ok, so i recently bought and installed a 160gb hdd as a slave drive. I then proceeded to completely fill up the drive w/ stuff from my other drive multiple times over just to make sure when i get to the end of the drive the computer could read all 160 (149 gb's actually). ok, good it worked fine. i then proceeded to delete everything off the drive. now, after i did that, it says that 500 some odd megabytes are used on the hdd. all that is left are 2 system folders and the program atf cleaner, which take up all of 50kb. Where could this 500 mb have gone? I Don't Check My PM's Pentium 4 @ 2.66 Ghz 533 Mhz FSB 1.25 Gb PC2700 RAM Nvidia Geforce 6600GT 40 Gb hdd DVD Burner CD Burner Windows XP

I suspect a sizeable chuck is most likely under MFT zoning. BTW, did you empty the recycle bin or run disc cleanup? You probably should download and run Crap Cleaner and let's know what you observe afterwards.

ran ccleaner. cleared 46 mb off my other drive. yes i emptied my recycle bin of course. what's mtf zoning btw? I Don't Check My PM's Pentium 4 @ 2.66 Ghz 533 Mhz FSB 1.25 Gb PC2700 RAM Nvidia Geforce 6600GT 40 Gb hdd DVD Burner CD Burner Windows XP

After you create and format an NTFS volume, NTFS metafiles are created. One of these metafiles is called the "Master File Table" (MFT). This file is very small when it is created (approximately 16 KB), but it grows as files and folders are created on the volume. When a file is created, it is entered into the MFT as a file record segment, which is always 1024 bytes (1 KB) in size. As files are added to the volume, the MFT grows as required. However, when you delete files, the associated file record segments are marked as free to be reused, but the total file record segments and associated MFT allocation remains the same. This behavior explains why you do not regain the space that is used by the MFT after you delete a large number of files. To determine the exact size of the MFT, use the built-in disk defragmenter utility to analyze the volume. View the defragmenter report to obtain detailed information about the size and number of fragments in the MFT. Below is an example of the defragmenter report: Master File Table (MFT) fragmentation Total MFT size = 26,203 KB MFT record count = 21,444 Percent MFT in use = 81 % Total MFT fragments = 4 How to locate and correct disk space problems on NTFS volumes in Windows XP

the mtf apparently is most of the used space. 493 mb is my mtf size and 562 mbs are used up. is there a way to gain this space back and what could be taking up the rest of teh space? I Don't Check My PM's Pentium 4 @ 2.66 Ghz 533 Mhz FSB 1.25 Gb PC2700 RAM Nvidia Geforce 6600GT 40 Gb hdd DVD Burner CD Burner Windows XP

You are a lot like me - I have to find the reason for things like that. But, just realize that 500MB is about 0.3% of the available space on your hard drive. You still have the other 99.7%. Good luck. Michael J

lol, im not really worried about running out of space b/c of that 500 mb. im just really curious about it I Don't Check My PM's Pentium 4 @ 2.66 Ghz 533 Mhz FSB 1.25 Gb PC2700 RAM Nvidia Geforce 6600GT 40 Gb hdd DVD Burner CD Burner Windows XP