500GB Drive Only Shows 258GB part 1

gulfstreamtwo

My boot drive is a WD 500 GB (465.76 GB in Admin Tools/Computer Management/Disk Mangement). See HD Size 1. In the BIOS, it shows 500.1 GB, but of course that's rounded. However, in Windows Explorer, it only shows 258 GB. See HD Size 2. Backup is turned off and there are no image files I can see.

So, can anyone help me recover the difference between the 465.76 and 258 GB?

Hopalong X

What does it show in Windows Explorer for Dad D?

The reason I ask is the specs for C in Win Explorer almost match Dad D in Disk Management.
Check that and see if it shows 500 or 280 in Win EXplorer for the Dad D.
Mike

gulfstreamtwo

The D: drive reports 279 GB in Windows Explorer, the same as in the Disk Management Tool. That's the correct size for this drive.

Hopalong X

I posted for added help.

Mike

wilywombat

Try, In Computer Management, right click in the area beneath the blue bar in the "D" drive where the status is reported and you should see an option to "Change Drive Letters and Paths for D:" there should be an option to "Remove" agree to remove, reboot and then repeat the process to "Change Drive Letters and Paths" and re-select "D".

gulfstreamtwo

Wilywombat, it's not clear to me why this would help. Thanks for the effort, tho'.

The problem is not with the D: drive. It's with C:. Why would I want to un-designate and re-desiginate the D: drive?

gulfstreamtwo

�� Quote: Originally Posted by Hopalong X

I posted for added help.

Mike

Mike, I'm not sure what you're saying here. I hope you don't think I was offended by your seeking clarity of my issue. Thanks for the question.

Hopalong X

I was hoping I would get someone with more experience to check out the problem.

I had you check the D drive to make sure that it was reporting properly in Windows Properties.
Your D/ is right but C/ not showing right which you already know.

I'll try to get someone again with more experience for you with your problem.

Mike

gulfstreamtwo

�� Quote: Originally Posted by Hopalong X

I was hoping I would get someone with more experience to check out the problem.

I had you check the D drive to make sure that it was reporting properly in Windows Properties.
Your D/ is right but C/ not showing right which you already know.

I'll try to get someone again with more experience for you with your problem.

Mike

Real fine. Thanks for the help. +

mjf

Go into an elevated command prompt.
(cmd bottom search box; right click cmd.exe & run as administrator)

should get something like
c:\windows\system32>

type
>diskpart
>list disk
>list volume
.
>exit

Take a screen shot and post back.

gulfstreamtwo

Here it is:

mjf

At this stage I cannot understand the discrepancy in Windows Explorer.
Someone else may come along with an answer.

If you relabel c: & reboot prob get exactly same thing.


PS: Check Quota settings on c:

Hopalong X

Hidden Files and Folders - Show or Hide

The only thing I can think of is the above tutorial.

Option 2. Step #1 and #3. Worth looking at.

Just a guess if part of the HD is hidden in Windows would it not show or show properly in Properties?

What do you think MJF?

Mike

whs

It is probably stuffed with restore points. Run this command in elevated cmd

vssadmin list shadowstorage

Then tell me what it says for Allocated on C or paste the cmd result - that is the space currently reserved for restore points.

mjf

When I've cleaned up restore points it's just given me more free space. But????

LiquidSnak

Yeah, in my experience as well system restore points just take up space, they don't limit the drive size... I am completely baffled by this. If you try to copy a larger amount of things to the drive than there is free space, does it tell you there is not enough space?

whs

�� Quote: Originally Posted by mjf

When I've cleaned up restore points it's just given me more free space. But????

Right, I was on the wrong track - sorry.

gulfstreamtwo

�� Quote: Originally Posted by mjf

At this stage I cannot understand the discrepancy in Windows Explorer.
Someone else may come along with an answer.

If you relabel c: & reboot prob get exactly same thing.


PS: Check Quota settings on c:

Renaming the C: drive has no effect.

Quota has never been on or used, but I checked anyway, in case it reset itself. It did not and there are no user quatas in effect.

Thanks for your effort.

gulfstreamtwo

�� Quote: Originally Posted by whs

It is probably stuffed with restore points. Run this command in elevated cmd

vssadmin list shadowstorage

Then tell me what it says for Allocated on C or paste the cmd result - that is the space currently reserved for restore points.

