Regarding "Explorer is reporting the wrong amount of free space (FAT32 Free Space 
Bug)" and the Windows Annoyances comment that "Windows 2000 and XP, when running 
on FAT32, don't appear to suffer from this problem":

Sorry, Windows 2000 DOES INDEED SUFFER FROM THE FAT32 FREE-SPACE BUG.  After trying 
to get the bug-filled Norton Disk Doctor 2001 to fix it, I am now sitting through 
Win98's ScanDskW, after having first run ScanDisk after a boot/F8.  (I have a dual-boot 
PC.)  What an ABSOLUTE pain in the ass!

P.S.  Found your note about the free-space bug only AFTER having waded thru Symantec's 
CRAPPY support site.  All they want to do is shove LiveUpdate and paid-support subscriptions 
down your throat.  I've found a number of UNDOCUMENTED bugs in their NDD, Ghost, 
etc. products...and gotten confirmation from one of their techs (after a STRUGGLE).

Tip: Run a free scan for common Windows errors ad

re: Question about 'Explorer is reporting the wrong amount of free space (FAT32 Free Space Bug)' Thursday, November 15, 2001 at 5:51 am Posted by Curt R (1315 messages posted) What makes you think windows is misreporting your hard drive size? What most people aren't aware of is that the manufacturers of HD's use a different method of calculating hard drive size. I could look up the explanation (I forget it offhand) but I do know that the size rating on an HD is often larger than the actual (real) size of the HD. I bought a 15 GB HD some time back, it shows as being just 14 GB's in 2000. When you do the calculations for size the correct way, that's what it works out to be....14 GB's. I believe you've probably run into one of these situations, where the mfg's rating is higher than the actual size of the HD. On Wednesday, November 14, 2001 at 12:10 pm, Thankful wrote: >Regarding "Explorer is reporting the wrong amount of free space (FAT32 Free Space >Bug)" and the Windows Annoyances comment that "Windows 2000 and XP, when running >on FAT32, don't appear to suffer from this problem": > >Sorry, Windows 2000 DOES INDEED SUFFER FROM THE FAT32 FREE-SPACE BUG. After trying >to get the bug-filled Norton Disk Doctor 2001 to fix it, I am now sitting through >Win98's ScanDskW, after having first run ScanDisk after a boot/F8. (I have a dual-boot >PC.) What an ABSOLUTE pain in the ass! > >P.S. Found your note about the free-space bug only AFTER having waded thru Symantec's >CRAPPY support site. All they want to do is shove LiveUpdate and paid-support subscriptions >down your throat. I've found a number of UNDOCUMENTED bugs in their NDD, Ghost, >etc. products...and gotten confirmation from one of their techs (after a STRUGGLE). > > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'Explorer is reporting the wrong amount of free space (FAT32 Free Space Bug)' Wednesday, May 29, 2002 at 2:02 am Posted by Fahim (2 messages posted) Uhhhhhh, just to be clear, Are you complaining about a misreport on the disk CAPACITY or a misreport on the disk FREE SPACE? Windows XP is giving me problems with Misreporting the FREE SPACE - my CAPACITY is fine. I can't figure it out and haven't found any solutions to this problem yet - although, it does go away after some time. On Thursday, November 15, 2001 at 5:51 am, Curt R wrote: > What makes you think windows is misreporting your hard drive size? What most >people aren't aware of is that the manufacturers of HD's use a different method of >calculating hard drive size. I could look up the explanation (I forget it offhand) >but I do know that the size rating on an HD is often larger than the actual (real) >size of the HD. I bought a 15 GB HD some time back, it shows as being just 14 GB's >in 2000. When you do the calculations for size the correct way, that's what it works >out to be....14 GB's. I believe you've probably run into one of these situations, >where the mfg's rating is higher than the actual size of the HD. > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'Explorer is reporting the wrong amount of free space (FAT32 Free Space Bug)' Saturday, May 10, 2003 at 6:39 am Posted by Tim (1 messages posted) I'm having the same problem! Pretty sure my problem is due to a virus, which is now gone, but any ideas on how to correct the misreport? On Wednesday, May 29, 2002 at 2:02 am, Fahim wrote: >Uhhhhhh, just to be clear, > >Are you complaining about a misreport on the disk CAPACITY or a misreport on the >disk FREE SPACE? > >Windows XP is giving me problems with Misreporting the FREE SPACE - my CAPACITY is >fine. > >I can't figure it out and haven't found any solutions to this problem yet - although, >it