HD showing full - not near being full

[PattiK]

Hi - I have just reformatted my fairly new Toshiba notebook with a 60g Toshiba HD - this is 2nd time I have had to reformat - reinstall. Now everything is working fine - except the HD is showing like 5g available . I have hardly any files on it - maybe 15 - 20 gb max with all programs etc. Toshiba had me run a change bios but it didn't work. What do you all think?

[PattiK]

Just checked in DOS - <dir> command - shows 55 gb available...does this mean it is a software conflict?

[rangeral]

Windows always had a little problem with reporting space but thats way off the mark.

Did you have 2k or XP as an ntfs partition previously? Are you using fat32 now or what OS are you using now and before would help?

[PattiK]

It is XP Prof - always was - its a new computer - 3 mos old - had to reformat it once before this week - it was working fine for awhile and started acting up again. It may be the same problem the first time and I didn't know what to do with all programs locking, freezing etc. So all was working fine until I tried to move some files over from another computer. I restored it back to the point where the reformat was done - NTFS is the partition - I am using the restore CDs from toshiba - doesn't give you any options - just does it for you. It says Fat32 - NTFS when it is starting up. I am desperate to have this thing running so I am starting it all over again right now and will check to see what it says before I start loading it up.. The guy at Toshiba said if I reformat it again and it still says that - then they would send out new restore discs - Oh man - that's just great I say....
I appreciate any help you have to offer.
Patti

[PattiK]

Well I just reformatted it and it shows almost the same amount as free space now - just like DOS showed. So I guess I will have to keep checking it to see - I am concerned I will get it all loaded up again and it will happen again. Since I don't know what caused it- I don't know if it is something Iam doing.
Patti

[PattiK]

Well, it happened again. Everything was fine - I reformatted, starting loading the programs - checked after each program. Then I started to move the files over from the network (G4 mac using Dave Sharing program and an external harddrive and the PC) - moved some of the files over and then stopped saying not enough room - sure enough now it say there is less than 1 gb left free on the 60 gb HD.
Any ideas are appreciated.
Patti

[AllGamer]

Since it works fine before you moves the files

then i am almost sure it's some of the files you are moving over that are way too big

check each file you are moving before you do

and see which is the file that is so big

[PattiK]

Thursby.com - Dave file sharing tech support said that possibly one of the files is corrupt and showing that it is much larger than it is - but, even after deleting the files that were just moved over - no change in the HD.

I don't know if there is any way to recover from the 'move' - system restore didn't have anywhere to restore to since I just formatted and loaded it up. Now I don't know how to move these files over.

They are all on the Firewire HD taking up less total 7gb - I cannot directly access the Firewire HD to the PC without using the network - I guess since I originally set up the external drive to backup the MaC it is formatted for the Mac.

I guess I can reformat again - takes hours and move the files directly to the Mac and then from the Mac to the PC - if it happens again - it is hours and hours again. I am unable to work without this PC functioning....It is a notebook and need to use it for presentations - Thanks.
Patti

[PattiK]

Microsoft KB says "Win XP ma not recognize all avail disk space - ie 30gb drive shows 2 gb avail" They recommend running a BIOS utility from the manufacturer - Toshiba in this case - which I did last night and that didn't help. Toshiba says it is a software problem - Microsoft says it is a Toshiba problem.

That is like the surgeon says it is a cardiology issue; the cardiololgist says the patient needs surgery.... I am quite frustrated.
Patti

[Amd4ever]

One suggestion (which you probably won't like) is to partition your HD into 2 drives (c: and d: ). Then install Windows onto c:. Then copy your files onto d:. That way if d: runs into the same problem you can just reformat d: and troubleshoot some more, and you won't have to reinstall Windows each time.

[PattiK]

amd4ever
I do like the idea - if this happens again I will certainly do it. I finally got a hold of someone at Toshiba that was familiar with this - he said it is the file packets when transferring back and forth sometimes lose information - so this time when I deleted allt he files that were transferred over - not immediately, but about 10 minutes later when I happened to check it again - it was fine. So this guy at Toshiba said to transfer files slowly - checking each set and this worked! I am a happy girl!

Thanks for the idea - if I have to ever format c: this thing again - I am going to partition the drive.

Patti

[moyki]

Originally posted by Amd4ever
One suggestion (which you probably won't like) is to partition your HD into 2 drives (c: and d: ). Then install Windows onto c:. Then copy your files onto d:. That way if d: runs into the same problem you can just reformat d: and troubleshoot some more, and you won't have to reinstall Windows each time.

I agree, it would not be a good idea to have a single partition. Specially that big. Partitioning is one level of protection you can do to protect your data.

[shark_megabyte]

System Restore itself can sometimes do screwy things like this, as it hogs too much space to back up your data. I turn mine off and burn anything very important to CD-Rs for backup.

[PattiK]

Thanks for the great input - I think this must have happened originally when I moved files over from my external drive when I got the computer and then the system was acting so bad and I didn't know why - I didn't check the drive because I hadn't put that much on it. This is a great forum. Thanks everyone for helping.