Thanks, already checked that and that's not the case. I use Windows Home server for backups and images.

Here's the screenshot as requested. As you can see, it's set for the minimum 1%.

Thanks for the effort.

PooMan UK

Hiya pal,

This might sound a bit daft but is there any chance you could take a pic (with your mobile phone etc.) of you bios (hdd settings) --- or you could just write them down and post the results maybe

This is just a random pic of someone's settings off the net but it basically shows what I mean ...

gulfstreamtwo

�� Quote: Originally Posted by PooMan UK

Hiya pal,

This might sound a bit daft but is there any chance you could take a pic (with your mobile phone etc.) of you bios (hdd settings) --- or you could just write them down and post the results maybe

This is just a random pic of someone's settings off the net but it basically shows what I mean ...

I looks fine in the BIOS. Here's what is reported for the C: drive:
Device: Hard Drive
Vendor: WDC WD5000AAKS-00C8A0
Size: 500.1 GB
LBA mode: Supported
Block Mode: 16 Sectors
PIO Mode: 4
Async DMA: MultiWord DMA-2
Ultra DMA: Ultra DMA-5
SMART Monitoring: Supported

Thanks for the response.

gulfstreamtwo

�� Quote: Originally Posted by LiquidSnak

Yeah, in my experience as well system restore points just take up space, they don't limit the drive size... I am completely baffled by this. If you try to copy a larger amount of things to the drive than there is free space, does it tell you there is not enough space?

I'd really rather not try that one unless I'm desperate. Thanks for the thought, though. I'll let you know if I decide to try this. It would probably take some time to stuff the drive, and then have to clean it out again.

PooMan UK

Soz pal, I meant both drives

gulfstreamtwo

�� Quote: Originally Posted by PooMan UK

Soz pal, I meant both drives

Here's what the BIOS shows for the D: drive, which is also reported correctly in all the usual places:

Device: Hard Drive
Vendor: WDC WD3000Hlfs-01G6U1
Size: 300 GB
LBA Mode: Supported
Block Mode: 16 Sectors
PIO Mode: 4
Sync DMA: MultiWord DMA-2
Ultra DMA: Ultra DMA-5
SMART Monitor: Supported

mjf

If you are still experimenting you could try
(1) go to command prompt
>dir /a
and see if the free space agrees with windows explorer (probably will).
Means it's an issue you will have to resolve or your directory will think the disk is full when it isn't.
(2) depending on your comfort levels you could image c:
attach the vhd under disk management. Then see what windows explorer pie chart for the mounted image.

Purkinje

This may be a dumb troubleshooting question, but have you tried looking at a partitioning utility, and checking if there is unallocated space in D:? I don't know if that would show up in Disk Management or not, but it might be worth a try to boot into something like Gparted and examine D: outside of a Windows environment.

Lee1075

In computer management Disk management, if you right click on your drives (C or D) an option should appear for "expanding or shrinking" your drive space. Have you tried that?

mjf

There are times when Disk Mgmt is wrong, but normally Explorer won't agree.

However when Disk Mgmt is wrong on partitioning details or sizes, I use free Partition Wizard bootable CD (not the Windows version) to get the actual size or staus.

http://www.partitionwizard.com/download.html

The size given for C is too close to what it should be for D to not think that they are being confused. However, to make sure i would also run chkdsk /r and the HD maker's diag/repair CD scan (Data Lifeguard) since the only way a truly 500gb HD would report such disparately less space is if it had multiple bad sectors quarantined by formatting.

Disk Check
http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

You can run reasonably good versions of both of these tests from Partition Wizard CD: Check File System and Surface Scan. If they report errors I would cross-check with Disk Check and Maker's Diag scan.

gulfstreamtwo

�� Quote: Originally Posted by gregrocker

There are times when Disk Mgmt is wrong, but normally Explorer won't agree.

However when Disk Mgmt is wrong on partitioning details or sizes, I use free Partition Wizard bootable CD (not the Windows version) to get the actual size or staus.

