I'm capturing video via QuickTV, which makes monster files -- 30-40 GB for a 2-hour video. So I compress them with VirtualDub and the Xvid-MPEG4 codec, which gets them down to about 1/6 the uncompressed size, though still big. Then I delete the uncompressed files and empty the Recycle Bin. That ought to work. But the disk is filling up with invisible files. There should be about 27 gig of data on the 120 gig drive, judging from current holdings of each subdirectory, but when I ask Properties for the overall count it says 70 gig are occupied. So somehow apparently the uncompressed files are still occupying space. It was mostly free space on the drive before I started this project a couple days ago. How do I get rid of the old files?
Windows restore, indexing, swap file, backup features all use space that could account for "mystery" gigabites.
But the mystery gigs appeared right after my deletions -- almost 30 gig worth, as much as all the other material on the disk put together. If these are automatic backups, where do they go? What kind of app do I use to find the phantoms? I tried a couple disk analyzers (DiskInfo etc) and they simply make it easier to see what Windows Explorer tells me. No sign of the phantom files, though the arithmetic indicates phantoms (27 gig reported on disk, 47 reported free, but disk size is 120GB). LATER: The culprit was Norton Protected Recycle Bin. This crappy protection feature cost me days before I figured it out and scrapped the invisible files.
