Find and Recover Missing Space on Hard Drive in Windows

Find and Recover Missing Space on Hard Drive in Windows

Geeks - It's not uncommon for hard drives to develop small errors or for files to become corrupted, leading to lost or missing space on the drive. If you find that you're running low on space on your hard drive, or if you notice that your hard drive seems to be missing some of its capacity, there are a few steps you can take to try to find and recover the missing space.

Check your hard drive for errors. One potential cause of missing space on your hard drive is a problem with the file system. To check for errors, you can use the built-in Windows utility called "Check Disk" (also known as "chkdsk"). To run this utility, follow these steps:

Open the Start menu and type "cmd" into the search bar.

Right-click on "Command Prompt" and select "Run as administrator".

In the Command Prompt window, type "chkdsk /f /r" (without the quotes) and press Enter.

This will start the Check Disk utility, which will scan your hard drive for errors and try to fix any problems it finds.

Use a disk cleanup tool. Another possible cause of missing space on your hard drive is unnecessary files taking up space. You can use the built-in Windows disk cleanup tool to remove temporary files, cache files, and other types of unnecessary files that may be taking up space on your hard drive. To use this tool, follow these steps:

Open the Start menu and type "disk cleanup" into the search bar.

Click on "Disk Cleanup" when it appears in the search results.

Select the hard drive you want to clean up and click "OK".

The disk cleanup tool will scan your hard drive and present you with a list of files that can be safely deleted. Select the files you want to delete and click "OK" to remove them from your hard drive.

Use a third-party disk cleanup tool. There are also a number of third-party disk cleanup tools available that can help you recover missing space on your hard drive. These tools often have more advanced features than the built-in Windows disk cleanup tool, and can help you find and remove more types of unnecessary files. Some popular options include CCleaner and BleachBit.

Check for large files or folders. Another possible cause of missing space on your hard drive is a large file or folder that you may have forgotten about. To find large files or folders, you can use the built-in Windows utility called "Windows Explorer" (also known as "File Explorer"). To use this tool, follow these steps:

Open the Start menu and type "file explorer" into the search bar.

Click on "File Explorer" when it appears in the search results.

Navigate to the hard drive you want to check.

In the "View" tab, click on the "Details" view.

Click on the "Size" column to sort the files and folders by size.

This will show you the largest files and folders on your hard drive, which may help you identify any files or folders that you no longer need and can delete to free up space.

Check for hidden files or folders. Sometimes, files or folders may be hidden on your hard drive, which can cause them to be overlooked when searching for large files or folders. To show hidden files and folders in Windows, follow these steps:

Open the Start menu and type "file explorer" into the search bar.

Click on "File Explorer" when it appears in the search results.

Click on the "View"