I delete, but dont get the space back

D

death734

New Member
i recently found a 60gb hard drive that i could use to put a lot of my torrent downloads and other stuff on.

but the only thing is, when i delete something off of it, i do not get the space back. like i had 16.9gb free. i deleted a 700mb (.68gb) file and it still said 16.9gb free. it should of gone up to about 17.6gb free. i've noticed this happen before with other files too.

when i formated it, the program said that it was originally fat32 (my main hard drive is ntfs) so i left it at fat32.
could the problem be that its fat32 with windows xp (sp2)? should i reformat it and change it to ntfs? or is the problem something else?
 
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If you are intending it for use as a storage drive with an NTFS type OS like XP the best and most efficient way to go before using any unknown drive is to completely wipe it clean even with a zero fill utility to insure no remaining virus, malware, adware, spyware crap is still on it. Give it a new life then with a fresh NTFS partition on it and save only "test" files to it and try deleting them to see if drive space is then recovered. When in doubt toss it out!
 
so far i moved a bunch of stuff over to it.
in this case would that stuff still be fine and there if i restarted my computer?
 
The idea of restarting your system now would be to wipe that drive clean with a program that writes nothing but zeros to the drive(awful slow method but would insure no bugs hatching out later) or even use an old 98 startup floppy with fdisk to delete all paritions and information on the drive(after you rescue the files you moved there - nothing else). From there when getting to Windows from a normal(not floppy) boot you would use the Disk Management in the Computer Management portion of Administrative Tools(opened in Control Panel) to create and format one or more partitions(like I did on the old 250gb now hosted by a new 250gb) and have Disk Management format that one or more parition right then.

The new active partition is ready(provided the drive is actually working properly) and waiting for anything you want to put on it. You can also open the Command Prompt found in accessories and type in "E:"(second drive's letter) and press enter once it has been partitioned and formatted to see if it can be read manually. If the drive is good you will see some figure close to 60gb with nothing on it. The first items to copy not move would be for testing how good the drive actually is. Copy a good part of C to E and then delete the duplicates and lool at the command prompt to see if you get the same figure for a supposedly empty drive. If you see 60gb(approx. not actual) the drive is worth using. If you see only 17.8gb the drive's read heads are ???!
 
if theres some problems you cant figure out once things are deleted just do a Disk CLeanup
-start
-programs
-accessories
-systemtools
-disk cleanup
then just select things that take up space like cookies, tmporary files, recycle bin exc
 
Also try the XP CD to reformat, if that isn't working, then pitch the disk (as PC eye pointed out). You'd best off buying a 60gb disk off of www.newegg.com for pretty cheap, i just got 2 SATA seagate 80gb 7200rpm disks for $50 each.
 
Habanerosky said:
Also try the XP CD to reformat, if that isn't working, then pitch the disk (as PC eye pointed out). You'd best off buying a 60gb disk off of www.newegg.com for pretty cheap, i just got 2 SATA seagate 80gb 7200rpm disks for $50 each.
Click to expand...

The preference here has always been Western Digital due to their superior track record for reliability. So far I haven't run into a bad WD drive in any case serviced in a good number of years. I did once swap out a Seagate 1.2gb drive that quit for a 1.4gb WD model in an old Packard Bell. That drive installed in 1999 surprisingly is still running on the same system. The early Maxtors were "foobar" to say the least from the complaints heard on them. But prices on drives these days have fallen greatly where toying around with a drive with bad read heads is a big waste of time along with any data you could lose from it crashing or not able to read correctly. Don't chance it with a drive where you don't know how it was used. Recycle Bin please! or simply put in the :P
 
A total wipe of the drive later to add a fresh formatted parition would tell right off if the drive is worth the time. If you see full capacity and copy a few folders right to that to later delete them you should see the initial total return. If you still see drive space used up for those temp folders the read heads are most likely gone.
 
this is going to sound seriously retarded but....

my recycle bin for my c:\ drive has'nt worked in way over a year. when ever i deleted things it was just gone.
but i saw MyCattMaxx post and... that stuff i delete from the g:\ drive was going to the recycle bin.
im sorry if i wasted your time
 
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That's not a waste of time but rather the settings to automatically delete anything sent to the recycle bin immediately off of the hard drive itself. That option is used for freeing up hard drive when large volumes of files are moved, created, and later deleted to increase drive performance and access time as well as preventing tie ups where Windows and installed softwares can end up freezing. By default files sent to the recycle bin are set aside in a special folder in case you have to restore something after the initial deletion. That would be seen when deleting files from the second drive added later.
 
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