Disk space in limbo

[Fr33m4n]

Sorry if this is not the right section but I just don't know where else it would fit.

Anyway, I was working away modifying the contents of a backup archive when all of a sudden BSOD. When I had rebooted I discovered to my horror that the entire 15GB archive was gone along with it's folder. I fired up Ontrack EasyRecovery and had the archive back in it's entirety in no time at all, albeit now on a different drive. So, after checking that everything was in order with the archive I was gonna copy it back to the original HDD it resided on. I do a quick check to see that I have enough diskspace but discover that there's something odd about the number windows is displaying in the properties of the disk. So I open the disk and manually select all the files and do a right-click>properties to see the combined filesize. Sure enough, the combined filesize of all the files on the disk is exactly 15GB less then what windows is reporting as used space for that drive. Ok, so basically I have 15 GB of disk space that is somehow floating in limbo wasting that space but I can not access any files that might reside in that space. It's missing, and no it dosn't help to turn on show hidden files and folders. I'd really appriciate some help on this because I could really use that space for something besides an imagenary file.

TIA

-Fr33m4n

Edited September 15, 2006 by Fr33m4n

[LLXX]

Run CHKDSK on the drive, this is a common problem of a bad shutdown and is called lost clusters/incorrect freespace count.

[Takeshi]

Is the partition FAT32 or NTFS? FAT32 is more prone to this kind of error.

I'd also look in Disk management to see if the partition size is OK or not.

[Fr33m4n]

A MSN KB article states that (thx for cluing me in LLXX):

NTFS File System Corruption

In very rare circumstances, the NTFS Metafiles $MFT or $BITMAP may become corrupted and result in lost disk space. This issue can be identified and fixed by running a chkdsk /F against the volume in question. Toward the end of chkdsk, you receive the following message if the $BITMAP needs to be adjusted:

Correcting errors in the master file table's (MFT) BITMAP attribute.

CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.

Windows has made corrections to the file system.

Well, been there, done that, doesn't work. I tried every version of chkdsk that can be run and even scheduled a bootup run to get no windows interferance. No luck. Though I can happily state that Norton Disk Doctor does indeed find an error on the drive and suggests that I run chkdsk to fix the problem. yay!

Anyway. The file system is NTFS. PATA Maxtor 120GB drive. disk management reports 114 GB total space in one partition which I think is what it has allways been.

So, still looking for solutions and any input is grately appriciated.

Edited September 15, 2006 by Fr33m4n

[Fr33m4n]

Well, here's something interesting. When I try to create a new folder on that drive, and rename it to the same name of the folder that went missing I get this error:

Error renaming file or folder:

Cannot rename New Foler: Access is denied

Make sure that the disk is not full or write-protected and that the disk is not currently in use.

But, I can rename that folder to whatever else I'd like as long as it's not the same name as the missing folder.

Furthermore, I noticed that if I open up a command prompt and navigate to the drive I can't see the folder, as expected. BUT, if I try: "E:\cd (name of missing folder)" I get no error message, though it does not complete the command. But if I try: "E:\cd (fake folder name)" I get a "The system cannot find the path specified" error.

I don't know if this is helpful in any way. Appriciate the input this far and hoping for more.

Edited September 16, 2006 by Fr33m4n

[Ctrl-X]

Sounds like something that could be solved by running ChkDsk, as LLXX suggested... Have you tried this already?

[LLXX]

A MSN KB article states that (thx for cluing me in LLXX):

NTFS File System Corruption

In very rare circumstances, the NTFS Metafiles $MFT or $BITMAP may become corrupted and result in lost disk space. This issue can be identified and fixed by running a chkdsk /F against the volume in question. Toward the end of chkdsk, you receive the following message if the $BITMAP needs to be adjusted:

Correcting errors in the master file table's (MFT) BITMAP attribute.

CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.

Windows has made corrections to the file system.

Well, been there, done that, doesn't work. I tried every version of chkdsk that can be run and even scheduled a bootup run to get no windows interferance. No luck. Though I can happily state that Norton Disk Doctor does indeed find an error on the drive and suggests that I run chkdsk to fix the problem. yay!

Read before posting...

The NTFS file system does get corrupted in strange ways... might be time for a complete backup, reformat, and restore.

[Ctrl-X]

Read before posting...

Oops

[Fr33m4n]

The NTFS file system does get corrupted in strange ways... might be time for a complete backup, reformat, and restore.

Yup, seems like the only option at this point. So I guess that's what I'll do. thx for all the help.