Folder - Size?

lau1247

Hey all just a quick question if anyone can answer..
My hard disk was filled with files from programs, all the movies and music..
So I check for their folder size..

I realised that they have "Size" and "Size on Disk"..
So which one is the actual size?
One of the folder have a difference of 1.9GB between "size" and "size on disk"

How do I free up the difference?? 1.9 is a lot if it's sitting there and not being utilise..

Any help would be appreciated

Karoma

"Files are stored on the disk in what is called called clusters (a group of disk sectors). Size on disk refers to the amount of cluster allocation a file is taking up, compared to file size which is an actual byte count. The lowest cluster size for FAT32 is 1, so if the actual file only needs a small portion of the cluster, the size on disk for that file will reflect the entire cluster as being used. This is why when you check the properties tab of a file, you will usually see the size on disk size is larger than the file size."

Difference depends on filesystem in use, and size of cluster chosen.
To reduce some of the difference (Asuming NTFS,Windows): Try right-click on folder -> Properties -> Advanced button -> Tick: Compress contents...

lau1247

no, I'm on Fat 32..
No advance button unfortunately..
I should have it on NTFS.. it give the folder protection option with NTFS too..

Would it help if I use disk defrag?? any idea??

So naturally I presume the actual byte count is what comes up when I check the entire C drive's siz, not the cluster size right?

DublinEvents

You can convert your FAT32 partition into an NTFS partition by using the following command at the console:

Convert (drive letter) /fs:ntfs

This might reduce the size somewhat but keep in mind that this problem is likely resulting from too many small files in that folder. Due to the way files are stored on disks, no matter what file system you use, lots of small files can never be stored efficiently unless you only need read only access to them. In that case, just use Nero to transfer all those files into an ISO and you can then mount that ISO with Daemon Tools and delete the files from the disk. But you won’t be able to modify the contents of those files.

SouperComputer

Convert (drive letter) /fs:ntfs

Be sure to backup before you do this. A power failure or system issue could lead to data loss. If the disk was ful at one stage, the free space may be getting reported incorrectly, run either scandisk or chkdisk depending on what OS you run.

If you are using an OS that supports NTFS though, I would reccomend it.

Lump

If you defrag the drive will it not move things around and free up the space?

Stephen

http://www.wikistc.org/wiki/Slack_space_data

themole

Lump wrote:

If you defrag the drive will it not move things around and free up the space?

It might. Defragging the disk should be done periodically anyway, so i would suggest doing this anyway before doing anything else.

There is also a disk cleanup prog in Win which will show all the temp files which it can remove to recover some space.