Hard Drive Space reported incorrectly big time! Why?

[defense]

I am hoping someone can help me with a pretty big problem i'm having when ripping a movie to my hard drive. I have a 40 gig maxtor and I have been using both DVD Decryptor and Smart Ripper. When I used DVD Decryptor in ISO mode, I realized when I went to delete the 4 GB or so file, it says to big to fit in the recycling bin "obviously", do you want to permanently delete it, I click Yes, and the file deletes, but the Hard drive still shows as if the file was never deleted. I started realizing this after I only had about 3 gigs of hard drive space left and I got an error that there wasn't enough Disk space to rip a movie. I was obviously shocked, so I had to conduct several tests. I couldn't even do a disk defragment because windows told me I need at least 15% HD space to conduct a defrag. Anyway, fortunately for me I keep a ghost back up of my system where I want it to be, that way if I get a virus, or something like this happens, I just reformat and transfer everything fresh. That is exactly what I did in this case, and tested a few things out. What I realized was that when I used other functions besides "ISO" mode in DVD Decryptor, and just made regular VOB files, and deleted them, it reported correctly, so I figured I could just use other methods and there would be no problem deleting things in the future. Well, that is what I thought, until I ripped as a test, a couple of movies I have, and when I went to delete them, my hard drive did show I deleted them, however, not accurately. I deleted one folder that was 4.5 GB, and when I checked my hard drive space, it showed that it was only 2 GB that was deleted. That is obviously better then not showing anything, but losing 2 GB per movie would still cause a ton of problems and who wants to continue to have to reformat everytime anyway. I have tried to check up and down and see what could be causing this. I am almost certain it has nothing to do with my hard drive, because when I deleted any program files manually or through add/remove, my drive reports that space perfectly. I thought it might be XP, so on the Windows support site there is an article pertaining to NTFS partitions which I do have, and it also states some other issues, but I don't think any of those apply to me. Has anyone else had this problem? If so, were you able to fix it or figure out why the disk drive space is being reported incorrectly? If anyone could supply any info on this big problem, I would really appreciate it.

[q1aqza]

Do you have Norton AntiVirus? I know this uses a lot of disk space when it protects files. I use it and when I need to free up disk space I have to empty the recycle bin and purge prtected files.

[davemcg37]

dont you mean the protected recycle bin in norton systemworks?

[defense]

thank you both for your reply. The answer is "yes" I do use Norton Anti-virus. I don't have system works, just NAV2003pro. One thing I tried when I did "drag" individual files that would fit into the recycling bin and delete them from there, the disk space free is correct. I do have my recycling bin labeled "norton protected" or something like that, but the problem is when I try to delete big files, like those "iso" files, I get the message that the file or files are too big to send to the recycling bin, do I want to permanently delete them, I say yes, and the files get deleted, but I get none of the free space back! As I said, for some reason or another, the VOB files do delete, and I do get back "some" of my free space, but it still isn't reported correctly. When you say you "purge" protected files, how can I go about setting that? And would it make a difference anyway, being that they never actually go to the recycling bin because they are too big? It's crazy that I can only rip a a limited amount of movies, etc, because I can't get my free space back. Please let me know. Thanks again

[banjazzer]

Have you run Scandisk recently?

[quickfamily]

I had a similar problem with XP using up all my disk space. I finally traced it to the system saving a new backup of itself every time I shut the computer down. These backups get saved in disk space that is completely hidden from all disk utilities that show how disk space is being used except when you look at the top level c drive space where you see you don't have as much space as you expect. I searched the Microsoft support pages and found a DOS command which made this hidden used space appear in c:/"System Volume Information" -> properties. To get rid of all this used space I went to "Disk Cleanup" -> "more options" and you can delete all the restore points except the last one. Don't be fooled by the slider which sets up how much disk space system restore can use because I have mine currently set to use a max of 850 Meg for system restore but it is actually using 1.5 Gbytes. My solution to the problem was to buy a second hard drive which I use exclusively for video capture and rendered files.

[darkangel]

check ur temp folder type %temp% in ie & check the size of the files

[drdy111956]

Perhaps is this an issue similar to the much discussed XP AVI delete issue?

[Nelson37]

If you delete a large file, then close Explorer, then open it again, does it show the free space correctly?

Do you have any form of compression activated for your Hard Drive?

Do you empty both the Recycle bin and the Norton Protected Recycle bin?

Have you tried manually deleting the contents of the Folder first?

Do you have the folder options set to "View all files"?

[defense]

thank you all for the replies and info, hopefully some of it will be helpful. I have used ALL of the information given here and with a ton of tests, prompts, etc, I have finally realized that the problem, does in fact, lie within Norton Antivirus as several of you mentioned. I didn't realize when a file was deleted from the recycling bin, I would also have to purge norton files as well. Norton still protects these files when it appears they are deleted! I just purged all the files that didn't show up in the recycling bin, and I cleared up a WHOPPING TEN GB of space! YEAHHHHHHHHH, that is a big relief! I was afraid to make anymore ISO files because those never actually delete, it will tell me it is too big to fit in the bin, but when I permanently delete it, the space would never clear back up. But thanks to you all I can continue to "RIP IT UP" if you know what I mean...hahahaa......without having to be worried I will have no disk space left in a couple of days! Thanks again EVERYBODY!

[Executioner]

Wow! Very intresting topic. I would think that NAV would have an option for this if it was true. If not, I would write to their tech support for a solution to this problem, or simply don't use the auto-protect feature for the recycling bin.