does go away after some time. > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'Explorer is reporting the wrong amount of free space (FAT32 Free Space Bug)' Monday, August 25, 2003 at 1:28 pm Posted by Robert (2 messages posted) Well I would like to know if someone has found a remedy for this problem Win2000 has eaten about 20GB of my hdd. The aviable space acctually shrinks with every file i remove. Scandisk and partition magic error checking both reprort no errors, Linux wont even touch the disk. On Saturday, May 10, 2003 at 6:39 am, Tim wrote: > >I'm having the same problem! Pretty sure my problem is due to a virus, which is now >gone, but any ideas on how to correct the misreport? > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'Explorer is reporting the wrong amount of free space (FAT32 Free Space Bug)' Friday, September 12, 2003 at 7:32 pm Posted by ricochet (1 messages posted) I'm currently having the same problem with a FAT32 disk being run thru windows XP. my main C: with NTFS is fine, but my free space on D: never updates... i can delete all the files i like and the free space never increases, then i can't place any more data on the drive :( any solutions please?! i'm not aware of a virus doing this type of thing, i updated all my definitions and performed a full scan without any results, and scandisk reports that the drive is normal... On Monday, August 25, 2003 at 1:28 pm, Robert wrote: >Well I would like to know if someone has found a remedy for this problem Win2000 >has eaten about 20GB of my hdd. The aviable space acctually shrinks with every file >i remove. Scandisk and partition magic error checking both reprort no errors, Linux >wont even touch the disk. > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'Explorer is reporting the wrong amount of free space (FAT32 Free Space Bug)' Thursday, September 25, 2003 at 6:28 am Posted by tcam (2 messages posted) On Monday, August 25, 2003 at 1:28 pm, Robert wrote: >Well I would like to know if someone has found a remedy for this problem Win2000 >has eaten about 20GB of my hdd. The aviable space acctually shrinks with every file >i remove. Scandisk and partition magic error checking both reprort no errors, Linux >wont even touch the disk. > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'Explorer is reporting the wrong amount of free space (FAT32 Free Space Bug)' Thursday, September 25, 2003 at 6:42 am Posted by tcam (2 messages posted) This problem has been plaguing Windows systems for years, and the Microsoft site is just awful when you need a specific search on the matter. Anyhoo, I know that in win98 a run of scan disk would remedy the problem by fixing the boot sector, as the boot sector is where the OS gets its drive parameters, so a problem there could mean a misreport of drive space. I know that some of you guys have run scan disk on NT/Win2000 systems and still get the misreport. This may be due to windows not updating after it deletes a file. Remember that Windows only removes the first letter of the File/Dir when it deletes, so that it knows that new DATA can be stored in those sectors/clusters. Maybe running the defrag will help, but 1. If the MFT is a good size an ntfs partition really should not be too fragmented 2. This sometimes only makes for a temporary fix, as the drive may misreport the next day or so. > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'Explorer is reporting the wrong amount of free space (FAT32 Free Space Bug)' Wednesday, October 8, 2003 at 8:55 am Posted by Robert (2 messages posted) After deleting some more GBs worth of data the problem went away atleast improved. I guess it has something to do with the drive beeing exetremely full like 5GB of 111GB free. I have after numerous runins like this declared Windows useless and is only ment for n00bs and the weak, I have now wholly moved to linux, and I'm planning to convert my disklayout to something more useful than 200GB of games and movies. (at a lossy FAT32 disklayout) On Thursday, September 25, 2003 at 6:42 am, tcam wrote: >This problem has been plaguing Windows systems for years, and the Microsoft site >is just awful when you need a specific search on the matter. Anyhoo, I know that >in win98 a run of scan disk would remedy the problem by fixing the boot sector, as >the boot sector is where the OS gets its drive parameters, so a problem there could >mean a misreport of drive space. I know that some of you guys have run scan disk >on NT/Win2000 systems and still get the misreport. This may be due to windows not >updating after it deletes a file. Remember