lets say that i add a 500mb file to a 1gb external drive, if i go to properties of that drive it will say i only have 500mb of free space, & if i delete that 500mb file it will still say i only have 500mb left even if the drive is empty. whats going on? this happens only on my external drives(psp memory sticks & 500gb external HD) if i completely fill up a drive & then delete everything, the next time i try to add something to the empty drive it will tell me that there is no free space, even if its empty. i few weeks ago i went to the properties of my external HD & changed the setttings on policies of "write caching & safe removal" from optimize for performance to optimize for quick removal, however i have since gone back changed the settings back but its still the same... could someone help me out?
my first guess would be that external drives have their own recycle bin, so if you delete a file on an external drive it moves it to the recycle bin on that drive, so thats why the file seems to be deleted but is still taking up space in the recycle bin. if you want to permanently delete a file (and skip sending it to the recycle bin), hold down the shift key then press the delete key. you should notice a difference when prompted, as the window popup will say "do you want to delete this file" as opposed to "do you want to send this file to the recycle bin"
If you turn on 'see hidden objects' in your folder options you'll likely see these trash bins on your drive.
first, thanks for helping me out. now i tried both suggestions on my 4gb psp memory stick & djscoop, holding down shift when deleting did free up space. the thing is that my computer still doesnt recognize the correct size of free space on the memory stick. the size of the used space on the root of the memory stick is 1.68gb, but in My Computer it says the used space is 2.55gb. & Shamb1es i tried what you said & i dont see any recycle bins... i also tried using Clean Up disk on that drive & it didnt change anything... the thing is that this wasnt happening before...
perhaps there are hidden system files on the drives that you cannot see. go to my computer, double click on the drive. now from the menu bar click Tools, and select folder options. go to the "view" tab. in there is an option that says "Hidden files and folders." click the bullet that says "show hidden files and folders." Click apply then click OK. now does any new files come up in the drive that you didn't see before?
You can adjust the size of the recycle bin by right clicking props on the recyc bin on desktop this will allow you to individually set the size for each drive you can even set any drive to 0. If you have norton protected recycle bin software (part of norton system works)you will have to empty those protected folders contents by using same method as i previously mentioned except the menu will have "empty protected contents blah... " as soon as you had rite cliked the recyc bin icon,if you don't see it then you don't have it installed You can reset for quick removal again,as this has nothing to do with space Any drive you add to usb automatically gets's it's own recyc bin (well hdd"s anyway) OK it would pay to install recuva (same peeps who make ccleaner & also get the non install version of undelete plus all of these are freeware)in case you need to recover wrongly deleted files ffs don't delete anything in a hidden folder in C: Drive,in fact you shouldn't even need to unhide anything
1) Copy all files off the PSP memory stick 2) Format the PSP memory stick 3) Right click on recycle bin and select properties 3.1) Select the PSP memory stick and click the bubble next to "Do not move files to the recycle bin" [edit] my no spell 2 good
scorpNZ & KillerBug, your suggestions worked perfectly as soon as i set the reserved space to zero in the recycle bin, a bunch of space freed up on my memory stick. i think what happend was that, since the recycle bin in drive E was set up to reserve 10% space of my 500gb external HDD (3.99gb) & most of my memory sticks are under 4gb & use the same drive (drive E), i wasnt getting any free space when deleting well, thanks to all you guys for helping me out, that was pretty scary for a while lol
