noticed a few times over the past couple of months that my free space available on my main hdd kept changing, never really took much notice, until last week when I transferred over 60gb of data to a different partition, the new space avilable on my C drive dissappeared a couple of days later Somewhat intrigued as to why I had suddenly gained 60gb of data back onto my C drive, I opened computer management console and looked at disk management to find I had over 250gb on a new unallocated partition, which I had not created (I had only created 2 paritions when I installed a new hdd approx 18 months ago)

this new parition because it was not NTFS format windows does not show it in start \ computer, but is shown as a partition under disk management

what I would like to know is where this has come from? and obviously space was being added to it from C partition (hence c drive space getting reduced)

I have not set up a windows recovery partition, I do not have windows quick search facility turned on, I do not have a 3rd party recovery tool installed

opening linux (pmagic) I was still unable to read any info on the partition, although I believe there was data on it

I took the plunge and removed this weird partition using gparted and resized C drive to give me now the extra 250gb back *yes*

windows 7 has not had any probs since removing this offending partition and no other partition has appeared (yet)


any ideas?

 

This is really wierd... as windows can't reduce a partition's space, you may be downloading allot of stuff into C, check torrent, IDM, or other downloading software...

i may help you via Team-viewer, if you want so MP me fast, as i'm going to sleep soon.

i'll be waiting

 

thanks for the offer, but I'm ok with MS software and with software for downloads, I just don't get why this third partition has appeared (I would not have created it myself and then left it unformatted) and has been taking free space from C:, that is the weird part, and as I said I had been noticing space on drive C: has been both increasing and decreasing over the past few months, and I check on a regular basis for viruses / malware / rootkits / etc, all clear as well as occasionally checking and removing stuff from temp folders (which don't automatically get deleted)

however the good part is, I now have more space for AZ

 

I did have similar issue with external HD. Somehow after unpacking rar files a folder (the unpacked one) disappeared after few days but my available free space did not change. The folder was quite large (20+ GB) so it is hard NOT to notice the change after deleting/disappearing. And it was also not in the recycle bin. I've searched but couldn't find and eventually I gave up. Luckily I did not delete rar file so I could open it again but (normally) when I did that it took me another 20 GB.
I was fed up with some other issues those days and I decided not to spend additional time investigating why that happened. So I moved on and, guess what, after few days "lost" folder and space returned back. Just like disappearance, recovery happened without any notice. So I just deleted that 'double' folder and continued to work like nothing happened. I still don't know wtf was that. I also run w7 (64bit) and external HD is Seagate.

 

Every computer is story for itself. One thing can cause 10000000000000 problems and vice versa specially if one particular component is only partially faulty and you will start to suspicion every component and program if you not find the cause. Take my advice and don't bother, specially if problem will not return. I was waste four years to try understand, why my computer shut down occasionally. I was checked every component separately in other computer where work without a problem, format, delete everything and stil not find the problem. When i have everything enough, i buy new one. What irritating me most now, i give it to my friend, he just add one more stick of no name memory and this thing now work flalesly

 

Sorry but that is funny like cartoon

 

To be even more fun, before i give him computer, i was buy new package of memory and try even borrowed one, so together three different brand of memory in all possible combination and nothing work on long run. But i learn a lesson. I will never ever buy computer with price/performance ratio in mind again. Current system serves me like a tank, not a single stability and compatibility(mark that word which is even more important, because there is no real stability without compatibility) problem in 4 years.

 

Happened to me once with hfs+ partition for my hackintosh. Installed a program to read hfs+ and the new partition appeared after 1 month it disappeared and I had to re-install to see the hfs+ partition. However never happened with NTFS format. Probably when turning down Windows accidentally those things happens. Maybe start up repair messed up things when looking for potential errors from Hard Disk.

 

I am suspecting it may be some sort of windows error thang, but have not come across it before

 

Read it, hope it helps:

Windows 7: Where is all my hard drive space disappearing to?

space on drive c is disappearing.

Disappearing space on HDD with Windows 7

 

today a friend called me he said his computer was full of bugs. real bugs...

 

Sorry to hijack thread but instead of starting a new one could someone tell me how often I should clean inside my PC. And are there any specific methods other than blowing the dust away?

 

Replacing thermal compound is also good idea. Otherwise just clean the dust.

 

Thanks, but how often? My PC is sadly only in use around 16 hrs per week (family and work come first).