[SOLVED] 459 GIG of unknown

[Deetech]

I have a windows 7 machine that came in for a clean up. I Looked at the hard drive and it was a 1TB drive that was 1/2 full but I could only find about 40 gig of files. I took a image with marcuim reflect and that come at 23 gig. I am not sure how to see the other 450 gig of files. I used WinDirStat to try and see the files but I get one big block of unknown. Not quite sure where to go next, I thought maybe boot to parted magic and see if I can see anything there.

 

[glennd]

maybe boot to parted magic and see if I can see anything there

good idea.

 

[discipulus]

Command to use in Linux is du - stands for disk usage. There's a couple of switches to limit the size of folders and files it shows you. Maybe start at 40g and go down or up from there? Generally there can be like a locked folder that won't show up - Norton Backup is known for doing stuff like this...

 

[Deetech]

Well I solved it and feel kind of stupid, it was system restore points. 50 points at 8 to 10 gigs each.
Oh well, try again tomorrow.

 

[glennd]

Well I solved it and feel kind of stupid, it was system restore points. 50 points at 8 to 10 gigs each.
Oh well, try again tomorrow.

That'll do it How did you actually find them?

 

[Deetech]

That'll do it How did you actually find them?

I booted up parted magic and seen them under "system volume information", then I did a google searched it and it hit me when I saw system restore.

I think this is what I love about this field. I know I will never keep up and learn everything, but man is it fun trying.

 

[glennd]

the windows tool should have found them, is it because you forgot to run it as administrator?

 

[cypress]

Well I solved it and feel kind of stupid, it was system restore points. 50 points at 8 to 10 gigs each.
Oh well, try again tomorrow.

When I read the title that was my first guess, crazy how those restore points add up.

 

[Pacific Blue IT]

I have a windows 7 machine that came in for a clean up. I Looked at the hard drive and it was a 1TB drive that was 1/2 full but I could only find about 40 gig of files. I took a image with marcuim reflect and that come at 23 gig. I am not sure how to see the other 450 gig of files. I used WinDirStat to try and see the files but I get one big block of unknown. Not quite sure where to go next, I thought maybe boot to parted magic and see if I can see anything there.

Now that you've solved it and it was restore points i'm just wondering if Marcuim Reflect imaging doesn't add restore points by default or its not doing a proper image?

 

[glennd]

Now that you've solved it and it was restore points i'm just wondering if Marcuim Reflect imaging doesn't add restore points by default or its not doing a proper image?

It's clearly not doing a "disk image" in the sense that we understand it.

 

[brandonkick]

Tree size is also a good program for this. It's good at letting you know where
these mystery files reside.