Not Adding Up?

[Pezzy]

Hi all.

I just did a recent custom system build with Windows 8 Professional.

I used a Samsung Solid State Drive to install the OS on; it's a 250GB SSD.

With Win 8, during the install procedure, doesn't 350MB become "System Reserved? That can't be touched, right?

Anyway......

There's something with my SSD's numbers that just aren't adding up.

If I go to My Computer and open it to look at my "C" drive, it reads these numbers:

154GB free of232GB

OK, first: If my SSD is rated at 250GB (and 350 - mega, not giga - bytes were allocated for "System Reserve"), how did it drop from 250GB down to a total size of 232GB?? That's roughly somewhere between 17 and 18GB!! Where did it go?!?!

Alright, so let's say it is a total size now of 232GB.

Like I mentioned above, the "C" drive reads: 154GB free of 232GB

232 minus 154 equals 78GB; meaning, all that I've installed so far besides the OS, my various programs I've installed, pictures, videos, etc., takes up 78GB's of space out of the 232GB, right?

But nope, something's still not adding up.

I opened my "C" drive and checked the size of each folder and how much space it's taking up on the disk. I even chose the folder option of "Show Hidden Files & Folders".

I right-click on each folder in the "C" drive, click Properties, and make note of the size.

The ones that take of the biggest amounts of space are:
Program Files
Program Files (x86)
Users
Windows

These four folders added together show a total size on disk of 40.81GB.

There are some other folders in my "C" drive that also take up space, but, not even adding up to one gig; they're folders like ProgramData, FRAPS, Hauppauge.......

The total for these other folders is 678.19MB.....that's mega, not giga.

So, according to what I see on my "C" drive, it's 40.81GB, and then some others coming to 678.19MB; altogether, that's about 41GB, correct?

Sooooooooo......if the claim is that my "C" drive is 232GB, and I'm using about 41GB, that's 232 minus 41 equals 191GB.

So why doesn't my "C" drive read:

191GB free of 232GB?

Why is it reading 154GB free of 232GB?!

Why all of these discrepancies in readings?

It's a 250GB SSD.....but reading a total size of 232GB?!

And out of those 232GB's, it claims there's 154GB free, meaning, I've used 78GB?! But when I check each individual folder's properties, I'm calculating that it's taking up about 41GB on the disk. That should be about 191GB free.

Can anybody shed some light on this for me? Am I missing something here? Is there something hidden that I don't know about?

Thanks for any info or help.
Pez

 

[carnageX]

Firstly: it's reading 232GB because it's a formatted drive. The way the OS reads the drive is different from the way drive manufacturers advertise their sizes. They advertise 1000 bytes per kilobyte, but in reality, any OS reads 1024 bytes per kilobyte. Now, this may not seem like much but when you propagate over such large sizes (such as 250GB), it starts adding up quickly.

Next, do you have a page file enabled? What about hibernation? Each file will be the same size as the amount of RAM you have (unless you disable, resize, or move the pagefile and disable hibernation).

Run this program to see exactly what all is taking up space and where:
WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics

 

[Pezzy]

Hi carnageX; thanks for the reply.

Ahh yes; I remember the number 1024; that's actual size, and yessiree, when dealing with fairly large drives, that certainly can add up after a while!! Good point!

Now.....you mention Page File: You're talking System Properties, Performance, Virtual Memory, etc., correct? Does this tie in with the amount of physical RAM a person has in their system?

I have 16GB of RAM (two 8GB sticks).

I found an article on Page File:

What is the pagefile.sys and how to delete it in Windows 8

According to this article, do I need to disable this Paging File system?

You also mention hibernation: In Power Options, I do not have my computer set up to go into any type of hibernation; I have both my monitor and computer set up to "Never" go to sleep.

I also downloaded, installed, and ran that program you recommended: WinDirStat; would you like me to post a screen shot of the results?

Please let me know. And thanks for your help so far!
Pez

 

[carnageX]

Hi carnageX; thanks for the reply.

