WINDOWS 10 PRO: Folder Size Incorrect. Windows 10 IT Pro > Windows 10 General. I don't have other copy and it contains valuable personal files.

I have an external hard disk, and for some reason, it is reporting wrong free space.

In Windows Explorer, it is showing the used space is 378 GB.

I tried running chkdsk H: /f /r, it seems to report the same usage as Windows Explorer, and it says that there is no problem.

But when I tried selecting all the files inside this drive, it is showing much lesser usage.

I've already set the setting to show all hidden files and folders, also show the protected OS files, but it still cannot find about those missing files. And the difference is huge (282 GB). I've already cleaned the Recycle bin as well.

What I am missing here and how do I identify those missing spaces?

[UPDATE]:I used this tools to help identify and it seems to find some gigantic files, of which filename is quite weird. Anyone knows what this is and is it safe to delete?

rcsrcs

5 Answers

I had the same problem, but a different cause. In my case when I tried to select all the files on the C: partition, the used space was 70 GB, but the Windows Explorer was showing 210 GB of used space.

I have looked on the internet, but no answer seemed to be helpful. I didn't have backup enabled nor old copies of windows installed.

I decided to download a disk usage analyzer called WinDirStat and I instantly had the missing space. It was a MSSQL .mdf file that was taking about 140 GB. Deleted that file and everything got back to normal.

It appears to be the System Restore that take this space. I go to Control Panel > System > System Protection > (select drive) > Configure and find out the huge size of the system restore file. It is quite weird though that the file is found in (E:) instead of (H:), despite taking the size from (H:). After clearing the system restore then I manage to get back the free space. I did remove the system restore file from (H:) as well.

Another weird thing is that the system restore is disabled for this drive (see the radiobutton selected), but despite that, it still create the system restore file.

rcsrcs

Properties is correct. Empty your recycle bin. On my system the $Recycle bin is invisible. Windows will then display the correct smaller number.

Get a decent file manager to show you what's where. Windows will show various things inconsistently, as explained in the other answers.

Alternately, utilities like DiskState can show you very detailed information in a very organized manner (as in per-subfolders).

OvermindOvermind

How To Copy Windows Explorer File Names

sometimes its hidden folders like an aria-debug files that can take huge space which of course are because of bugs in it . i deleted an aria-debug file that took 157 GB and my computer is still great i heard its something connected to Microsoft onedrive which is a cloud service so its realy cant harm to delete it..

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Hi,

after noticing the same issue today while i was checking out my new backup system, the file count was incorrect and i used indeed the treesize to be sure the backups file count was correct.

I found out a group policy for windows 10 that you can go beyond the limit off 260 characters didn't help...

Than i found the next small program tlpd https://sourceforge.net/projects/tlpd/ ( TLPD is designed to tackle the 'path name too long' issue.)

open it as an admin, and select drive,folder...than it ask to type an max limit, i tried a few, ended up at 240, changed all the file names that are more than 240 characters, than i clicked again on my wrong folder file count, properties and now it shows me the correct file number and folders...

i checked my nas but the file count was here still incorrect, probably because network name and backup folder characters, again tlpd scan against it , and showed me a few files above the 240 limit, changed them on the source and backup and after that file count source and backup are correct

i know its work around, but it worked :)

windows 10 pro 64 bit version 1803 build 17134.137

Print Windows Explorer File List

Regards Dave