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SIMid
8th September 2009, 07:47 AM
For the Computer Geeks!

I have a bought a Portable HDD a few months ago to backup some of the movies, photos and music.

Last night, I tried to add more files to it and it says it's full, when the capacity says it's 79% empty. It requests me to do a "Clean up" which only links back to the computer HDD.

Any ideas? :confused:

KingOfAstras
8th September 2009, 07:50 AM
Do you have Vista? Is it possible you're using it as a ReadyBoost drive???

Other things... Hidden files, and temporary files which decided to stick around.

Calibrated
8th September 2009, 07:51 AM
Vista or XP?

Try running CHKDSK

http://www.windows-help-central.com/windows-vista-chkdsk.html

or

http://www.windows-help-central.com/windows-xp-chkdsk.html

Also, how big are the files you are copying across? sure it doesnt exceed the capacity (i know i may be stating the obvious with that)

SIMid
8th September 2009, 08:45 AM
Running XP.

It's a 680Gig HDD and I've used roughly 200Gig so far (I'm at work so I cant get access to it). So plenty of room to add more files.

Ice
8th September 2009, 09:02 AM
Sounds like its corrupted. do a "chkdsk" as Pete suggested, thats your best bet.

are you able to copy a small file...ie a word doc ?

Calibrated
8th September 2009, 09:12 AM
Sounds like its corrupted. do a "chkdsk" as Pete suggested, thats your best bet.

are you able to copy a small file...ie a word doc ?
my name isnt pete :p wrong calibra haha

SIMid
8th September 2009, 11:43 AM
Sounds like its corrupted. do a "chkdsk" as Pete suggested, thats your best bet.

are you able to copy a small file...ie a word doc ?

I'll try tonight. Thanks for the suggestions. :)

poita
8th September 2009, 06:26 PM
Sounds like its corrupted. do a "chkdsk" as Pete suggested, thats your best bet.

are you able to copy a small file...ie a word doc ?

yer good idea pete :)

us petes must stick together ;)

kabel
8th September 2009, 07:47 PM
I purchased a WD 320gb USB drive on Saturday.....same issues !
Did a Norton scandisk and surface check seems to be okay now.
Never had any problems with Maxtor drives in the past should have stuck to the that brand !

SIMid
9th September 2009, 07:13 AM
I purchased a WD 320gb USB drive on Saturday.....same issues !
Did a Norton scandisk and surface check seems to be okay now.
Never had any problems with Maxtor drives in the past should have stuck to the that brand !

When U did the Scandisk and surface check, did anything come up? Or just scanned it and after that, it just worked fine?

I didn't have time last nite to play with it (was mucking around with my Astra :p)

ROCCO
10th September 2009, 02:39 PM
There is a tool called “HDD Capacity Restore (http://hdd-tools.com/products/cr/download/crsetup.exe). You can install this and run it before bringing the hard drive back in for warranty.

Ice
10th September 2009, 02:54 PM
yer good idea pete :)

us petes must stick together ;)

Queensland, Pete, IT, Opels, Match made in heaven ;)

dieselhead
10th September 2009, 07:09 PM
What are you trying to copy? It won't work for files larger than 2GB (i.e. HD video) if the disk is formatted FAT32. You need NT to be able to handle very large files. Just another thing that could go wrong.

Go to My Computer, right-click then select Manage. Now go to disk Management and see if you can see your disk there. If not, there might be something wrong with the USB port, meaning that for some reason something went wrong when you plugged the disk in. To check if that's the case or not, go My Computer right-click then Properties/Hardware/Device Manager. Look for something with red cross in the USB area. If you see one, right-click to uninstall it. Now unplug the portable HDD and plug it back in after 10 seconds. If still not working, well, I'm out of ideas...

AfterBurner
10th September 2009, 08:21 PM
Just format it using the method dieselhead mentions re Disk Management from the Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Disk Management etc...

Make sure it's NTFS also... (Unless you intend running the external drive on a 98 machine or as a cheapass mediacenter like i do & plug it straight into ur LCD/PLASMA tele, you then MUST USE FAT32 :yikes:)

AzzA

McTwistie
11th September 2009, 05:35 AM
If you are mainly trying to find out where the disk space went you can download the "treesizepro" demo (Search Google) and it will find anything that may be hidden.

I would agree about going to NTFS though, as it's a much more robust system.

Cheers

SIMid
15th September 2009, 07:17 AM
Cool!

I've uploaded everything off the HDD, reformatted it to NFTS (as it was in FAT mode). Now she's all good! :)

Thanks for the advice! :cornut: