Where does this space go?

[muddasirmunir]

My c: drive storage capacity is 4 G.B. I had install windows xp in it which consuem about 1.5 G.B of space , my programe Files and doumetns files also consume about 1 GB of Spces, toal consumed space is 2.5 G.B

Now, when i go to my computer , and click properties on c: drive , i get the space 3.5 G.B Used Space , but when I got to inside of folder , preass contol A (HIDDENS files are true) , and then count the space used it only upto 2.5 G.B , where does this 1 GB Space go , what files are consuming it?

I did not see any hidden file , i also run the disk clean up so it will remove any temporary files but still , i donot know where and how to heis 1 GB Space can be available.

Did I had to use some other disk clean up tool , if so name me some.

[Hydaral]

It could be System Volume Information files or shadow copy or some other Windows system files that you can't normally see.

Try a disk usage analyser like Overdisk, WinDirStat or SpaceSniffer to see if that shows you when all the space went:

http://users.forthnet.gr/pat/efotinis/programs/overdisk.html

http://windirstat.info/

http://www.uderzo.it/main_products/space_sniffer/index.html

[muddasirmunir]

Can we delete these too , will this harm our system?

[Killer42]

Can we delete these too , will this harm our system?

I'd have to say that as a general rule, deleting any of these sort of hidden things without knowing more about them could be quite dangerous. They're usually hidden away to prevent the user from messing up the system.

Much safer to look into disk clean-up utilities than to start deleting things yourself, unless you know exactly what they are and know that they're not required.

[Hydaral]

As Killer42 said, it's best not to touch them, but you can reduce their size indirectly.

With most of these hidden system files you can tell Windows how much space on the disk you want to devote to them. So if it is currently ~1GB, as it appears to be on your system, then you could configure Windows to only use 200MB instead.

Of course we will have to know if this is the case on you system first. Did you run a disk analyser? Where is the missing 1GB?