Hi,
if anyone can help with this problem i had id be very grateful.
I run Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2 and basically, i seem to have lost 620MB of data from my computer, but i dont know where from.
I normally keep an eye on my C: drive, to see how much space is left on it. I do this by clicking on properties of the C: drive. Now while i was doing my usual activities (BitComet, 7z, ePSXe, NotePad) i noticed that the space left on the C: drive had suddenly increased by 620MB.
Ive been trying to explain this to myself, what happened? Heres a reconstruction of events:
While extracting some game files, windows complained about there not being enough space on the HD (there was) using a tray balloon, which i closed, but then i noticed an icon in the tray showing like a CD-ROM drive, which afterwards disappeared.
Everytime this disk cleanup program notification came up in the past, i remember i needed to confirm before it did anything. Maybe this time, it was desperately out of space that it started cleaning up automatically.
I then deleted the above mentioned game files and emptied the trash without checking what i was deleting (i was in a rush, and ill never do this again). i had just extracted these files, so the 2 actions of extracting and deleting should have had a net C: space increase/decrease of 0MB.
I then checked the C: properties and there was an extra 620MB of empty space available.
I have had some theories:
1. I deleted some other files by mistake. Though i checked, and it seems i have all of my games. All other files on the computer are too small to add up to 620MB. Maybe i deleted a whole folder of software, but 620MB?
2. The windows disc cleaning utility ran automatically and managed to free up 620MB of space. Though, 620MB seems like a lot of space (but maybe it even compressed files, which i usually dont tick in the select options), AND shrotly afterwards i ran this program manually and managed to free up around 240MB of space. Now wouldnt it have cleared this space on the previous run?
3. As a last guess, im guessing that maybe BItComet preallocates disk space and deleting a failed download task, can free up a lot of space. I experimented a bit, but i couldnt recreate this bitcomet behaviour, if indeed it is possible and/or default.
4. The C: properties were either consistently wrong before this event, or are consistently wrong now. A bit farfetched, but one more doubt.
5. Other reasons which maybe someone can shed some light on...
Heres an extra question:
Is there a way to tell which files have been deleted after ive emptied the trash?
So far ive only done a search for files/folders with date last modified set, but it was kinda vague, supporting the claim that i hadnt deleted anything by accident.
If you need more info, just quickly reply to this and state what info you want.
Thanks for reading (its very long and boring).