that Windows only removes the first letter >of the File/Dir when it deletes, so that it knows that new DATA can be stored in >those sectors/clusters. > >Maybe running the defrag will help, but 1. If the MFT is a good size an ntfs partition >really should not be too fragmented 2. This sometimes only makes for a temporary >fix, as the drive may misreport the next day or so. > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'Explorer is reporting the wrong amount of free space (FAT32 Free Space Bug)' Monday, October 20, 2003 at 9:17 pm Posted by Raphael (1 messages posted) I've seen almost all of you are using Norton Utilities... I've tried to open the Norton Protected Recycle Bin, then I let it search for all Norton Protected Files. Then I selected all files, right-clicked and chose 'Delete'. After this, my Free Space was totally correct! I don't know if it is a Norton or a Windows bug, but this seems to be a nice solution. On Wednesday, October 8, 2003 at 8:55 am, Robert wrote: >After deleting some more GBs worth of data the problem went away atleast improved. >I guess it has something to do with the drive beeing exetremely full like 5GB of >111GB free. I have after numerous runins like this declared Windows useless and is >only ment for n00bs and the weak, I have now wholly moved to linux, and I'm planning >to convert my disklayout to something more useful than 200GB of games and movies. >(at a lossy FAT32 disklayout) > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'Explorer is reporting the wrong amount of free space (FAT32 Free Space Bug)' Thursday, November 20, 2003 at 8:01 am Posted by lala (3 messages posted) I did the same thing with Norton Protected Recycle Bin and it solved the problem. It appears it is really a bug from norton since this problem started right after i installed it. On Monday, October 20, 2003 at 9:17 pm, Raphael wrote: >I've seen almost all of you are using Norton Utilities... I've tried to open the >Norton Protected Recycle Bin, then I let it search for all Norton Protected Files. >Then I selected all files, right-clicked and chose 'Delete'. After this, my Free >Space was totally correct! I don't know if it is a Norton or a Windows bug, but this >seems to be a nice solution. > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'Explorer is reporting the wrong amount of free space (FAT32 Free Space Bug)' Thursday, January 1, 2004 at 11:33 am Posted by Jonathan (1 messages posted) I'm having the same "free space" misreporting problem (80g hard drive and 2g showing as "free space.") I also have Norton Anti Vrus 2003, but do not see a "Norton Protected Recycle Bin" option. Is there any other way to get at the problem through Norton's? On Thursday, November 20, 2003 at 8:01 am, Andre Martins wrote: > >I did the same thing with Norton Protected Recycle Bin and it solved the problem. >It appears it is really a bug from norton since this problem started right after >i installed it. > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'Explorer is reporting the wrong amount of free space (FAT32 Free Space Bug)' Sunday, January 4, 2004 at 6:15 am Posted by palfh (1 messages posted) I have the same problem. I have norton av 2003 too... [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'Explorer is reporting the wrong amount of free space (FAT32 Free Space Bug)' Tuesday, July 19, 2005 at 11:58 am Posted by D'Vidio (1 messages posted) Firstly, thanks to all of the above respondents. NAV Protected Recycle Bin is indeed the culprit. The Norton Recycle Bin folder was not visible on my system and I suspect may not be visible on most. The quick, step-by-step solution in all cases is as follows: 1) Double-Click on the Norton Anti-Virus icon in the lower-right of the system tray to open its control panel. (If it is not visible you will have to navigate the "Start" menu to the "Norton AntiVirus" program group and click on "Norton AntiVirus..." to execute it and cause its control panel to appear.) 2) Click the "Options" tab to open the options panel. 3) Click on "Advanced Tools" in the "Other" group to reveal the "Recycle Bin" and "Norton Protected Recycle Bin" selections. 4) Click on the "Modify" button under the "Norton Protected Recycle Bin" section. 5) Selected the drive that you would like to fix the freespace for from the "Drive" pulldown list. 6) Click "Empty Protected Files" button to open the "Purge" dialog box and select the desired option. The protected files will be purged and the drive freespace will immediately reflect the space recovery. 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