Computer problem

Sly

Sly

Elite Member
#1
Oct 18, 2002
28,748
878
#1
I had just converted one of my drives from FAT32 system to NTFS! After that I downloaded this movie which was about 4.32 Giga byte. Now that I have deleted it, I don't get the free space back! It's like the file is still there but it's not!

And yes, I do have "Norton AntiVirus 2005 pro." but I have also deleted all my "Protected files"! Nothing is there!

Any suggestions? :rolleyes:
 
Mr.RayBan

Mr.RayBan

Bench Warmer
#2
Oct 18, 2002
1,328
0
#2
Try this, it might work.
Go ot Start->Programs->accessories->System Tools->"Disk Cleanup"
Look at the report you get back, it might be compressed for Undelete or in temp file.
 
Sly

Sly

Elite Member
#3
Oct 18, 2002
28,748
878
#3
Mr.RayBan jan, I've already done that! It's 0 kb everywhere! Nothing's there! :eek: :rolleyes:

It's like a ghost taking up my space!!! :mad:
 
Bache Tehroon

Bache Tehroon

Elite Member
#5
Oct 16, 2002
39,533
1,513
DarvAze DoolAb
www.iransportspress.com
#5
Ok I'm here. I'm not sure what would cause this, but I HAVE encountered it. one thing you might want to do is this: It's more like a cheat than solution:

Get a hold of Norton WipeINfo(it's a part of Norton SystemWorks). WipeInfo resets all your sectors that have a ZERO as header(meaning wherever a file is deleted and the sector starts with a Zero, WipeInfo puts a Zero on all the following bits).

Run WipeInfo on your system(it'll take a long time). And see if it helps.

I've done this before and it worked for me. In my case, I converted a Fat32 to NTFS on Windows 2000 and lost 12GB of space. I ran out of solutions so I tried WipeInfo. It worked but I got kind'a pissed and formatted my drive anyway.
 
Sly

Sly

Elite Member
#6
Oct 18, 2002
28,748
878
#6
BT jan, does this Norton WipeINfo come with the Norton antivirus program?? Where can I find and run it? I have the 2004 version by the way. I was wrong!

Also I definitly don't want to lose my files so formatting the drive is out of the question.
 
Sly

Sly

Elite Member
#8
Oct 18, 2002
28,748
878
#8
BT jan, now I have installed Norton SystemWorks 2004 and found WipeINfo!

But it tells me that files will be removed from my hard drive! It doesn't clean my drive does it?? Because I have files that I do want to keep.
 
Sly

Sly

Elite Member
#12
Oct 18, 2002
28,748
878
#12
well I don't know man...it kept gave me warnings that once the files are wiped, they can't be restored, and..bla bla bla... Also my drive format was/is NTFS.

.... uh well...at least I got my space back!
 
Bache Tehroon

Bache Tehroon

Elite Member
#13
Oct 16, 2002
39,533
1,513
DarvAze DoolAb
www.iransportspress.com
#13
I'm so sorry man. I would never suggest WipeInfo if I didn't know exactly what it does. I'm truely puzzled by this.

WipeInfo is a very simple script that sells for thousands of $$$.

It checks every cluster on your drive and if the first byte of the cluster has a value of 0(zero), then it resets all the following bits to ZERO. Now, a cluster can only start with Zero if
1. the user intentionally deleted the content written to it.
2. It has never been used

This means some of your clusters had a faulty format which would've caused in loss of data one way or another.

I'm very sorry!
 
meyti

meyti

Coach
#14
Oct 18, 2002
12,085
17
here
www.apfn.org
#14
sly joon, if you still have problem, clean your redycle bin? is it still there? norton messes up everything in windows.
also when you convert from fat32 to ntfs, you gain more space if you have a big hard drive, bcs the way the disk is partitioned.
any ways sorry for the late reply...
 
meyti

meyti

Coach
#15
Oct 18, 2002
12,085
17
here
www.apfn.org
#15
oops lol i didnt see the 2nd page.. sorry..
bt is right wipe info is like low level format which puts a 0 in every track of every sector except the manufacturer's info (low level wipes that out thats why is not recommended).
 
Sly

Sly

Elite Member
#16
Oct 18, 2002
28,748
878
#16
BT and Meyti jans, thanks for your replies!

Well I don't know...the one "wipe info" I found in Norton system works, had 2 alternatives. One was "wiping free space" which I tried first and didn't get any results and the other was "wiping files" which deleted everything! I'm puzzled myself! But never mind...what's done is done! At least I got my space back. Now I just need to download everything back again. ;)

Thanks for your help anyways!
 
Khorus

Khorus

National Team Player
#17
Oct 25, 2002
5,193
0
CA
#17
Bummer! I was going to suggest defragging the disk to see if it would free up the unused space, but I guess it is a done deal now. One more thing, dude, "if the first option of wiping free space didn't work, WTF did you use the option that says deletes file"? It did exactly what you asked it to do, wipe the files!! :eek: I hope you had backups for your important data, the rest is just the pain in the rear of installing all the applications all over again. I have thought about going to NTFS, but I think I will stick to FAT32. At least that way, I can boot off a floppy to the text base windows and delete bogus files when I need to. :D
 
Sly

Sly

Elite Member
#18
Oct 18, 2002
28,748
878
#18
Khorus jan, well I thought it was only going to wipe the "already deleted" files which are hiding in my free space or something.

Anyways, you don't really need a bootdisk when you have windows XP, do you?
 
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