Free Download Magic Partition Manager Software - Partition Wizard Online

The size given for C is too close to what it should be for D to not think that they are being confused. However, to make sure i would also run chkdsk /r and the HD maker's diag/repair CD scan (Data Lifeguard) since the only way a truly 500gb HD would report such disparately less space is if it had multiple bad sectors quarantined by formatting.

Disk Check
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.

You can run reasonably good versions of both of these tests from Partition Wizard CD: Check File System and Surface Scan. If they report errors I would cross-check with Disk Check and Maker's Diag scan.

By all means try anything but:
(1) Diskmanagement - cmd>diskpart commands confirm the disk/partition sizes. As does the BIOS.
(2) Windows Explorer - I Suggested cmd> dir /a . I expect the two to confirm.
If so there appears to be a disparity between the directory and the available disk space.

A disk check is always a good idea. I'd be tempted to schedule it directly from Windows though. See Tutorial. That many bad sectors would seem unlikely to me.

Then have a go at mounting an image as an option as I suggested earlier.

Guest

�� Quote: Originally Posted by Purkinje

This may be a dumb troubleshooting question, but have you tried looking at a partitioning utility, and checking if there is unallocated space in D:? I don't know if that would show up in Disk Management or not, but it might be worth a try to boot into something like Gparted and examine D: outside of a Windows environment.

The only disk partitioning s/w I have is something like Partition Magic 7.01. I'll have to check to see if it works with large NTFS partitions and may give that a go.

A correction for your post: it's my C: drive that's not reporting correctly. D: reports correctly. For clarity, there are two physical drives, each with one partition using the entire drive. As you'll note from the Disk Management info (left hand screen shot on the initial post), the C: drive has no unpartitioned space. 465 GB is the correct reported size for a "500 GB" drive. Also, right clicking on the C: drive reveals only an option to shrink the volume, while extend volume is grayed out.

gulfstreamtwo

�� Quote: Originally Posted by Lee1075

In computer management Disk management, if you right click on your drives (C or D) an option should appear for "expanding or shrinking" your drive space. Have you tried that?

Thanks. Yes. The "Extend Volume" choice is grayed out; only "Shrink Volume" is available.

gulfstreamtwo

�� Quote: Originally Posted by mjf

If you are still experimenting you could try
(1) go to command prompt
>dir /a
and see if the free space agrees with windows explorer (probably will).
Means it's an issue you will have to resolve or your directory will think the disk is full when it isn't.
(2) depending on your comfort levels you could image c:
attach the vhd under disk management. Then see what windows explorer pie chart for the mounted image.

Here's a screen shot of the command line window after running dir /a. Without running the conversion, the reported free space of 177,615,155,200 bytes sounds pretty close to the reported 165 GB free in windows explorer.

WindowsStar

A few questions:

#1 Was this hard drive in a Windows XP machine, then someone deleted all the directories and installed Windows 7 on it? Looks like there are old Windows XP files on the drive.
#2 Why do you have the {B5BE68F8.... on the root?

gulfstreamtwo

�� Quote: Originally Posted by WindowsStar

A few questions:

#1 Was this hard drive in a Windows XP machine, then someone deleted all the directories and installed Windows 7 on it? Looks like there are old Windows XP files on the drive.
#2 Why do you have the {B5BE68F8.... on the root?

#1 - No. I reformated when I installed Win7 64 bit on it last November.
#2 - I have no idea. I don't know where the file came from or what it's for. Why? Is it important that it be somewhere else?

gulfstreamtwo

�� Quote: Originally Posted by gregrocker

There are times when Disk Mgmt is wrong, but normally Explorer won't agree.

However when Disk Mgmt is wrong on partitioning details or sizes, I use free Partition Wizard bootable CD (not the Windows version) to get the actual size or staus.

Free Download Magic Partition Manager Software - Partition Wizard Online

The size given for C is too close to what it should be for D to not think that they are being confused. However, to make sure i would also run chkdsk /r and the HD maker's diag/repair CD scan (Data Lifeguard) since the only way a truly 500gb HD would report such disparately less space is if it had multiple bad sectors quarantined by formatting.

Disk Check
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.

You can run reasonably good versions of both of these tests from Partition Wizard CD: Check File System and Surface Scan. If they report errors I would cross-check with Disk Check and Maker's Diag scan.

