incorrect free space in XP Pro.

[Lock]

I'm running XP Pro, i've got two hard drives, a 20gig (FAT32) for holding media, and a 40gig (NTFS), the master which is running XP.  I decided to free up some space on the 20 gig, so I could transfer all of my music onto it, and have it all in the same place.  So, I cut just under 2 gig's of movies from the 20 and pasted them onto the 40.  Easy, but the alarming thing was the free space on the 20 didn't change.  I moved a few more things, but the free space seems stuck at about 32mb.  All the files on the 20 add up to 17.3 gb, out of an actual total of apparently 19.1 gb.  Had this setup for awhile, and this is the first time i've seen this.  If I straight out delete things off the drive the free space goes up, it's only when I cut and paste them onto the NTFS 40 that the files are gone, but I don't have any more space.

Scandisk, defragmentation, diskcleanup.. no good.  What the hell is happening and how do I get my space back ?

[FlorianK]

Hi,

you might try the program DirectorySnoop from here (they offer a free 25 use trial version). From their own help/features doc:

"Display true drive contents by bypassing the operating system and reading the raw drive sectors directly"
The program then offers to "purge" these leftovers. I'm not an expert, so I don't know if this will solve your problem, but it may be worth a try.

I used it on my *new* usb hd/mp3 player and found traces of a previous owner on it ("deleted" old folders, mp3s) - wasn't too happy about that ;-)

Regards,

Florian.

[rz]

I had the same problem, and scoured the internet for answers.....until I decided to empty my recycle bin and empty my Norton Protected Files (running Norton Systemworks), which cleared the problem up.

Sometimes it is the simplest solution that is the best....