Tracking lost hard drive space

jmt356
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Tracking lost hard drive space

Post by jmt356 »

In the last week, I inexplicably lost 5 GB from C: drive and 10 GB from my D: drive. I did not save any large files or multiple files to either drive. is there a way to track what is taking up the lost hard drive space? I know how to check what files are taking up hard drive space and am familiar with programs such as Treesize. That is not what I am interested in. Rather, I want to be able to specifically determine what files are taking up the 15 GB of hard drive space that I lost since last week. Can this be tracked?
Regards,

JMT

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Argus
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Re: Tracking lost hard drive space

Post by Argus »

There is software out there to track changes in individual, specific, files. But now, with a general question about files that may have been created or changed in the past so that they together use 15 GB more, I would start with a simple search in file explorer and then filter the columns Changed or Created and use sort on either, for the time period you are interested in, with an eye on size. In for example WizTree you can also sort on Modified.

Also think about Hibernate Mode and hiberfil.sys; Windows Update; System Restore; and the Recycle bin. Could also be some software (or OS component) running in debug mode, creating log files etc.
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John Gray
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Re: Tracking lost hard drive space

Post by John Gray »

I would use TreeSize Free to inspect the folders and files in a partition.
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ChrisGreaves
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Re: Tracking lost hard drive space

Post by ChrisGreaves »

jmt356 wrote:
10 Oct 2020, 21:28
Rather, I want to be able to specifically determine what files are taking up the 15 GB of hard drive space that I lost since last week. Can this be tracked?
I use SpaceSniffer
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jmt356
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Re: Tracking lost hard drive space

Post by jmt356 »

Argus wrote:
11 Oct 2020, 00:06
There is software out there to track changes in individual, specific, files. But now, with a general question about files that may have been created or changed in the past so that they together use 15 GB more, I would start with a simple search in file explorer and then filter the columns Changed or Created and use sort on either, for the time period you are interested in, with an eye on size. In for example WizTree you can also sort on Modified.

Also think about Hibernate Mode and hiberfil.sys; Windows Update; System Restore; and the Recycle bin. Could also be some software (or OS component) running in debug mode, creating log files etc.
Between yesterday and today, I lost 4 GB of space on my C: drive. In File Explorer, I sorted C by Date Created and Date Modified. No folder shows up that was modified yesterday or today. The most recent folder that was created is Windows.old, which was created on 4 Oct., when a Feature update to Windows 10, version 2004 was installed. While it is a large folder, all of the large files were created months ago; only an empty folder was created on 4 Oct.

What I need to do is get a list of every file that was created on C: between yesterday and today so I can determine where my 4 GB went. Can TreeSize do this?

System restore doesn't account for the lost space. The last system restore was created on 5 Oct., before I lost 4 GB between yesterday and today.
Regards,

JMT

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DaveA
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Re: Tracking lost hard drive space

Post by DaveA »

I use Everything and one can see all files including system and hidden.
https://www.voidtools.com/downloads/

Start Everything and then type in a few characters, now backspace so none are there and you should see a list of ALL files.
Now you can sort size, or date modified.
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silverback
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Re: Tracking lost hard drive space

Post by silverback »

I once had this happen to me. In my case, I had installed an update and the disc was full of .tmp files - which of course should have been deleted but had not been.
I saw the file clutter using a disc defragmenter; having seen all the files cluttering the disc, I then did a search for *.tmp files, and the culprits were revealed.
Silverback

JoeP
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Re: Tracking lost hard drive space

Post by JoeP »

Windows.old is created when you install a feature upgrade to Windows. It contains ALL of your previous version of Windows including user files. Since it is a copy none of the dates will be changed from their original so that if you restore the prior version all will be the same as it was. You can use DIsk Cleanup in Control Panel to see how much space can be reclaimed. Run Dusk Cleanup then press "Clean up system files". Windows.old will be automatically deleted after 10 days by the system maintenance routines. See What is the Windows.old Folder and How Do You Delete It? for more detail.

Also, see 5 Ways to Check for Recently Created or Modified Files and Installed Software for more information on finding recently created files.
Joe