Ahh yes; I remember the number 1024; that's actual size, and yessiree, when dealing with fairly large drives, that certainly can add up after a while!! Good point!

Now.....you mention Page File: You're talking System Properties, Performance, Virtual Memory, etc., correct? Does this tie in with the amount of physical RAM a person has in their system?

I have 16GB of RAM (two 8GB sticks).

I found an article on Page File:

What is the pagefile.sys and how to delete it in Windows 8

According to this article, do I need to disable this Paging File system?

You also mention hibernation: In Power Options, I do not have my computer set up to go into any type of hibernation; I have both my monitor and computer set up to "Never" go to sleep.

I also downloaded, installed, and ran that program you recommended: WinDirStat; would you like me to post a screen shot of the results?

Please let me know. And thanks for your help so far!
Pez

Yes, the Virtual Memory is what I was referring to. What is that set to? I would advise either disabling it, or moving it to a different drive (if you actually have a different HDD installed).

As for hibernation, disable it completely by doing this:
type cmd in the Start menu. Right click > Run as Admin
type the following in: powercfg.exe /hibernate off
Press Enter and reboot your computer

Yes, could you post a screenshot of WinDirStat?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using TechForums

 

[Pezzy]

Hi again.

Here's a shot of my Virtual Memory:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll217/PezzyDude/VirtualMem_zpsc0526c18.jpg

You see the Red Arrow in the pic? 16384MB? That's the same as 16GB, correct?

Here's another shot of Virtual memory after clicking on the "Change" button (but not making any actual changes):

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll217/PezzyDude/VirtualMem2_zpsb6649598.jpg

You see the Red Arrow up top? Would I need to remove the check mark from the box?

And the Black Arrow near the bottom? That area is grayed out for now, but, becomes available if I remove the check mark above; if so, would I then click the radio button in "No paging file"?

And, I'll try the cmd command prompt as admin and let you know how it goes. Will this help with drive recognition (as in "how many bytes"? mega? giga)?

And here's a shot of the WinDirStat:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll217/PezzyDude/WinDirStat_zpsd9a11410.jpg

As you can see, I have another drive attached to my system besides the SSD I mentioned; the other is a Western Digital HDD, 1TB. There's no discrepancy in that drive's reading.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks!
Pez

 

[carnageX]

Hi again.

Here's a shot of my Virtual Memory:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll217/PezzyDude/VirtualMem_zpsc0526c18.jpg

You see the Red Arrow in the pic? 16384MB? That's the same as 16GB, correct?

Yes, that is 16GB.

Here's another shot of Virtual memory after clicking on the "Change" button (but not making any actual changes):

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll217/PezzyDude/VirtualMem2_zpsb6649598.jpg

You see the Red Arrow up top? Would I need to remove the check mark from the box?

And the Black Arrow near the bottom? That area is grayed out for now, but, becomes available if I remove the check mark above; if so, would I then click the radio button in "No paging file"?

Yes, remove that checkmark and then select the C: drive in the list. Then select the radio button "No Paging File." Since you have 16GB of RAM, you shouldn't need to set a paging file; but if you want to, I would set it on the D: drive.

After you do this, reboot your computer and it will take effect.

And, I'll try the cmd command prompt as admin and let you know how it goes. Will this help with drive recognition (as in "how many bytes"? mega? giga)?

Not sure what you mean by this. Could you clarify?

And here's a shot of the WinDirStat:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll217/PezzyDude/WinDirStat_zpsd9a11410.jpg

As you can see, I have another drive attached to my system besides the SSD I mentioned; the other is a Western Digital HDD, 1TB. There's no discrepancy in that drive's reading.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks!
Pez

See those 2 huge blue squares in the graph at the bottom? I guarantee those are the page file and hibernation file taking up space.

if you're curious what the other files are, then you can hover over the blocks in the graph, and it will show the filename in the status bar (very bottom bar of WinDirStat).