You're the man! Using the bootable version of Partition Wizard demonstrated that the drive was acting as if the boot partition used only a part of the drive. Resizing to the entire usable space restored the capacity.

Running chkdsk afterwards showed only one un-indexed file, which it repaired.

Thanks to everyone, and especially you, gregrocker, for all the suggestions, whether I'd already tried them or not. The attitudes here are superb!

mjf

Glad to see you got it sorted.
A bit sad that it took Partition Wizard (which many of us use) to point out the problem.
C: is one partition and the boot partition. I would have expected Disk management to show something (eg. unallocated space).

LiquidSnak

�� Quote: Originally Posted by mjf

I would have expected Disk management to show something (eg. unallocated space).

I as well. Glad you got everything working right

Hopalong X

I knew I'd get you a collection of assistance that would prove fruitful.

Thanks everyone who assisted.

Hoppy and Topper

Purkinje

�� Quote: Originally Posted by mjf

Glad to see you got it sorted.
A bit sad that it took Partition Wizard (which many of us use) to point out the problem.
C: is one partition and the boot partition. I would have expected Disk management to show something (eg. unallocated space).

I did too. I wonder if something went screwy in the formatting of the drive at installation of Windows 7. Also, I wonder why Partition Wizard noticed the unallocated space and Windows Explorer and Disk Management didn't.

Anyhow, good to see the problem fixed, and the rest of that space is opened up for you.

gulfstreamtwo

Thanks for all the support, guys. I too was baffled by the disagreement between the two reports (which is why I asked for help), but gratefull that there was a simple fix.

I stopped using partition managers when hard drives became so cheap, so it was only in my background thinking. I was about to check up on whether my trusty and well used copy of Partition Magic would work when gregrocker suggested Partition Wizard. I think at least someone else suggested it too, so I don't want to minimise that help.

I rated everyone up who offered suggestions. This forum is fabulous, and I'll recommend to anyone who I can't help with computer issues.

mjf

Since Win7 beta we've helped with several hundred complicated partitioning operations here using free Partition Wizard bootable CD.

Disk Management gives incorrect partitioning information with some regularity, but not often enough to consider it a bug.

Sometimes PW from Windows will show the exact same misinformation, however PW bootable CD has never been wrong so far which is another reason why we recommend it alone.

You can read more about PW CD capabilities and operations we frequently help with here in BareFootKid's excellent tutorial: Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD

Purkinje

�� Quote: Originally Posted by gregrocker

Disk Management gives incorrect partitioning information with some regularity, but not often enough to consider it a bug.

Sometimes PW from Windows will show the exact same misinformation, however PW bootable CD has never been wrong so far which is another reason why we recommend it alone.

Greg,
With all due respect to the enormous expert advice you give. I consider it a serious Disk Management bug.
At a command line level, diskpart didn't pick up the problem.

LiquidSnak

�� Quote: Originally Posted by mjf

�� Quote: Originally Posted by gregrocker

Disk Management gives incorrect partitioning information with some regularity, but not often enough to consider it a bug.

Sometimes PW from Windows will show the exact same misinformation, however PW bootable CD has never been wrong so far which is another reason why we recommend it alone.

Greg,
With all due respect to the enormous expert advice you give. I consider it a serious Disk Management bug.
At a command line level, diskpart didn't pick up the problem.

Is this deficiency in the Disk Management software something we could notify Microsoft of? Possibly get them to patch/update it?

Ponmayilal

If enough people contact them about the issue, it will become known, and they will probably patch it

Guest

I have not been following this thread very keenly. After reading the first few posts, I did feel that there was something quirky here and the first thought that ran in my mind honestly was "Why not check the partitions with a third party bootable hard disk manager utility" and of course partition Wizard would have been my first choice. Anyway I decided to stay away, let the best brains here crack it and then check whether my brainwave really worked and it did.

The moral of the story is when one has problems with the HDD which Windows is unable to check, diagnose and facilitate a resolution, fall back and try other third party bootable HD management utilities and check.

In spite of Windows 7 being touted as the best OS to come out of the MS stable, it still has some quirkiness and limitations. It definitely cannot be one size-fits-all in respect of the utilities it employs.

[Even now I haven't run through all the posts in this thread and hence E & O. E.(errors and omissions excepted)]