Free space on backup partition reported incorrectly

My primary HDD has 2 partitions, one for Windows, and one for backup. My backup was reaching capacity, and had 23MB left... so I deleted some large files and should have cleared up over 1GB, yet even after restarts, windows reports that there are only 23MB available and keeps buggin me.

I remember fixing this on my backup drive, but i cant remember how anymore. i tried searching a few different terms on MSKB and here, with no luck. someone please remind me what's causing this

WindowsXP SP1a

 

thanks Nick, however i got very weird results. I have had system restore turned off for that partition (still enabled on the OS parition though), but I thought i'd try clearing the save points anyway.

my backup partition still reads only 23MB, but i did gain a little space on my OS partition... the problem still remains... hmmm

 

I would reccomend running scandisk, this has recovered lost space for me on many occasions

 

I addition to the above suggestions, there's a free utility called TreeSize that you can use to track down what's eating up that disk space.

 

I gotta ask this: did you actually empty the recycle bin. You probably did but it's a question that must be asked (so many problems are simple "dohs" )

Here are a few things I found in the MSKB, don't know if you've already checked them out or not.
You Cannot Delete a File, or You Cannot Save Changes to a File and the File Is Deleted
How to Locate and Correct Disk Space Problems on NTFS Volumes in Windows XP

I would also try using one of those secure delete programs to see if that works. Sometimes doing the same thing differently works with computers.

 

thanks for the responses.

chkdsk, when accessed through windows and scheduled for next boot, freezes at 0% when checking file data (step 5 i believe).

when run through command prompt (chkdsk x: (read only mode) and forcing the dismount of the drive, it completes, but looks normal... and chkdsk /f also completes with no problems

nothing odd appears in TreeSize (nice little program though).

and I have had system restore and the recycle bin disabled for this partition.

my MFT is of appropriate size, and my file system is not corrupted..

i'm stumped.... thanks for the help, i'll report back if i figure it out.

 

problem solved, and once more I remember one of the culprits.... Norton Protected Files. ahh sometimes norton drives me crazy.... maybe its time to try Panda... good thing i registered for the free offer they had a few weeks back!

 

Keep an eye on Panda also. It tends to store a lot of stuff in your users temp folder -- like in mine it managed to leave 8,000 (yeah, eight thousand) files there when i uninstalled it. Took my hd from 24.6 gigs free space to 116 megs in a heartbeat.