i was cleaning out my computer to try and get some more hd space when i noticed that i have about 3 gigs missing. when i click on properties for my c drive it says used 15.1
free 13.4
total 28.5
but when i look in the c drive there are only 4 folders and no hidden folders: program files 9 gigs, windows 2gigs, documents and settings 900 megs, ATI 15 megs
Adding these all up only equal about 12 gigs why would it show that i have 15.1 gigs used,and where are the other 3 gigs?? I am running winxp home.
Thanks in advance for and suggestions or help you offer

You need to empty your Recycle Bin. When you delete files in Windows, as you have been doing, they don't actually get completely wiped from your hard disk. They merely get moved to the Recycle Bin so that you have a chance to get them back if you later realised that you made a mistake and shouldn't have deleted something. To recover the free space, right-click on the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop and select the 'Empty Recycle Bin' option

Sorry ..I don't think this is the problem. I cleaned out recycle bin and also disabled it. I also disabled system resore thinking that it may have caused the missing space .. to no avail. Should i give up and chalk it up to a Windows Xp Issue or do you have any other suggestions ??
Any other feedback would be helpful.

Thanks

Originally Posted by brownie

....when i look in the c drive there are only 4 folders and no hidden folders: program files 9 gigs, windows 2gigs, documents and settings 900 megs, ATI 15 megs
Adding these all up only equal about 12 gigs why would it show that i have 15.1 gigs used,and where are the other 3 gigs??

What about files on your C: drive that are not in any folder, e.g. C:\pagefile.sys? You may find that all of that space that you haven't found is in your pagefile or a hibernate file or a 'save to disk' file or a 'suspend to RAM' file, all of which could be in C:\ but not in a folder and they might be hidden as well so, if you can't see Pagefile.sys, it means that you can't see hidden files.

It is particularly possible that you have some of these large files on your hard disk if you're using a laptop.

Thx for the info ... you were right about hidden files that are not in folders. i went to folder options and unchecked "hide protected operating system files " . and sure enuff everything adds up

Thank you so much for your time and suggestions. thanks to all @D-A-L ... you've been helpful ... i'm glad to see that ppl can spend the time to help computer newbies.. and not for profit . i will be sending a donation to help to keep this site running

Thanks again.
R.Brown

Thanks very much Brownie - that's much appreciated

Us members, Head Techs and Moderators are all here for free but the D-A-L.com site is still surprisingly expensive to run. We have to buy lots of web space and bandwidth because we're busy helping so many people !!

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This thread has been Resolved - can a mod close it off please ?