fisher_king
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C drive reporting wrong size
I have a client with a SBS 2003 server. Recently, I discovered that the 20 GB C drive partition was almost full (less than 100 MB). Using TreeSize Free I could not find the reported data. I started moving installed programs to the data drive. After uninstalling Office 2007, I rebooted and in addition to the .5 GB program folder, approx 3.5 GB of additional space appeared after reboot. The total was then almost 6 GB, matching TreeSize. A few days later I checked and the free space had dropped to just over 3 GB. Again, I could not account for the space using TreeSize. I installed diruse and it matches the amount reported by TreeSize. Currently, they report 4.7 GB of free space, but Windows reports 3.8. Recently, I reran Set Up Monitoring & Alerts because of application errors similar to this EE question: https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/26200251/Faulting-applications-wmiprvse-exe-exwmi-dll-on-SBS2003-R2.html?sfQueryTermInfo=1+10+30+applic+fault+wmiprvse.ex
Any ideas what might cause the miscalculation of free space by Windows? Should I trust the diruse amount instead of Windows?
Thanks.
Any ideas what might cause the miscalculation of free space by Windows? Should I trust the diruse amount instead of Windows?
Thanks.
ASKER
Diruse reports the same amount of free space as TreeSize - 4.7 GB. But Windows currently shows 3.99 under My Computer and in Disk Management. When I wrote my initial question, Windows reported 3.8 - I deleted a 64 MB log file and it now reports 3.99. It appears that Windows is not reporting the free space accurately. Can I trust diruse and ignore Windows?
In my experience many people uses Diruse/Treesize to monitor the free space was compared to windows explorer reporting.
You can trust Diruse and ignore Windows
You can trust Diruse and ignore Windows
Do you have disk quotas enabled? They would take some actually available space.
Also, do you see how much space is taken by paging file?
Also, do you see how much space is taken by paging file?
ASKER
Thanks for the reply. Disk quota is disabled and the page file is on its own partition (except a very small amount).
Then do you have Volume Shadow Copy enabled on this?
ASKER
No. I had it disabled, then enabled it to test it. Of course the free space dropped, but the change in DIRUSE matched the amount listed under Volume Shadow Copy, and Windows still reported almost 1 GB less than DIRUSE. I disabled it again and the free space reported by Windows and DIRUSE both increased by the correct amount, but they still do not match.
Can you take a screen shot of Windows Disk Management and then screen of the WinDirstat window and load them here?
ASKER
I haven't been using WinDirstat. Should I download and install it?
I attached the Disk Management scrren and the DIRUSE ouput is:
Size (mb) Files Directory
0.00 0 SUB-TOTAL: C:\Backup Exec AOFO Store
0.00 0 SUB-TOTAL: C:\Config.Msi
35.01 205 SUB-TOTAL: C:\dell
416.45 2162 SUB-TOTAL: C:\Documents and Settings
17.77 4 SUB-TOTAL: C:\drivers
9.40 38 SUB-TOTAL: C:\FPSE_search
26.03 351 SUB-TOTAL: C:\Inetpub
2655.42 16057 SUB-TOTAL: C:\Program Files
0.00 2 SUB-TOTAL: C:\RECYCLER
110.79 82 SUB-TOTAL: C:\System Volume Information
0.00 0 SUB-TOTAL: C:\temp
15.70 2 SUB-TOTAL: C:\TFTP-Root
12218.35 26283 SUB-TOTAL: C:\WINDOWS
0.00 0 SUB-TOTAL: C:\wmpub
0.02 3 SUB-TOTAL: C:\xDelete
15504.93 45189 TOTAL
Note that a couple of hours ago, Windows was showing only 3.83 GB available and now it says 4.03, or 15.7 GB used. DIRUSE reports 15.37 GB used. At least the dirrerence seems to be shrinking.
DiskMgt.pdf
I attached the Disk Management scrren and the DIRUSE ouput is:
Size (mb) Files Directory
0.00 0 SUB-TOTAL: C:\Backup Exec AOFO Store
0.00 0 SUB-TOTAL: C:\Config.Msi
35.01 205 SUB-TOTAL: C:\dell
416.45 2162 SUB-TOTAL: C:\Documents and Settings
17.77 4 SUB-TOTAL: C:\drivers
9.40 38 SUB-TOTAL: C:\FPSE_search
26.03 351 SUB-TOTAL: C:\Inetpub
2655.42 16057 SUB-TOTAL: C:\Program Files
0.00 2 SUB-TOTAL: C:\RECYCLER
110.79 82 SUB-TOTAL: C:\System Volume Information
0.00 0 SUB-TOTAL: C:\temp
15.70 2 SUB-TOTAL: C:\TFTP-Root
12218.35 26283 SUB-TOTAL: C:\WINDOWS
0.00 0 SUB-TOTAL: C:\wmpub
0.02 3 SUB-TOTAL: C:\xDelete
15504.93 45189 TOTAL
Note that a couple of hours ago, Windows was showing only 3.83 GB available and now it says 4.03, or 15.7 GB used. DIRUSE reports 15.37 GB used. At least the dirrerence seems to be shrinking.
DiskMgt.pdf
SOLUTION
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ASKER
WinDirStat reports the same as DIRUSE (see attached screenshot).
WinDirStat.jpg
WinDirStat.jpg
Dig into Windows folder. On the right pane it says that log text files are taking 5GB of your space - how is it possible?
ASKER
It's the hmdebug.log file. How do I erase the log?
WinDirStat-Windows.jpg
WinDirStat-Windows.jpg
Can you look through Diskpart.exe list partitions command - what is the reported size of C: drive?
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ASKER
Diskpart shows the C drive to be 20 GB. Is there a way to have Diskpart display the used space?
There are 2 hmdebug.log files. 1 is in \system32 and the other is in \system32\wbem\HealthMonit
WinDirStat now says I have 11.1 GB on my C drive, but Windows reports 11.7 GB. At this point I can live with the discrepency since I have plenty of room.
Does the fact that there are 2 hmdebug.log files indicate a problem with Health Monitoring? Should I reset it to the defaults again?
Thanks for all your help.
There are 2 hmdebug.log files. 1 is in \system32 and the other is in \system32\wbem\HealthMonit
WinDirStat now says I have 11.1 GB on my C drive, but Windows reports 11.7 GB. At this point I can live with the discrepency since I have plenty of room.
Does the fact that there are 2 hmdebug.log files indicate a problem with Health Monitoring? Should I reset it to the defaults again?
Thanks for all your help.
SOLUTION
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ASKER
Windows has always said the partition is 19.77 GB. Windows now says 11.8 GB is used, which is only .6 GB more than WinDirStat currently says (11.2 GB). Do you still think it's worth the additional searching? If so, it might take me a little time before I can reboot the server.
Thanks again.
Thanks again.
It is up to you if you want to find out the culprit.
ASKER
I would like to find the culprit, but I have to wait for a window to restart the server. Is parted magic straightforward enough that I will be able to follow your instructions and hopefully find what I am looking for?
Yes, all you need is to start the machine from this CD - get the graph interface and there start partitioning tool. It will show you the partitions their sizes and used space. You do not need to do anything. Just compare the reported sizes.
ASKER
Thanks again for all the help.
Treesize and other programs cannot tell you the size of folders you do not have access to.
The utility DIRUSE from Microsoft will show you how much space of the top level folders is taking.
Hence the difference in calculation.